Beats Beyond Borders 2026 — Portfolio for Arts Council England

  • Artistic Portfolio for Arts Council England

    This private webpage supports our ACE Project Grants application (Under £30k).
    It provides examples of previous work, details of the artistic programme, collaborations, partnerships and evidence of quality and community impact for:

    Beats Beyond Borders 2026 — Birkenhead, Merseyside

    All 2026 programming listed below is provisional and subject to funding.

Clementine Arts CIC — Core Creative Team

Beatrice Bholah: Founder, Clementine Arts CIC

Creative Producer & Festival Lead

  • Produces inclusive arts & cultural programmes with refugee, asylum-seeking and global majority communities

  • Leads the artistic vision and community-led approach for Beats Beyond Borders 2026

  • Track record in multi-venue festivals, participatory heritage projects and building strong local partnerships

  • Experience across Knowsley, Wirral, Liverpool & HE sector cultural delivery

Mariana Pires — Assistant Director, Clementine Arts CIC

Physical Theatre Artist & Co-creator of Finding Refuge

  • Assistant Producer for Beats Beyond Borders 2026

  • Specialist in narrative movement and co-created physical theatre

  • Touring experience with family theatre and socially engaged performance

  • Practice rooted in care, embodiment and creative access

Vision for Beats Beyond Borders 2026

  • Artistic Programme

    Each artform supports belonging, visibility, co-creation and wellbeing.

    All programme elements have been designed with accessibility in mind, and delivery will prioritise the needs of refugee and asylum-seeking families.

    World Music & Dance
    Sudanese, Afghan, Kurdish, Ukrainian, Irish music & dance — celebrating identity and increasing representation
    → Examples: Mo Shabaka’s Sudanese jazz-fusion ensemble; Afghan dance by Ziba Tabrizi

    Participatory Dance
    Breaks down language barriers, boosts social bonding
    → Examples: Kurdish circle dance; Bhangra procession between venues

    Spoken Word & Performance
    Lived-experience storytelling that shifts perceptions
    → Example: New commissioned piece co-created with sanctuary-seeking families

    Community Choir (Parents Beyond Borders)
    Shared voice across cultures; wellbeing through participation

    Craft & Visual Art
    Quiet routes into creative expression + public visibility
    → Examples: Palestinian tatreez workshop; exhibition of Heart 4 Refugees artwork

    Programming Priorities
    Our three community-led projects and core music & dance programme form the essential foundation of the festival. Additional participatory workshops and enhancements will be scaled according to confirmed funding, ensuring a high-quality event is delivered at every level.

  • What we want participants to feel

    Refugee & asylum-seeking participants experience:
    • Welcome, value, cultural pride
    • Joyful relief from stress and worry
    • Equality in public cultural spaces
    • New friendships and confidence

    Long-established residents experience:
    • Active solidarity and compassion
    • Intercultural friendships
    • Pride in Birkenhead as a welcoming place
    • Hope and shared humanity

    Together, audiences feel uplifted, and a sense of belonging and togetherness.

  • Programme Overview

    Beats Beyond Borders is a world-music and participatory-arts festival shaped by three community-led creative projects. They centre the cultures, creativity and lived experience of people seeking sanctuary in Birkenhead and beyond.

    The programme responds to rising hostility toward displaced communities by creating a joyful, compassionate space where refugees, asylum seekers and local residents can connect through participating in the festival.

    Our Artistic Principles

    • Collective joy & belonging
    • Creativity & connection
    • Representation & voice

    These principles shape:
    ✔ what audiences experience
    ✔ who is on stage
    ✔ how communities take part

    The festival celebrates cultural expression while also holding space for honest stories of displacement, resilience and healing.

  • Curation & Storytelling

    The programme connects through shared themes of:

    • Migration, displacement, home & identity
    • Cultural heritage & resilience
    • Solidarity & anti-racism
    • Joy as resistance

    The day interweaves intimate reflection with joyful celebration — a dynamic festival atmosphere throughout.

    Short artist introductions and co-created performance ensure audiences understand whose stories they are experiencing and why.

  • Community Voice and Co-Creation

    Displaced communities are at the heart of creation, curation and decision-making.

    This looks like:
    • Festival Steering Group shaping programming and audience experience
    • Banners of Compassion designed by local pupils to welcome attendees
    • Parents Beyond Borders — participants co-shaping performance themes
    • Heart 4 Refugees exhibition — artwork created by displaced residents
    • Audience participation co-creating the atmosphere and collective joy

    Examples:
    • Steering Group identifying musicians relevant to local diaspora groups
    • Choir members co-writing themes around courage, welcome and belonging
    • School banners displaying messages such as “You Are Welcome Here”

  • Community & Venue Partners

    Heart 4 Refugees CIC
    A grassroots organisation supporting families seeking asylum in Birkenhead through weekly drop-ins, food provision, arts, wellbeing and social connection. They advise on lived-experience engagement, recruit participants for Finding Refuge and Parents Beyond Borders, and co-curate festival content to ensure cultural and emotional safety.

    Wirral Multicultural Organisation (WMO)
    A long-standing charity providing integration support, ESOL, advice and advocacy for migrant and refugee residents. WMO connects the festival to diverse diaspora communities and guides outreach to groups underrepresented in local cultural participation.

    Future Yard CIC
    Birkenhead’s flagship grassroots-music venue, dedicated to artist development, social impact and environmentally sustainable live music. They provide the main stage, technical production, and audience access to a high-quality music environment.

    MAKE CIC
    A creative hub in Hamilton Square offering community-centred arts spaces. MAKE will host the participatory workshops, the Heart 4 Refugees exhibition, and key family-friendly elements of the festival programme — enabling relaxed, intergenerational cultural engagement.

    Together, these partners ensure that Beats Beyond Borders 2026 is rooted in Birkenhead’s cultural infrastructure — designed with and for the communities it aims to celebrate.

  • Why Birkenhead?

    Birkenhead has:
    • A large sanctuary-seeking population
    • High levels of deprivation & barriers to accessing high quality arts and cultural provision
    • Strong local partners supporting displaced families

    The festival aligns with the Birkenhead 2040 vision for a culturally vibrant, inclusive town — and is within walking distance of the communities it serves.

  • Long Term Vision

    Over five years, Beats Beyond Borders will develop into:

    • A flagship intercultural event in Merseyside’s calendar
    • A platform for new community-led creativity each year
    • A highly visible message: “Birkenhead Welcomes You”

  • Accessibility & Inclusion

    Beats Beyond Borders is designed so that refugee and asylum-seeking families and local residents can participate fully, without cost or barriers. Practical inclusion measures will ensure a welcoming, equitable experience for all:

    Removing financial & practical barriers
    • Free access for all displaced community members
    • Travel & food expense support via partner referrals
    • Free creative materials + refreshments
    • Low-cost tickets for local residents (Birkenhead & Tranmere)

    Welcoming families with care
    • Calm/quiet spaces available
    • Pram-friendly layouts + baby-changing facilities
    • Supported play + children’s creative workshops

    Accessible venues & physical inclusion
    • Step-free access at both venues
    • Seating options throughout
    • Clear access info provided in advance/on-site

    Community-led, trauma-aware participation
    • Refugee-led Steering Group co-designing welcome approach
    • Outreach via Heart 4 Refugees & Wirral Multicultural Centre
    • Staff/volunteers trained in trauma-aware, culturally safe practice
    • Dedicated multi-faith prayer space

Key Artistic Contributors

(Guest artists + commissioned partners)

  • Amina Atiq

    Award-winning Yemeni–Scouse spoken-word artist

    Artistic practice explores identity, migration and belonging.

    Amina is an experienced facilitator, anti-racism advisor and cultural educator working across schools and communities.

    She combines spoken word with social activism, platforming marginalised voices.

    She continues to collaborate with Clementine Arts on spoken-word performance rooted in lived experience, drawing from her practice with refugee communities across Merseyside.

  • Olena Hrabchak & Radist

    Ukrainian choreographer, performer & community dance leader

    Classically trained international dancer, specialising in Ukrainian folk, contemporary and modern style

    Will perform at Beats Beyond Borders with her Ukrainian folk dance ensemble ‘Radist’, bringing culturally-rooted movement to the festival programme.

    Olena arrived in the UK as a refugee and uses dance to nurture belonging, celebration and cultural continuity for displaced communitie

  • Nayna Lad

    Community Arts Facilitator & Visual Artist

    Nayna’s workshops cultivate confidence, calm and creative expression — helping participants connect to their identities, their community and each other through art.

    Beats Beyond Borders
    Nayna has collaborated with the Clementine Arts team across multiple projects — including Finding Refuge, Global Roots Fest, Kings, Queens & Mr Lear, and Cronton Sun, Moon & Stars.

    For 2026 she will lead Banners Beyond Borders: a vibrant schools and community banner project exploring compassion, identity and belonging, with artworks displayed across both festival venues.

    Nayna will also run drop-in creative activities at the festival, enabling families and attendees to respond artistically to the themes of the day.

  • Mo Shabaka

    Sudanese music artist

    Mo Shabaka is a celebrated Sudanese vocalist and musician, formerly performing to tens of thousands as part of acclaimed Sudanese band Igd al-Jalad before war and political instability forced him to leave Sudan in 2017. He has now rebuilt his life in Liverpool.

    Mo Shabaka’s music blends Sudanese folk roots with contemporary pop, jazz and electronic influences — celebrating culture while navigating themes of loss, resilience and home.

    Mo’s performance embodies joy as resistance — honouring the strength of those forced to rebuild their lives far from home.

  • Tatreez Collective

    Heritage Craft Workshop Facilitators

    Tatreez Collective preserve and share the traditional Palestinian art of embroidery through workshops that centre cultural heritage, resistance and community connection.

    For Beats Beyond Borders 2026, Tatreez Collective will lead a hands-on embroidery workshop where refugee/asylum-seeking families and local residents create textile works of welcome and solidarity — stitching belonging into a shared community tapestry.

  • Ziba Tabrizi

    Dance Artist (Afghan & Persian dance traditions)

    Ziba Tabrizi is the UK’s leading professional Afghan dance soloist — a specialist in the traditional and contemporary dance styles of Afghanistan, Iran, Azerbaijan and neighbouring regions. Her work is rooted in cultural heritage, improvisation and storytelling through movement.

    At Beats Beyond Borders 2026, Ziba will perform an emotive Afghan piece that resonates deeply with local families who have resettled in Merseyside — creating moments of recognition, pride and joy for displaced communities while inviting wider audiences into this rich cultural tradition.

Previous Work by Clementine Arts CIC

  • Beats Beyond Borders Festival - June 2025

    Audience: 250+ • Partner: Heart 4 Refugees CIC • Venue: Future Yard CIC

    A joyful, inclusive day of world music, dance and spoken word celebrating Refugee Week. The pilot was achieved with no funding and demonstrated strong demand and community impact

    • 80% of attendees felt a sense of belonging

    • 79% felt uplifted

    • Refugee participants said they felt “seen” — 100% would attend again

    • Platformed performers with lived experience

    • Built new connections between culturally diverse residents

  • Nature Arts & Crafts with Heart 4 Refugees — August 2025

    Partner: Heart 4 Refugees CIC • Venue: Callister Gardens, Oxton • Participants: 30 children and young people

    Creative outdoor workshops for refugee and asylum-seeker children and young people — using nature discovery, crafting and play to build confidence, social connection and joy.

  • Finding Refuge - Spoken Word & Dance Project (2023 & 2024)

    Audience: 150+ • Partners: Association of Ukrainians (Liverpool) + Knowsley Young Producers • Venues: Stockbridge Village & LEAP Dance Festival

    Artistic Leads - Mariana Pires and Olena Hrbachak. Delivered by Clementine Arts CIC

    A co-created performance exploring displacement, resilience and belonging — devised with a lead artist with lived experience of forced migration and informed by a spoken word piece that was produced from interviews with local refugees and asylum seekers.

    • 7 young people (all from refugee or migrant families) took part in a 6-week creative rehearsal process

    • Free access: no cost for sessions, costumes provided, and travel expenses covered

    • Emotional impact: audiences described it as “powerful” and “deeply moving”

    Parents of Participants feedback

    “My daughter thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the dance programme.”

    “So many dance schools are expensive — it’s great the Finding Refuge classes are free!”

    “The dance classes helped my daughter’s confidence and self-esteem.”

    “An excellent way to help people understand more about refugee experiences.”

Previous Work by Beatrice Bholah

Director of Clementine Arts CIC

  • Community & Events Coordinator: CSU, University of Chester (2023-2024)

    Inclusive cultural programming and wellbeing-led event design across 4 university campuses.

    • Produced multi-campus events that strengthened belonging, community connection and student wellbeing

    • Delivered cultural celebrations with diaspora societies (e.g. Holi Festival, Eid events) — supporting identity, joy and representation

    • Produced Wellbeing Fest: a two-week programme of creative, social and reflective activities co-designed with internal and external partners across 3 campuses

    • Produced large-scale multi-site events (e.g. Freshers/Welcome Week and “Chestival”), engaging 2,000–10,000 attendees

    • Led volunteer coordination, stakeholder partnership working, and event safeguarding

  • Global Roots Fest: Refugee Week 2023 - Knowsley

    Global Roots Fest – Multicultural Festival for Refugee Week (2023)

    Audience: 700+ • Budget: £10,000 • Role: Producer — Heritage Shaker (NHLF-funded) • Co-created with Knowsley Young Producers

    A vibrant one-day celebration of the refugee communities who have made their home in Knowsley and Liverpool City Region— co-designed and delivered by young people with experience of diplacement and migration from across the Liverpool City Region.

    Funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, ForHousing and Awesome Liverpool.

  • Kings, Queens & Mr Lear – Community Arts Parade (2022) Knowsley Borough of Culture

    Project Participants: 250. Attendees: 500+ • Budget: £25,000 • Role: Producer — Heritage Shaker (NHLF-funded)

    Inspired by the village’s connection to Edward Lear and the lost tradition of Rose Queen parades, this joyful large-scale community celebration brought Knowsley’s heritage to life through carnival, costume and collective creativity.

    Residents lined the streets to watch a vibrant spectacle that re-ignited a sense of pride, belonging and cultural heritage — creating joyful new memories rooted in the village’s past.

    Funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund & Knowsley Council.

  • Cronton Sun, Moon & Stars (2022) Knowsley Borough of Culture

    Participants: 100+ Audience: 1,000+ • Budget: £25,000 • Role: Producer — Heritage Shaker (NHLF-funded)

    A large-scale immersive night-time experience inspired by Cronton’s extraordinary but little-known astronomical heritage — from 17th-century astronomer Charles Leadbetter to the present-day Liverpool Astronomical Society at Pex Hill Observatory.

    Audience praise included families calling it “a once-in-a-lifetime event for the village” — building pride, wonder and connection through creativity and science.

    Funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Knowsley Council, and Liverpool City Region.

  • Additional Producing Expertise (Selected)

    Beatrice Bholah has 10+ years’ experience producing community festivals, live music events and participatory arts & cultural heritage programmes — including world-music programming at London venue - Jamboree. Her professional experience spans Chester Students’ Union, Knowsley Council (Borough of Culture 2022), National Waterways Museum and Southbank Centre.

    • End-to-end festival and multi-venue delivery

    • Co-creation with schools, families & marginalised communities

    • World-music and live-arts programming & artist liaison

    • Budgeting, logistics, technical coordination & safeguarding

    • Volunteer coordination and stakeholder partnerships

    • Trauma-aware, access-focused participation with refugee organisations

    Relevant qualifications

    BA (Hons) Community Leadership — First Class. Foundation Degree in Live Music Events Management - 2.1. Level 3 Leadership & Management of Volunteers (ILM). Cultural Heritage Training — Southbank Centre Archives

Current & Previous Work by Mariana Pires

Assistant Director of Clementine Arts CIC & Theatre Maker

  • Sealskin — Touring Physical Theatre (2023–2026)

    Role: Performer & Deviser • Company: Tmesis Theatre • International & UK Tour

    A critically acclaimed production exploring belonging, otherness and home through physicality, puppetry and live music.

    • 30+ performances across major UK venues — incl. The Lowry, Liverpool Everyman, Shakespeare North Playhouse, Stephen Joseph Theatre
    • International touring in Portugal
    • Accessible, minimal-text storytelling — ideal for multilingual audiences
    • Themes strongly aligned to migration, identity and finding home

    “Ambitious and innovative… funny and thought-provoking… a moving experience.” — Press & audience feedback

  • Unpacking — Autobiographical Physical Theatre (2025–)

    Role: Creator, Performer, Puppetry & Movement • Work-in-progress

    A personal story about migration, identity and belonging — told through movement, storytelling and puppetry.

    • Based on Mariana’s journey from Portugal → Liverpool
    • Interwoven with her grandmother’s migration to France in the 1970s
    • Explores the in-between space of resettling — no longer fitting “back home”
    • Reflects generational resilience and transformation within migrant families

  • Family & Community Performance — Inclusive Participation (2023–2025)

    Roles: Performer & Deviser • Tmesis Theatre & partners incl. Unity Theatre / Wakefield Libraries

    Selected productions:
    • Sleep Can Wait — joyful, physical Christmas show at Unity Theatre
    • The Wondershelf — touring family piece celebrating imagination & reading
    • Up & Away — interactive show on flight, curiosity and hope
    • Seagull Lake — outdoor dance-comedy with audience involvement

    • Neurodiverse-friendly design
    • Works in libraries, community spaces & outdoors — highly accessible
    • Builds confidence, joy and social connection for children & families

Beats Beyond Borders 2026 is built on strong community partnerships, tested pilot models and a realistic phased delivery plan — ensuring feasibility, value for money and community impact.

With experienced leadership, committed venues, and engaged participants already in place, the programme is ready to deliver high-quality artistic outcomes and meaningful social connection for displaced families and local residents in Birkenhead.

With ACE support, we will create a joyful, safe and community-shaped festival that leaves a lasting positive legacy.