The Inc Arts team is growing...

Ailin is a Japanese-American director with a passion for daring new works of theatre that engage audiences with untold and under-told stories in a visual, visceral way. Her Colchester-based physical company, Theatre Témoin, is a 1ºEast Portfolio, Lowry ‘Developed With’, and Without Walls Portfolio company, and has worked in collaboration with The Salisbury Playhouse, Ovalhouse, Roundhouse, GDIF, and others. 

Ailin is a board member of Stage Directors UK and the Directors Charitable Foundation, a delegate member of Artistic Directors of the Future, and a core member of Migrants in Theatre.

Anand Bhatt is a dance enthusiast and producer from Leicester . With an interest in all things Michael Jackson and Bollywood, he stumbled upon contemporary dance in 2007 when he was dancing in a Kathak show along with dancer Aakash Odedra. As Aakash and Anand found their creative talks and dreams aligned, the clearer it also became that Anand was not in fact a dancer. He started to help out Aakash with his shows, and ended up as his producer. Their first project ‘Rising’ featured commissions by Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Russell Maliphant.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Anand developed the Shiamak UK operations to 14 sites across 6 English regions with 1000-people attending per week. At Dance City Anand became Artistic Director and Chief Executive in 2020. Anand was awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list in 2021 for services to Dance and Community.

Ayesha Casely-Hayford is an Offies Award nominated actress, and award-winning voice artist.  She is also a solicitor specialising in employment and discrimination law and former chair of the board of trustees of The Act For Change Project (which campaigns for greater diversity in the live and recorded arts). 

Over the last decade, Jiten's work has focussed on pioneering new ground-breaking arts festivals and cultural interventions. As a Director of a small social enterprise, he has had the opportunity to work across a breadth of roles, namely, a Creative Producer, Strategic Partnerships Manager and Festival Director.  

He started his journey in 2011 when establishing Inspirate. Since then, he has led one of the UK’s most exciting contemporary South Asian arts festivals, An Indian Summer, established Bring The Paint festival with Graffwerk, and is now working towards cementing Inspirate’s position as a pioneering cultural beacon in the Midlands. 

He is also a Clore graduate having completed the Short Course. These experiences in particular have helped him to propel his aspirations as a young South Asian cultural entrepreneur.

Leo Wan is an actor and arts campaigner. As an actor, he has worked with The National Theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare's Globe and New Earth Theatre. He works with a number of campaigns to ensure the performing arts is diverse, equitable and accessible. He sits on Equity's Race Equality Committee and the Board of Northern Broadsides.

Matthew Xia is a self-taught theatre director, DJ, composer, broadcaster and journalist with a focus on using theatre as a platform to promote inclusion, activism and social change.

Matthew has served as Associate Director at Stratford East, Director in Residence at the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, Associate Artist at the Nottingham Playhouse and as Associate Artistic Director at the Manchester Royal Exchange.

Matthew is a founding member of Act for Change, which is a registered charity with the mission of strengthening diversity in the arts. He is also a trustee of Cardboard Citizens, the UK's only homeless people's professional theatre company, as well as a trustee of Artistic Directors of the Future. 2020 has seen him join the Everyman and Playhouse Diversity Action Group as well as the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama's Equity Committee.

Omeima is a British-Sudanese combined textile artist, Crafts Maker and Independent Curator who has exhibited both nationally and internationally and received the runner-up prize for the Arab British Centre Award for Culture 2019 (individual award).

In 2018 Omeima was commissioned by Artichoke to work with local communities in Brighton bringing deaf and hearing women together to create a banner that took part in the PROCESSIONS event to mark the centenary of women's right to vote in the UK.

Omeima is a 2019/20 Clore Cultural Leadership Fellow, Creative Consultant, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Accessibility Consultant and Trainer and a leader in creating Deaf and Hard of Hearing integrated activities that promotes both equity and professional development opportunities.

Paula Gazzard has worked in academia, media and digital industries before founding Fossbox in 2005 to translate collaborative research into real-world impacts working with universities, civil society, and creative industries. 

Paula has a PhD in Culture & Communication from the University of Sussex and has been a partner/co-investigator in numerous research collaborations funded by Research Councils UK/EU. Paula was also Director of Policy & External Relations at the Council for Higher Education in Art & Design, a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Design and Innovation Group, Creative Industries Federation Higher Education Working Group, and Director of the Contemporary Visual Arts Network.

A keen advocate for neurodiversity in creative and digital industries, Paula is also currently a member of the research advisory group for Autistica and founded Neurodissident Cafe, a national network for autistic women

Tigho Feldman has worked in the arts sector for over twelve years and the charity sector for over twenty years. She has been working in HR and EDI for over five years and is qualified as a Chartered Member of the CIPD. As an ethnically diverse woman she is passionate about the arts being more diverse and inclusive, allowing everyone who wants to participate to have access and to have a voice and be heard.