About Inspire
Inspire Arts Trust was formed in 2004 with the aim of releasing new creatives and inspiring fresh creativity. Since 2004 Inspire has been involved in many activities in South Gloucestershire but also further afield. These activities included schools’ workshops, prison training and mentoring, creating and producing musicals and developing a performing arts academy called BALPA (Bristol Academy of Live Performing Arts) in Thornbury.
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One of the many highlights over the years of Inspire was a musical written by one of Inspire’s co-founders, Ray Goudie. The musical, called The Prodigals, premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in 2011 and then had a short run at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry in 2013. Other highlights include one of the inmates we worked with and trained as a DJ from a young offender’s institute. We trained him in his art form but also mentored him in social skills and when he was released, he came to work for us as a DJ tutor. To see that progression was amazing!
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Inspire also ran a breathtaking musical experience bringing together snippets from some of the greatest Broadway shows, and the best loved jazz songs, creating a cocktail of top class musical entertainment ready for the stage at any event. Song after song was delivered with flawless energy and drama. With hair raising vocal performances and dance numbers that will make you want to jump on stage and join in, Jazz on Broadway is an unmissable show that will leave you begging for more!
At present, the work we do is focused locally. Currently Inspire helps train around 160 young people in the arts every week and twice a year we welcome around 300 adults and children to our BALPA shows. Our BALPA shows are always a highlight and always seeing the progression of all the young people involved is so wonderful.
Comments from the parents are always so encouraging:
“My daughter has had classes at BALPA for a number of years and has really benefitted from the tuition and encouragement. BALPA always look out for lots of performance opportunities to build confidence and stage skills. I would recommend them to anyone whose child is interested in the performing arts.” C.B. BALPA parent
We also partner with other organisations in South Gloucestershire to work with their groups through workshops and other activities. Inspire works through arts programmes to see transformation of young people by helping them grow in self-belief and confidence and be trained to follow a career in the arts and entertainment industry. Inspire is based in Thornbury, Bristol, and uses a purpose built arts training complex with recording studios, dance studio, performance venue, rehearsal rooms and new media suite (see Caedmon Complex page for more information).
