I’m Reb Sutton, I’m a freelance creative working in Cardiff. I work in theatre, music community arts and immersive arts. I’m a member of National Theatre’s TEAM Collective an I’m a found member of the future arts collective Cymru.

As part of my work for TEAM Collective, I was commissioned to put on an event looking at how we as creatives come together to generate a more positive outlook for the future. A lot of the dominant narrative around the future splits it into a kind of white, able-bodied, cis-het Utopia and a dystopia with the rest of us.

I’m interested in how creatives start telling new stories about the kind of future we could have, and part of that is bringing in more communities to that conversation and having a collective mindset about how we work together and how entangled we all are.

The event I was commissioned to put on was called Future Creators. It was held on the 19th of October at The Sustainable Studios in Cardiff. We commissioned over 36 different artists to contribute some work to the conversation of what kind of future they would like to see. We had talks from amazing people from a wide range of communities in Cardiff and around 140 people coming through the doors to look at the art exhibition, to watch the entertainment and to be there and be part of the conversation of how we create a more Optimistic and radical future.

There will be video coming soon, showcasing some of that work and some of those moments from the performances and we will also be keeping the exhibition up at Future Arts Collective Cymru.

We have a micro arts centre and community centre the top of queens street (Sainsbury’s end) in Cardiff and you can find out more about us on Instagram - we will be showing some of the work there as well, so the conversation continues with FACC and NTW TEAM Collective.

There are a number of other people who have been commissioned by NTW TEAM to run events and there are some really exciting things coming up - from a book about the legacy of miners to a film about creativity in Cardiff.

For me, we are all creatives and responsible for building the legacy we want. I really enjoyed the event and processing all of the amazing ideas that were generated.

I want to give a big thank you to NTW TEAM Collective, the UKSPF fund and Future Arts Collective Cymru, 4Pi Studios, FORCardiff and Creative Cardiff who are all supporting the work we are all trying to do to regenerate art in the city and who keep including more communities in the work - making our little city a full and positive place.

Photos by Chillee Noir