Creative Industries Trafford (CIT) provides support, training, mentoring and opportunities for artists and creatives in Greater Manchester and beyond. The objectives are to increase artistic quality and to help artists build sustainable creative careers.

Professional Development

Featuring a year-round professional development programme, Creative Industries Trafford offers workshops, networking events, talks and masterclasses from leading artists and industry professionals across a number of fields including literature, visual arts, contemporary design, theatre-making and animation.

Our programme includes the Northern Lights Writers' Conference, Meet The Puppet Masters Animation Conference, along with Breaking Ground for theatre-makers, the Curator Incubator initiative and short courses for writers.

Visual Arts

CIT curates the visual arts spaces at Waterside which focus on photography, contemporary design, animation and the moving image. These spaces are:

  • Lauriston Gallery, the venue’s main exhibition space
  • Gallery 74 which showcases work from emerging practitioners
  • Screenlight, a display for moving image art, animation and digital media

For all visual arts or exhibition enquiries please contact Michelle Keeling, Galleries Manager & Curator [email protected]

Theatre Development

Waterside Arts and Creative Industries Trafford are committed to providing opportunities for artists to create work and understand the importance of this for maintaining a dynamic cultural ecology.

We are really proud of the collaboration we have had with theatre-makers, which may be through our theatre commissions programme, or just some seed funding and/or space to develop and make new work.

For enquires about our theatre development activity contact:

Sam Danson - Theatre Development Producer [email protected]

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Further information