Brave. Bold. Brilliant.

Commissions

We commission new and innovative work from the UK and through our wider global networks for our Festivals. We support the growth of creative ideas and are committed to art innovation in a public space.

We encourage and support artists to experiment with new approaches, practices and tools, with a focus on environmental sustainability, innovation, diversity, social relevance and reform.

Martin Green: KELI

A raw, live performance of Martin Green's audio drama KELI was presented at Hull Truck Theatre. Audiences were able to watch this performance whilst it was still in its development stages.

Read more

Freedom Women Collective: Tomorrow

A group of children are given a crash course in hairdressing and run a salon, offering free haircuts to the public.

Read more

Surge: Beautiful Bones 2023

A collection of cacophonous performances out on the city streets collided into a life-affirming grand finale in Queen Victoria Square, getting audiences on their feet and dancing.

Read more

The Warren Nature Poems

Read more

Broken Orchestra plus LIFE and Law Holt – RE:SCORE 2.0

After the success of RE:SCORE at The Awakening 2022, The Broken Orchestra brought back a second edition for Freedom Festival 2022.

Read more

Landslides

A group of children are given a crash course in hairdressing and run a salon, offering free haircuts to the public.

Read more

Kaleider: Arch

An exploration of humans and materials, revealing the beauty and flaws of the global systems we imagine, build, and come to rely on.

Read more

Liminal Creative: Sirens

An unforgettable spectacle of audio-visual wonder which features the voices of female survivors of modern slavery.

Read more

Middle Child Theatre: There Should Be Unicorns

A hip hop, dance and theatre musical providing an inspiring outlook on the world of being oneself.

Read more

The Herd: Fast Food Megaverse

An audio journey which takes audiences around the city in pursuit of Mo – a fast food delivery driver who has become lost and trapped in an alternate universe.

Read more

Jon Hicks & Matt Rudkin: The Visionary

Modern street theatre at its immersive best

Read more

Mohammed Khaled: The Last Step Before Starting

Freedom Festival Arts Trust commissioned Mohammed Khaled to create a series of films which represented the experience of asylum seekers in Hull.

Read more

Arjan Kruidhof: De Relaxerette

De Relaxerette will take you away for just a moment from this overflowing world.

Read more

Broken Orchestra plus Wai Wan, Katie Spencer and Low Hummer: Re:Score

'Breathing new life into old film'

Read more

Wintercroft: Freedom Fox Masks

Freedom Festival Arts Trust were proud to commission Scarborough based artists Wintercroft to create a bespoke paper craft mask for the Awakening.

Read more

Marco Barotti: Moss

A kinetic sound sculpture driven by air quality data generated by the World Air Quality Index.

Read more

Freetown Media Centre: Freetown Films

Freedom Festival Arts Trust worked alongside Nova and KCOM with Freetown Media Centre and the British Council to commission the project, ‘Freetown Film Labs - Imagine a Perfect World’, a series of short films which strengthened Hull’s links with our partner city Freetown, in Sierra Leone.

Read more

Back to Ours: Dean Wilson Cinema Shack

In partnership with Back to Ours, we teamed up to bring the Dean Wilson Cinema Shack and DeanWorld Premiere Gala to Freedom Festival 2021.

Read more

Broken Orchestra – Westcott Primary School Climate Change Podcast 2021

Westcott Primary School hosted a Q&A with Luke Jerram and explored the ongoing climate crisis in a whole series of their lessons with their teachers, which the Broken Orchestra then edited together into a podcast.

Read more

Joe Hakim Podcasts

For Freedom Festival 2021, we commissioned Joe Hakim to create two podcasts as part of our online provision.

Read more

Skeg: Mural

During the 2021 Festival we commissioned local artist Skeg to paint a new mural in the Fruit Market.

Read more

Ithaca: 5000 Miles

During the 2021 Freedom Festival, we partnered with Digital Democracies to commission Ithaca to exhibit 5000 Miles - a 360-degree audio experience.

Read more

Yara and Devina: ARRIVALS+DEPARTURES

Taking the recognisable form of a station or airport arrivals and departures board, the artwork invites the public to share the names of people who have arrived and departed as a way to celebrate a birth or commemorate a death.

Read more

Can’t Sit Still: Play-Along Plink and Boo

For Freedom Festival 2020 Play-Along Plink and Boo is a circus theatre performance made specifically for camera

Read more

Lucas De Man/Company New Heroes: Hopes and Fears Across the Water

Spoken word performers from the UK and the Netherlands collaborate around urgent themes in a post-COVID-19 world.

Read more

Kaleider – A Portrait Without Borders 2020

For Freedom Festival 2020, we invited audience members to have their portrait drawn by Kaleider’s non-learning AI.

Read more

BBC Introducing: Freedom at Home

In the midst of lockdown, an exploration began to discover how local performers could be given their sound back.

Read more

Lee Karen Stow: Something to Breathe

In the following zoom conversation recorded during lockdown three generations of Hiroshima women reflect on the 75th Anniversary of the first atomic bombings on people and why their call for a world without nuclear weapons is more urgent than ever.

Read more

Luke Wright: Logan Dankworth

The third in Luke Wright’s trilogy of political verse plays looks at division, trust and privilege in the Brexit age.

Read more

Broken Orchestra: Fairwinds and Following Seas

A new commission for Freedom Festival 2019, in partnership with Hull Yorkshire’s Maritime City and with support from ACE project funds and BBC Blue Room.

Read more

Seth Honnor, Kaleider: Pig (IN SITU Pilot Project)

Pig poses a playful dilemma in public space from the moment it is unveiled.

Read more

Chris Haring, Liquid Loft: Foreign Tongues (IN SITU Pilot Project)

Foreign Tongues puts the act of speaking at the centre of a choreographic process and reflects the experience of contemporary urban life, its polyphony and multilingualism.

Read more

Benjamin Vandewalle: Studio Cité (IN SITU Pilot Project)

In Studio Cité, Benjamin Vandewalle combines a series of installations, performances and interventions in a public place, square or venue in a city, transforming the urban location into an artistic fun fair, a playground for the human gaze and a space where social encounters, discussions and the exchange of ideas can take place.

Read more

Richard Wiesner: Twenty-Eight (IN SITU Pilot Project)

Twenty-Eight is a site-specific installation representing the EU group of twenty-eight member states. Individual states are represented by translations of their national anthems, which are a central theme of the entire installation.

Read more

Lucas De Man: In Search of Democracy 3.0 (IN SITU Pilot Project)

In this new project, Lucas De Man works together with local partners to make an investigation of current democracy and its challenges for the future. With a travelling visual and musical show, full of stories and dialogue, he shows how a young generation shapes tomorrow’s democracies.

Read more

Anna Rispoli: A Certain Value (IN SITU Pilot Project)

A certain value is a multi-disciplinary format conceived by Italian artist Anna Rispoli and curator Martina Angelotti. A series of workshops will be held in six European cities until the end of 2019 with a reading-performance tour in 2020.

Read more

Without Walls: 18 New Shows Commissioned

As a partner we're working with Without Walls to support 18 companies to bring new outdoor work to fruition this year - touring to nine leading outdoor arts festivals across the country, including Freedom Festival 2019.

Read more

The Print Shop: Rise[up]! 2018

The Print Shop responded to our desire to engage people in the process of developing their own voice, done in this project through protest slogans.

Read more

Full Tilt Aerial: Substratum

Commissioned for Freedom Festival 2018 by Full Tilt Aerial.

Read more

Arun Ghosh: Ambhas (PRS Foundation New Music Biennial 2019)

We are proud to be commissioning a brand new piece about Hull, which will be performed in both Hull and London as part of this year’s PRS Foundation New Music Biennial and have commissioned award-winning clarinettist and composer Arun Ghosh to create a brand-new piece of music, inspired by water and journeys to the city from across the sea.

Read more

Sura Medura

An international artists residency centre based in Sri Lanka.

Read more

Book Works: Beyond Words

The Beyond Words project began in September 2016.

Read more