CARLOTA MATOS

Alongside creating her own projects, Carlota works as a facilitator with charities, organisations, schools, artists and communities. Her workshops and longer-term projects draw on theatre, performance, image, sound and other creative forms, often working with people who have little or no previous experience of the arts.

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Her work seeks to remove barriers to accessing the arts, increase representation, and create spaces where people can develop their own creative ideas, share skills and take creative agency. This has included working with migrant women, Deaf and disabled people, people with experience of mental ill-health, children and young people.

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She has developed workshops and training for teachers, migrant support workers and community facilitators, including through Travelling Light's Light Up School Learning project, Trauma Foundation South West, and a Creative Leadership programme for migrant women.

 

Previous workshops/facilitation include Bristol Old Vic, Many Minds, Firebird Theatre, Projekt Europa, Lightbox Theatre, Myers-Insole Local Learning, and schools across the UK and France. She has Level 2 BSL (British Sign Language) and Level 1 LGP (Portuguese Sign Language).

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DYCP​

Through a Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) grant from Arts Council England in 2022, Carlota spent 10 months researching creative access, ethics in participatory arts, and best practices working with refugees, asylum-seekers, and Deaf and disabled communities.

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As part of the process, she wrote a series of blogs reflecting on her learning and sharing findings from the research, available in the Writing section.

 

BORDERLANDS CREATIVE WOMEN'S GROUP

Carlota began working in partnership with Bristol-based refugee charity Borderlands in 2023, initially leading weekly theatre workshops for migrant women. The group developed into an ongoing Creative Women's Group, creating a space for women to explore different creative practices, share skills and experiences, and build connections.

 

The project has included cultural trips and the development of TASTE. Carlota also developed a Creative Leadership Training programme, supporting migrant women to develop their own creative facilitation skills. The group's workshops are now led by the women.

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Carlota was co-commissioned by Counterpoints for Platforma Festival 2023, where she presented Theatre of Migration - a sharing of work by the Borderlands participants and artist Hiba Elhindi, alongside a public discussion on the ethics of working with migrants in theatre. A recording of the event and a related blog are available here.

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FUTURE LABORATORY

Carlota was one of the selected artists for Future Laboratory (2022-24), a project of research residences to identify missing narratives on European stages. Through residencies at Staatstheater Mainz (Germany), Teatrul Tineretului (Romania), and La Boussole / Comédie de Reims (France), she researched questions of mental ill-health, disability, belonging, access and systems of care, as well as barriers to accessing theatre and culture. The research explored how artists and institutions might work together to create more inclusive practices.

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Towards the end of the project, Carlota began developing a new performance project, The medicine given to honeybees contains a substance also found in antidepressants. Exploring mental ill-health and collective systems of care through the lens of beekeeping, the work invites audiences to slow down, rest and imagine forms of radical wellbeing that work with, rather than against, our needs.​