Meet the
creatives!

Acoustic Survey is an ongoing sound-based project exploring listening as a form of artistic and social inquiry. It brings together field recording, improvisation, and DIY instrument-making to examine the acoustic character of spaces and interactions. Through workshops, performances, and collaborative sessions, Acoustic Survey invites participants to experiment with sound, deep listening, and echo acoustics. The project encourages learning through play and improvisation, fostering connections between artists, audiences, and environments. Blurring boundaries between research, performance, and community practice, Acoustic Survey aims to reveal how sound can shape collective experience and deepen our awareness of place.

Ayah’s creative practice utilises the arts as a tool for healing. Her work centres on creating safe, supportive spaces for women to express themselves through various creative community activities. Ayah’s initiative, Silent Voices, includes projects like Healing Blooms, which uses silk flower arrangements to foster calm and confidence, and Threads of Strength, a collaborative textile mural symbolising resilience and renewal. Passionate about recycling and empowerment, Ayah transforms discarded materials into beauty, reflecting the journey from brokenness to wholeness. Her workshops invite quiet connection, creativity, and hope.

Chris Burford is the founder and head coach of The Burford Centre. After reversing his own Type 2 diabetes through bodybuilding in the mid-1990s and later setting two world records in powerlifting, he shifted from electronics test-design to focus full-time on health, fitness and rehabilitation.

His mission now is to empower individuals facing chronic illness or injury to reclaim strength, vitality and joy through a holistic blend of faith-inspired coaching, personal training and rehabilitation.

Dana Hudson is a Theatre Producer with over nine years’ experience across both commercial and subsidised sectors. She specialises in developing new work from early R&D to opening nights, having produced acclaimed productions that toured regionally and nationally. A previous recipient of the Arts Council DYCP fund, Dana has successfully led collaborative projects with professional and community artists, fostering creative participation at all levels. As Director of Dana Hudson Productions, she champions innovative theatre, nurturing emerging talent, and delivering work that engages diverse audiences, while growing both regional and national impact in the theatre landscape.

Derek Stewart is a multi-disciplinary artist hailing from Luton that has studied general arts and design along with a degree in Illustration at Cambridge school of Art.

His main focus has now become videography and photography to help create and share visual stories. His project titled ‘LOCAL’ will be a mini docuseries sharing the stories of several Luton locals and how they benefit their own local communities; with a focus on small independent businesses, artists, musicians and general good Samaritans who take time out of their day to benefit others.

James Anderson is a Hatter, maker and traditional craftsman with a passion for the Luton heritage trade of straw hat making. He is dedicated to restoring the towns traditional occupation of hat manufacture. He is accomplishing this through repairing and restoring historical hat manufacture machinery sourced from the local area after the closure of many factories left the equipment Idle and forgotten. Luton was the town that invented these machines and crafts and as such deserves a chance for the future generations to learn and enjoy these skills.

James is currently running his own hat-making business: Anderson Hatters.

Laura Mathurin is a Luton based sound artist and gardener passionate about connecting people to places through sensory experience. With a background in creating immersive audio stories for spaces, Laura’s aim is to explore how sound can deepen our relationship with nature and community. As founder of Young Growers Club, Laura helps families start their food-growing journey. Through her theme of Story Gardens, Laura would like to develop interactive garden spaces that weave together soundscapes, oral histories, and the rhythms of growth — transforming gardens into living, listening environments that nurture creativity, wellbeing, and connection.

Luton Spark Productions is an emerging grassroots production initiative driven by a passion for creativity, movement, and learning. Drawing inspiration from the discipline and focus of martial arts, the initiative embraces the expressive energy these practices bring to performance. Deeply committed to creating a safe and empowering space for women and girls, Luton Spark Productions seeks to nurture confidence, creativity, and community through the arts. With a love for both sport and storytelling, the team aims to fuse martial arts, theatre, and narrative into a unique small-theatre experience that brings multiple disciplines together on stage.

I’m Nadia, a freelance fine-artist, and on the days that I’m not teaching philosophy and religion, I work as a painter, from oil and acrylics to watercolour and inks. While mostly commissioned based, I have also enjoyed holding painting and Arabic calligraphy workshops for schools, events, and the community.

I like to tell stories through my art. From live-painting the mountainous villages in Spain to sketching the quiet charm of London’s bookshops, the romance of the everyday is most intriguing to me.

Welcome to my kitchen, where culture meets freedom. I’m Safoora, a South Asian Muslim woman rediscovering food on her own terms. Once, I resisted cooking because it felt like giving in to expectations. Now, it’s my way of redefining them. Here, you’ll find South Asian recipes, stories of growth, and a celebration of doing life differently with honesty, curiosity, and courage. This isn’t just about food; it’s about reclaiming identity, one dish at a time. Join me as I cook, learn, and dream toward a life filled with flavour, freedom, and a few cats along the way