Click on the arrow next to each performers’ name to watch their individual set from The STARTS Award Showcase 2023.

  • Emma is a talented poet and prose writer. She draws on her real life experiences to write viceral & moving pieces.

  • Gill is a comic who draws on her experience of leaving the army, surviving breast cancer and her recent diagnosis of ADHD. Gill pairs her sharp observations of life on civvy street with her charismatic delivery style to make witty, warm stand up sets.

    Instagram: @gillian_the_civilian

  • Tip is a professional actor with a love of Shakespeare. In this piece he weaves Shakespeare’s text with modern parallels - combining tradition with technology!

    Instagram: @tipcullen

  • A former Royal Navy officer, Graeme crafts his stand up sets to “expose the darkness of PTSD to those who have never experienced it, and more importantly for those who have experienced it and are too scared to admit it”. Graeme pushes taboos with his cheeky style, encouraging his audience to laugh at the unlaughable and to get comfy confronting uncomfortable subjects.

  • Kenny is a gifted poet and songwriter whose signature style epitomises ‘still waters run deep’. Intricately crafted, Kenny’s calm delivery holds the complex, vast ideas that he explores in his writing.

Click on the arrow underneath each artist’s name to find out more about them, and about their artwork.

  • Title - Cinders

    Nicki started with the idea of an outcast community - always welcoming and always watching - interwoven with elements of nature. They wanted to explore androgynous figures seeking freedom and release, being taken into the wild and answering one’s calling, akin to the rumours of witches in folklore. This final piece encapsulates a rejection of gender and the euphoria that brings, a dance to celebrate the shedding of skin.

    Instagram: @sunkenconceptor

    www.sunkenconceptor.com

  • Title - Swash

    Mike is a retired Commander who served in the Royal Navy for 33 years. On leaving he remained working in central London and is currently the CEO of The Medical Society of London. He particularly loves the quirks and foibles of watercolour and happily makes the most of the way in which the colours ebb and flow. This painting reflects his love of the sea, the sounds of the sea and the often dramatic effects of water on rocks.

    Instagram: @mikeflynn51

    www.facebook.com/groups/786195416164252

  • Title - Hephaestus

    Richie is an artist, a creative and former soldier, and currently works as artist in residence in Peterborough. He also works in Television and Film as an Assistant Director, specialising in Stunt and Special Effect filming. His happy place is this view of his family's living room as a child listening to John Williams on headphones, playing with lego and being watched over by Barnaby, his best friend and sometime cat.

    Instagram: @richiecavedirector

    www.richardcave.artstation.com/projects

  • Title - ‘Pirate Sea’ by Clement and Eleanor Boland

    Clem is fascinated by landscape and by the stories and games with which we inhabit them. He particularly enjoys art-making with his young daughter, Eleanor, as a means with which to explore these pasts and futures together. In this piece the seascape they inked and drew together was inspired by their views living near the sea, by pirate stories, films, local events and games they have played together.

    www.clementboland.com

  • Title - ‘Between Tides’

    His inspiration for this piece comes from childhood memories of summer holidays. Dougie Adams started oil painting in 2016 and found a passion for painting outside ‘En Plein Air’. You will find Dougie painting many subjects including dogs, still life and floral painting.

    Instagram: @dougie_adams

WITH THANKS TO: SIAN ABSALOM, SARA HOWARTH, SUSAN AGGARWAL, STEPHANIE TROW, REBECCA DAVY, RACHAEL ADDIS & ALAN YAFFE

KIM LAKE-BENSON-BOND

ALAN GRANT

DREW PATERSON

JAMIE WELLER

PAUL WILSON

SUE ARNOLD

DARREN HORSNELL

GRAHAM LIMB

WAYNE THOMPSON

RICHARD TOOLE