Longsight Community Art Space CIC exists to create accessible, welcoming spaces where people can come together through creativity, culture, food, and nature. Based in Longsight, Manchester, an area experiencing high levels of deprivation and cultural diversity, the organisation works with residents who are often excluded from arts, cultural, and civic spaces, including migrant families, women, children, elders, and people experiencing isolation or economic hardship. During 2025, Longsight Community Art Space delivered a wide range of creative, environmental, and community-led activities designed to reduce isolation, strengthen relationships across communities, and support wellbeing. Our work focused on providing free, culturally familiar activities that encouraged participation, expression, and shared ownership of local spaces. Activities included workshops addressing hate crime and everyday racism, family-centred creative programmes, gardening and environmental projects, exhibitions, and large-scale community festivals. Across all activity, we prioritised co-design with residents, accessibility, and creating spaces where people felt safe, respected, and able to contribute regardless of language, income, or background. In 2025, Longsight Community Art Space CIC delivered the following key activities: Creative and Cultural Programmes Hate Crime Awareness Workshops (with Europia): Four small-group workshops providing safe spaces for discussion, reflection, and creative expression around hate, racism, and lived experience. Teacup Miniature Garden Project (funded by Forever Manchester): Twelve creative workshops combining gardening, storytelling, and cultural reflection. Activities included miniature garden making, tea tasting, pottery, cyanotype printing, stitching, weaving, poetry, and bunting-making. The project culminated in a public exhibition as part of Our Longsight Festival. Longsight Family Matters (funded by Save the Children): Nineteen workshops delivered over six months with families, exploring identity, disability, wellbeing, play, and childcare pressures through weaving, pottery, photography, collage, poetry, family portraits, and gallery visits. The project concluded with a community exhibition and stakeholder conversations. Exhibitions Six exhibitions were delivered during the year, including: Unity is in Community (with Europia) Limbs of the Lunar Disc by Sarah Al Sarraj Reverberations: Explorations of the South Asian Diaspora Longsight Family Matters exhibition The Masjid Uncles of the First Row by Saif Khan and Afzal Khan Black Manchester: A Journey Through Manchester's Hidden Black History by Tina Ramos Ekongo, developed with 300 children across five schools Festivals and Public Events Our Longsight Festival (2024 and 2025): A free, grassroots-led community festival attended by approximately 2,500-3,000 people each year, featuring 36 community stalls and 23 hands-on activity providers. Environmental and Civic Engagement (SNUG - Sustainable Northmoor Urban Greening) Weekly volunteer-led gardening sessions at the Community Orchard Garden Over 800 volunteer hours contributed in 2025 Environmental workshops, planting days, beekeeping training, and youth-led alleyway projects Ongoing Re-Imagine Rushford consultations and civic engagement activities with residents and Manchester City Council The organisation's activities directly benefited local residents of Longsight and surrounding areas, including: Migrant and South Asian families Parents and carers, particularly mothers Children and young people Elders People experiencing isolation, poverty, or language barriers In 2025 alone: 2,500-3,000 people attended Our Longsight Festival Over 100 residents engaged through SNUG and Orchard Garden activities 40 families participated in Longsight Family Matters, involving 43 adults and 73 children Hundreds more engaged through exhibitions, workshops, and public events

Community consultation is central to how Longsight Community Art Space operates. Projects are shaped through ongoing conversations, informal feedback, surveys, and co-design sessions with residents, families, volunteers, artists, and partner organisations. In 2025, consultation took place through: Family discussions and surveys during Longsight Family Matters Community engagement events linked to SNUG and Re-Imagine Rushford Regular volunteer sessions and open community meetings Partnerships with trusted organisations including Women's Voices CIC, Better We, Sheba Arts, BeLongsight, Northmoor Community Association, and others Feedback gathered informed programming decisions, access arrangements, timing of sessions, and future project planning. Activities were free or low-cost, locally delivered, and designed to remove barriers to participation. Translation, childcare support, flexible attendance, and culturally familiar approaches were embedded where possible. Partnership working ensured reach into communities that do not typically engage with arts or cultural provision. Public exhibitions and festivals extended the impact beyond direct participants, allowing the wider community to engage with shared stories and creative outputs.

Between December 2024 and November 2025: Saman Rizwan received employment income of 30,476 GBP in the period between 1 December 2024 and 31 November 2025. Claire Biggs received 8,728 GBP for freelance work and specific project managing. Rizwana Hassan received 2,636 GBP for freelance workshop facilitation. Nadia Sultana received 1,865 GBP for freelance workshop facilitation.

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration