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Venture Arts: Meet the Artists

Meet the artists taking part in MIF25's Venture Arts: Michael Beard

Artwork by Michael Beard showing lies on a white background, which are different shades of green and yellow

First up, what is Venture Arts?

Venture Arts is an award-winning organisation that works with neurodivergent and learning disabled artists in Manchester. At MIF25, Venture Arts: Michael Beard is a pop-up open studio and relaxed space for creativity – spotlighting artist-in-residence Michael Beard.

When Michael is not at work, the Lab will host a range of artists from Venture Arts. Meet them all here.

Introducing Michael Beard

Michael Beard is a prolific artist who joined Venture Arts in 2012.

His work covers painting, illustration and ceramic sculpture, and often features handwriting, letters and references to his immense passion for travel. His signature style is bold, large-scale and colourful.

A painting by Michael Beard showing yellow, red and blue lines on a black background. There is a red image of a dancer upside down overlayed on the painting.

Venture Arts, MIF25 credit Michael Beard

Venture Arts: Workshop Artists

  • Sally Hirst wearing a blue patterned dress, smiling and perched on an old wood desk in a library.

    Sally Hirst

    Sally Hirst is a young artist based at Venture Arts and an Artist in Residence at the Whitworth’s Everyday Art school.  She is a socially engaged illustrator, textile artist and ceramicist whose work is inspired by the people around her.

    Accessibility is at the heart of everything she does; another strand of her work is creating accessible descriptive poetry about artwork. Sally has been commissioned by Hospital Rooms and Project Ability, and has led a workshop to curators at Studio Voltaire.

  • Black and white photograph of Dominic Bennett with his terracotta weasels

    Dominic Bennett

    Dominic Bennett is a multimedia artist at the Venture Arts studio and works in photography, film, ceramics and textiles. He has been fascinated by weasels since a very young age after discovering The Wind in the Willows. In 2018, Dominic started creating his own terracotta Weasel Army and after a few years of making, he began inviting people into his workshop to expand the army.

  • A close-up image of a fortune teller with colourful drawings and text on

    Amy Ellison and Claire Dorsett

    Amy Ellison is a Venture Arts studio artist, who works across photography, digital illustration, textiles and printmaking.

    She has collaborated with artist Claire Dorsett on the Venture Arts CoLab series where they discussed crushes, friendships, fortune tellers, falling out and daydreaming. The collaboration culminated with the creation of a giant fortune teller exhibited at last year’s The Manchester Contemporary. 

  • Two people stood in front of a screen which says 'Don't turn down potential great employees'

    Amber Stother and William Griffin

    Amber Stother and William Griffin are two individuals from the Venture Arts visual arts studio with lived experience of neurodiversity.

    Together, they have developed training on neurodiversity including guidance on best-practice in the workplace.

  • Andrew Johnstone stands next to a taxidermy tiger behind glass. A white line-art illustration of a tiger is superimposed on the glass in front of the display.

    Andrew Johnstone

    Venture Arts studio artist Andrew Johnstone works across different mediums including textiles, ceramics, printing and drawn media. His work often includes animals, transport, self-portraits, TV and film.

    He was part of the Belonging in the Wild residency at Manchester Museum from November 2024 to April 2025.

  • Horace Lindezey in a suit with a pink rose sits at a table with champagne glasses, in front of a wall decorated with illustrated plates.

    Horace Lindezey

    Horace Lindezey has been a practising artist for over 30 years. He is a skilled illustrator, textile artist and ceramicist.

    Thanks to a commission from the Art In Manufacturing programme at the National Festival of Making, last year saw Horace’s first solo show We Are Gathered Here Together debut at the festival before travelling to Fitzrovia Chapel during Frieze. The show featured Horace’s celebrated Blue Plaque series and a giant wedding table with places set for 12 celebrity couples. 

  • Photo of Liam Ashworth sat on an exercise bench in a park. There is a blue drawn speech bubble overlayed on the image, which says ‘I’m doing situps but if you want to you can pretend I am holding a pizza ready to eat’

    Liam Ashworth

    Liam Ashworth is a Venture Arts studio artist who works across performance, photography, zine making and film with an emphasis on the comedy, horror and surrealism of the everyday.

  • Leslie Thompson wearing a black cap with an 'L' on, stood in front of a wall of artwork

    Leslie Thompson

    Leslie Thompson has been a studio artist at Venture Arts for over thirty years. He works mainly in ink, paint and ceramics and often combines fantasy and real-world elements in his illustrations.

    He has exhibited widely and his work features in significant collections both in the UK and overseas.

    View his series of illustrated action figures here: New Favourite Shop.

  • A smiling man wearing a black and white Adidas track jacket is seated indoors, engaging with someone off-camera.

    Venture Arts Steering Group

    ‘The Venture Arts steering groups are made up of neurodivergent and learning-disabled artists from the studio’s young peoples and adult programmes.

    They meet monthly to shape the direction of the organisation and as part of MIF25, will be delivering a free training session on accessible leadership.

Venture Arts: Michael Beard runs at Manchester International Festival 2025 from 4 to 20 July. Explore the bookable workshops here.

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