About Us
Fio exists to create positive change in the arts and cultural sector in Wales. Our vision is that people from the Global Majority are embedded and thriving in all aspects of theatre ad arts in Wales. We support Global Majority people of all ages to shape culture in Wales. We do this by providing pathways and opportunities to develop, create and experience exciting theatre and arts. We represent contemporary diverse Welsh culture and identity. We remove barriers and offer inclusive, intersectional visions for the future
Founding
Fio was founded and registered as a charity in 2016 as a catalyst for change in response to the lack of diverse artists and repertoire in theatre in Cardiff.
“Fio:
- Inspired by Latin, meaning to belong, to create, to grow.”
In 2021, Dr Sita Thomas was appointed as Artistic Director. Rather than rushing to make productions, Sita chose to take time to address a central problem in the Welsh cultural sector: the lack of Global Majority creatives, from directors, to producers, to facilitators, to stage managers, to senior leaders, indeed all roles in the industry. To address the problem, under Sita’s leadership, the company found a fresh focus on ‘People, Projects, and Productions’, with a clear interpolation between the three strands.
Fio launched Arise – Wales Creatives in partnership with Wales Millennium Centre, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, SDUK, Stage One and buzz culture. By supporting 20 people and paying them to participate in monthly training sessions, the initiative addressed the lack of GM creatives. Fio’s project Winter Sparks (in partnership with Women Connect First and Now In a Minute Media) supported young Muslim participants to engage in local socially relevant issues and create an artistic response. This project developed audience and participatory engagement, as well as inspired new and future creatives. Our productionLanding Bolts - a site-specific multi-artform show in a skatepark co-created with young people – has been developed across two years with significant research and development processes funded by Arts Council of Wales, Genesis Foundation and Cardiff Council. Not only were we developing the work - a strikingly fresh diverse contemporary story that will contribute to the Welsh theatrical canon - but just as significantly, we were developing the people creating the production, and our longer-term process of making work.
At Fio, we don’t just talk about the need to change. We drive forward action and allocate resource in order to create opportunity, make a difference and dismantle structural racism. Through our focus on People, Projects and Productions all underpinned by wellbeing, we provide safe, welcoming spaces for ethnically diverse people to find their creative energy. We develop early-career Global Majority people into Wales’ ethnically diverse creative workforce of the future. We make theatre that represents the communities we work alongside and tell stories that resonate with and articulate contemporary diverse Welsh experience. We provide pathways for people to run the arts organisations of the future. Through our lived experience, we understand deeply the barriers to progression, and are poised to offer solutions to end the inequalities and inject change and fresh power into the Welsh cultural sector.
