Terrestrial supports artists and community groups to create adventures together.
Since 2017, we’ve been involved with a wild array of projects: from spy adventures in schools to dance performances in shopping centres. We’ve created choral songs with elders, handed a Town Hall over to children, made a documentary about a sea monster and time-travelled through a museum. We’ve run a café, set up an artist studio, brought concerts into libraries and hosted community feasts.
We’ve done all these things and more by collaborating with brilliant creative people, some of whom do this for a living and many who don’t. Our projects are designed by inspiring artists (dancers, musicians, illustrators, filmmakers, chefs) working hand-in-hand with community groups (local charities, sports teams, schools, councils).
We began our work in Weston-super-Mare, where we worked intensively between 2017-19. As well as delivering a series of long-term, ambitious arts projects with community partners, we also founded a community artist studio on the High Street.
During the Covid Pandemic (2020-21), we supported a group of community artists across England to work with communities on their doorsteps.
Since 2022 we have been working in and around our hometown of Frome in Somerset. We have produced more than twenty projects in that time – each crafted by artists and community groups working together. We’ve run storytelling workshops in every school in the town, played games on the streets, set-up an alternative postal service, paraded costumes made by refugee families and turned local people’s words into choral compositions.
For the last two winters, we have run a creative warm space throughout the coldest months of the year: first in Frome Library, and most recently at the Key Centre where we set up a Pop-Up Winter Café.
In 2025-26 we focused our work on specific areas within the town as part of ‘Adventures in Your Neighbourhood’.
We also support local artists to develop their own ideas for community projects and run a regular series of Artists’ Gatherings in venues around Frome.
In 2026 we were invited to bring our work to Chard in South Somerset. We relished the opportunity to work alongside young people to make a bold dance film, as well as with multiple community groups to design a new mascot for the town.
Terrestrial is currently taking a pause from producing projects. After an incredibly busy couple of years, our team is focusing on other creative projects for a while. We hope you enjoy looking through the archive of arts adventures on our projects page.
Photos by Paul Blakemore and Alice Whitby.
Our projects in Frome & Chard were produced by Tom Spencer, Jess Francombe and Esmé Patey-Ford.
‘Adventures in Your Neighbourhood’ funded by Somerset Association of Local Councils (SALC) Community Health & Wellbeing Fund.
Warm Spaces (Library 2024-25 & Key Centre 2025-26) funded by Somerset Community Foundation’s Help Through Winter Fund.
Co-created projects in Frome funded by Arts Council England and Frome Town Council.
Our projects online & across England in 2020-21 were produced by Tom Spencer and Hattie Gregory.
Remote projects funded by Arts Council England.
Our projects in Weston-super-Mare were produced by Tom Spencer and Karen Barry.
Weston programme funded by Arts Council England, Jerwood Foundation and North Somerset Council.
We are grateful to all our amazing community collaborators that have made these adventures, as well as many others not listed here, possible.
Terrestrial Board
Terrestrial is managed as a not-for-profit company by a board of Directors:
Hannah Stopford
Engagement Lead, Frome Town Council
Karen Barry
Community Artist
Richard Blows (Chair)
Head of Boomsatsuma’s Bristol Creative Technology Centre
Sonia Quintero
Poet & Community Organiser
Tom Spencer
Director, Terrestrial
Kate Yedigaroff
Freelance Curator