Matthew Dunnill

Motivated by his enthusiasm for live music and entertainment, twenty two year old Matthew Dunnill spends much of his spare time networking, helping to expand a not-for-profit local community of artistic and music performers in his home town of Wakefield.

Despite a serious lack of funding, an absence of institutional support, and the need to juggle group commitments with careers and home life, the network has successfully grown over the past eight years.

Working together, they have organised a variety of events, ranging from weekly juggling performances, artistic displays, and live music, featuring DJs, MCs, and local producers.  The group also provided organisational assistance for the ‘BOMfest day festival’ in Barnsley, which attracted over 500 people.

Inclusive and spontaneous, the network’s events aim to encourage audience participation, inviting them to try out their own performance skills.

“We are clearly a very unique outfit. We pride ourselves on being open and accessible and encourage people to contribute their own ideas into these events.  We always aim to provide a safe environment for people to express themselves,” Matthew explains.

The latest project, Optical Assassins, is a community visual group, whose members include jugglers, photographers and painters. Through workshops and exhibitions the group aims to engage and promote community mental well-being, providing an alternative focus, and an escape from day to day problems.

Currently working with national organisations to secure funding, Matthew sees the obstacles the group has encountered over the years, whether technical ‘know how’, or people and event management, as good learning opportunities, resulting in new skills, to the benefit of individual personal and career development:

“All experience is good experience.  We do what we do because we love it, the barriers are what keeps everything that bit more exciting!”

For the future, Matthew is keen to continue developing the group’s appeal and relevance. His personal mantra:

“To be prepared for the unexpected, and find some more barriers to overcome!”