Panellists

• Roma Patel

  Makers of Imaginary Worlds (Chair)

  Roma Patel is a scenographer and artist that make work for site-specific performance, theatre and interactive installations in UK and Europe. She develops performances that extend and explores the audience relationship to scenography.

  Her work lies at the intersection of theatre and interactivity. She has designed several site-specific performances for Irish Theatre Company, Corcadora, one of which was acquired for the permanent collections by Victoria and Albert Theatre Museum in 2008. Her work frequently included experimenting with technology for projection design, 3D modelling, VR and AR. She is currently a Visiting Artist at the Mixed Reality Lab, University of Nottingham, and is involved in artistic research that explores the potential of interactive scenography for Theatre for Young Audiences. Since 1998 she has designed installation, sets and worked in partnership with several arts organisation and Museums, Nottingham City Museums and Art Galleries, City Arts, Theatre Hullabaloo, London International Festival of Theatre, Theatre Centre, and Manchester Library Theatre.

• Caspar Addyman

  Researcher and Early Years Specialist

• University of Nottingham Robotics Team - Panellist to be confirmed

• Siri Dybwik

  After graduating, Siri Dybwik moved to Stavanger where she was the initiator of dance in Cultural school, upper secondary school and college level. Working as a dance artist since 1990, she has been committed to developing her region, with a strong  focus on children and young people. She recieved the Stavanger Municipality Culture Award (2006) and the Rogaland County Council’s Culture Award (2022), in addition to receiving support from the Norwegian Directorate of Culture for the 2025-2028 period. Since dybwikdans was established in 1999, she has toured her artistic works in Norway, Europe, Asia and the USA building a repertoire of productions designed for children under five. Siri, together with Nils Christian Fossdal, is the initiator of Elephantteateret, which is Norway's first professional stage for children between 0-5 years.

  In addition to her practice with dybwikdans, she is a professor at the Faculty of Performing Arts, UiS. She led (October 2018- December 2021) the dissemination and research project “Performing Arts for ALL Children” which is a democratic art project aimed at ALL children, regardless of social class, ethnicity, cultural affiliation and religion. She currently is a member of the research group FILIORUM focusing on the artist's performer knowledge in the encounter with the youngest audience. Also, In the period August 2023 - December 2027, she will lead the artistic project "100 happy days" in Elefantteateret, a project that is an artistic, but also political project that focuses on children's rights to participate in art and cultural life, regardless of living conditions.