In case you’re new to our work, we thought we’d introduce ourselves…
Small Acts are artists Katie Etheridge and Simon Persighetti. We have been creating playful, participatory performances and artworks since 2011, collaborating with people and places across the UK and further afield to bring individuals together in unexpected, and often joyful, ways.
Face-to-face human connection is at the heart of everything we do - we explore, celebrate and even create real life social networks - the kinds of community bonds that are often invisible to the outside eye, but can transform the everyday life of an individual.
Small Acts projects often happen in the places where people informally connect outside of home or work such as community gardens, pubs, markets and other ‘third places’.
Our practice is underpinned by the idea that everyone is the expert of their own life. We love finding inventive ways to bring people together to share their expertise, experiences and perspectives.
We have been commissioned to explore themes including food resilience + climate change, colonialism + Cornish gardens and community networks + shopping.
To find out more and check out individual projects, click on Small Acts website link in bio.
Thanks for following!
Image 1- Katie Etheridge & Simon Persighetti (Small Acts) Photo by Lizzie Coombes for Compass Live Art
Image 2 - Third Space - detail from Small Acts installation: Public House - The Yorkshire Square, Compass Festival
Image 3 - Small Acts touring live art game Faceback, at Eden Project
Image 4 - Porous City by Small Acts, Prague Quadrennial
Image’s 5 to 7 - Plant Navigations by Small Acts with Maria Christoforidou and Amy Lawrence. Photos by Steve Tanner
Image’s 8 and 9 - Future Pub by Small Acts, at A Bit of a Do Festival. Photos by Paul Fuller
Image 10 - The Duchess - detail from Small Acts installation: Public House - The Yorkshire Square, Compass Festival
#SociallyEngagedArt #LiveArt #Cornwall
Open call for artists exploring liveness and performance!
Supported by Falmouth Art Gallery, Small Acts and Creative Kernow Associates are thrilled to be partnering to offer an opportunity for artists who embody liveness and performance in their practice, or who would like to expand the possibilities of performance in their work.
We’re looking for 7 artists to each respond to an artwork from Falmouth Art Gallery’s extraordinary collection, creating an original 7-minute live performance for an evening salon at the gallery in October 2026. Responses might take the form of spoken word, drag, live music, dance, performance lectures, experimental or participatory work - or something else entirely.
🔴 7 artists + 7 artworks x 7 minutes = 7 Small Acts 🔴
Selected artists will receive:
– A £175 artist bursary
– Two half-day workshops/performance labs with Small Acts
– Individual mentoring
– A technical run/rehearsal
– The opportunity to perform live at Falmouth Art Gallery
Key details:
Performance: Friday 2nd October 2026
Location: Falmouth Art Gallery
Apply by: Monday 25th May, 6pm
You don’t need to be a Creative Kernow Associates member to apply, but selected artists will need to become members for the duration of the process. Membership starts at £5/month.
Link in bio to find out more and apply
Did you get Re:Rooted @flammcornwall festival!?
Thank you to everyone who joined us and became part of Re:Rooted this weekend by carrying the root sculpture, following along and cheering us on as we walked around Bodmin connecting all the wonderful Flamm venues and exhibitions.
This project has been a truly collective effort, from the collaboration with @kbsk_cic to the stitching together of the sculpture by many generous friends in our living room, to bringing the final artwork to life — we could not have done it without you!
Big thanks to @tonia7lu and the amazing @flammcornwall team for all your support 🙏
And thanks to everyone for snapping us and sharing your films and photos — please do keep sending them over to [email protected] 📸🙏
Re:Rooted has been co-commissioned by @flammcornwall with @feast_cornwall and Experience Bodmin
#flammcornwall #flamm2026 #flammbodmin @creativekernow
It has been such a joy to collaborate with @kbsk_cic on Re:Rooted. The specially created Roots performance (choreographed by Shanice Cook) and KBSK showcase was a real highlight of Flamm for us - we had no doubt KBSK would gather a great crowd, but it was amazing to turn the corner of the track and see several hundred people lining the tarmac between The Space and the basketball court. Wow! What incredible performances you gave us.
We want to say a huge thank you to all the inspirational young people who have shared their energy, creativity and expertise with this project, and to the fabulous team at KBSK for all their support and collaboration. Thank you KBSK! 🙏
And big thanks to everyone who saw us walking with the sculpture for sharing your fabulous films and photos — please do keep sending them over to [email protected] 📸🙏
Re:Rooted has been co-commissioned by @flammcornwall with @feast_cornwall and Experience Bodmin
#flammcornwall #flamm2026 #flammbodmin @creativekernow
WE ARE SO EXCITED FOR EVERYTHING THIS WEEKEND celebrating @flammcornwall 🥰🔥
HOW AMAZING to see us featured in @guardian 😍 (LINK IN COMMENTS)
It has been an absolute honour for our young people to work alongside artists @kittyhillier and @smallactsliveart to create work for this incredible festival.
WHATS HAPPENING IN @thespace_cornwall ?
THIS SATURDAY at The SPACE 12-4pm
- Create your own pizzas in our café
- FREE Arts and crafts for all ages AND an interactive mural created by our young people and the KBSK community to enjoy.
- DONT FORGET A special performance will take place at 2:30pm
Alongside all the fun happening at The Space from 10:30am –12:30pm, keep an eye out around town as some of our KBSK young people take to the streets in a celebratory parade, showcasing and honouring the incredible work of Small Acts and Kitty Hillier.
We can’t wait to see you there! 🕊
/uk-news/2026/feb/26/flamm-arts-festival-spark-interest-unsung-cornish-town-bodmin?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Re:Rooted continued…
Introducing the Re:Rooted map!
Through mapping and walking workshops with the Re:Rooted artist team, @kbsk_cic Academy members age 6 to 20 mapped out their town and plotted their preferred ways to walk between Bodmin landmarks and Flamm festival venues.
From Chicken House to Bodmin Carnival, the Re:Rooted map features young people’s significant places and routes including community spaces, meeting points, leisure and entertainment places, schools, shops, bus stops, tyre swings and shortcuts between town and college.
There are also creative prompts for navigating Bodmin and activities for you to explore including mapping your own routes through the town.
Get your free copy of the map at Flamm venues including Narisa Hall in Priory Park and The Space - home of KBSK!
(Image 1-2 - details of the Re:Rooted map)
Re:Rooted has been co-commissioned by @flammcornwall with @feast_cornwall and Experience Bodmin
#flammcornwall #flamm2026 #flammbodmin @creativekernow
Re:Rooted continued…
Be part of a walking artwork!
During @flammcornwall Festival, 28 Feb - 1 Mar 2026, Re:Rooted takes the form of a highly visible creative intervention in public space. A participatory moving sculpture that playfully reroutes Flamm audiences as it journeys through the town, trying to get round corners, across roads and through buildings.
Developed through a design process informed by creative walking and drawing practices, the root-like form of the sculpture references an imagined network of tree roots connecting everything under the surface of the streets.
Across the festival weekend, you are invited to help carry the sculpture, find a dance performance in the hidden heart of Bodmin, and explore the town through the eyes of young people via a specially created map.
Book your place to be part of the journey, click the link in bio >>
Collaborating with dancers from leading community organisation @kbsk_cic this project by @smallactsliveart and @kittyhillier fuses sculpture and performance, people and place to explore navigation, roots and connectedness.
(Image 1-2 - details of the magenta root sculpture you can be part of carrying through Bodmin)
Re:Rooted has been co-commissioned by @flammcornwall with @feast_cornwall and Experience Bodmin
#flammcornwall #flamm2026 #flammbodmin @creativekernow
Re:Rooted continued…
On Valentine’s Day, we all gathered at The Space in Bodmin for a final workshop and rehearsal with @kbsk_cic ‘s brilliant Academy members.
Simon presented examples of artists walking and processing with objects in public space - from Francis Alys to Lone Twin to Michelangelo Pistoletto - and discussed how these interventions can change the everyday experience of a street. Katie and Simon then led movement exercises where the group practiced tuning into each other and moving round the studio like a shoal of fish or starling murmuration.
We practiced carrying the whole sculpture together for the first time — up high, on shoulders, exploring how to pick it up and ways it might be laid down at each venue. Then the group gave us a sneak peek of their dance!
Shanice Cook, KBSK’s fantastic dance lead has choreographed a roots and routes inspired dance piece which will be perfomed by the whole Academy as part of Saturday’s Re:Rooted festival journey.
Don’t miss the performance of Roots on Saturday 28th February at KBSK’s home, The Space, 2.15pm! There will be hot drinks and rooty soup available in the cafe ☕️🥕
(Image 1 - detail of rehearsal day lifting the magenta root sculpture, image 2 - Katie and Kitty chatting in the car on the way to Bodmin, images 3-4- Simon leads the movement exercises, image 5 - detail of KBSK Academy members carrying the sculpture high)
Re:Rooted has been co-commissioned by @flammcornwall with @feast_cornwall and Experience Bodmin
#flammcornwall #flamm2026 #flammbodmin @creativekernow
Re:Rooted continued…
The soft sculpture fabrication is well underway. @kbsk_cic junior and senior academy members spent time with Katie, Kitty and Simon thinking about 3 writing prompts: > An ambition or hope for yourself (in the future) > A positive wish or hope for Bodmin > A secret message to visitors of Bodmin!
They wrote and illustrated these messages and dreams to hide inside the sculpture, along with the coconut fibre and sheep’s wool stuffing. Working in groups, we added the coir a little at a time and used bamboo sticks to push it right to the ends of each part of the root. The two-dimensional, stitched forms are becoming 3D! Once fully stuffed, it will be stitched together and painted the chosen magenta colour 💕
It’s not long now until the Festival 28 Feb-1 March! You can be part of this participatory artwork and carry the sculpture with us through Bodmin, visiting the @flammcornwall venues. Free but booking essential, book your place using the link in bio >>
(Image 1 - KBSK academy members work in pairs to stuff the coir right into the bottom of each part of the sculpture, image 2 - KBSK juniors carefully dividing and arranging the coir stuffing, image 3 - writing secret notes, image 4-5 - ‘secret’ notes that the writers were happy to share)
Re:Rooted has been co-commissioned by @flammcornwall with @feast_cornwall and Experience Bodmin.
Big thanks to Richard Hollister at Hollister Upholstery Bodmin, and Sarah at Rosevine Farm, for the donations of wool and extra natural fibres for stuffing!
#flammcornwall #flamm2026 #flammbodmin @creativekernow
Re:Rooted continued…
Colour selection!
Kitty prepared colour swatches back at the studio, we shortlisted the most vibrant colours @artcentrepenryn — looking outside against granite, and against green of trees.
It’s important to us that the KBSK groups are involved in some way every stage of the creative process so we posted the final samples to The Space and invited the academy members to test out the colours in different settings and light, to decide the colour of the sculpture. After a voting process they announced...
Magenta is the winner!
Magenta is a magical colour — it was apparently discovered later than Newton’s spectrum by Goethe and does not exist as a specific wavelength of light in the visible spectrum. It is a purely mental construct, created by the brain to bridge the gap between red and violet light.
Magenta goes with anything and is especially useful in painting for energising a composition, Matisse and the Fauvists loved it. In the 1930s fashion designer, Elsa Schiaparelli, created her famous shocking pink by mixing magenta with a small amount of white.
It is also said that Magenta represents harmony, creativity and energy. What have you heard about Magenta? 💕
Re:Rooted has been co-commissioned by @flammcornwall with @feast_cornwall and Experience Bodmin
#flammcornwall #flamm2026 #flammbodmin @creativekernow
Re:Rooted continued…
The sculpture itself is being fabricated in Kitty’s studio @ArtCentrePenryn . Soft and lightweight, it is made from compostable materials – cotton canvas filled with coconut husk, sheep’s wool and bamboo lengths which will give the central column form and strength.
Here’s some of the work in progress snaps from the studio…
Forms are being distilled from all the mapping and drawing the @kbsk_cic groups completed during our workshops and the GPS maps data from our walks together around town. It is amazing how these routes visually do resemble a network of connected tree roots, which gave us the original starting point of the idea for Re:Rooted.
(Image 1-2 - in the studio, the process of incorporating all the forms through concept sketches and the cotton canvas then laid out, sketched up and cut out, image 3 - Katie and Simon measuring 7 metres to help us imagine the final length, film - triple stitching each element for strength @artcentrepenryn workshop space)
Huge thanks to @artcentrepenryn for lending us a brilliant sewing machine and the big space needed to lay everything out 🙏
Re:Rooted has been co-commissioned by @flammcornwall with @feast_cornwall and Experience Bodmin
#flammcornwall #flamm2026 #flammbodmin @creativekernow
