HATCH

What HATCH does

HATCH, legally Incubating Arts Limited (company number 11864707), is a UK Community Interest Company registered in England and Wales, headquartered at Patrick Studios, St Mary's Lane, Leeds. Founded in 2018 by Nat Walton and Alison McIntyre and operating since 2019, it is a community-led arts organization that co-creates participatory projects with communities, councils, museums, galleries, colleges, and arts organizations across West Yorkshire. Its core offerings are the biennial WOVEN in Kirklees textile festival (initiated and funded by Kirklees Council), the Art Doctors collective of approximately 12 artists delivering playful public interventions, and a portfolio of sub-products including Park Here and Play, Discover Work, WOW Rotherham support, On Yer Bike, Crossings and Gateways, GLAM Cares, and the newer Conduit project. Delivery is mediated through direct community engagement and partnerships with libraries, schools, community centers, and healthcare/social prescribing programs; there is no proprietary technology stack and "core_technology" is explicitly not applicable.\n\nHATCH has no commercial pricing model. The revenue model is grant-dependent: incoming resources flow from Arts Council England (National Lottery Project Grants), Kirklees Council as primary WOVEN funder, West Yorkshire Combined Authority, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Bradford Culture Company, and Bradford Producing Hub, supplemented by consultancy and project management services to partners. Documented grant tranches include £850,000 from WYCA and £245,000 from National Lottery Heritage Fund for Crossings and Gateways alone. As a CIC, the entity is subject to an asset lock, so surpluses are reinvested in the social mission rather than distributed; no parent company, external investment, M&A activity, or subsidiaries are disclosed.\n\nThe operating model is founder/Director-led (three Directors: Walton, McIntyre, Manners), executed primarily through freelancers and an embedded Art Doctors collective rather than a large permanent workforce. Geographic reach spans West Yorkshire — Kirklees, Leeds, Wakefield, Bradford, and Rotherham — with evidence of participation in national and international knowledge-exchange forums (UNESCO Learning Cities presentations). No AI/ML capabilities, APIs, software products, patents, or regulatory actions are present in the data, and no revenue, ARR, or headcount figures are disclosed.

Name

HATCH

Legal name

Incubating Arts Limited

Website

https://hatchprojects.org.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

HATCH (Incubating Arts Limited) is a Leeds-based UK Community Interest Company that co-creates participatory arts projects with communities across West Yorkshire, anchored by the biennial WOVEN in Kirklees textile festival, the Art Doctors artist collective, and grant-funded programmes for councils, schools, libraries, and healthcare partners.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Arts Services

NAICS

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation (71)

SIC

Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro primary industry

Public Art, Arts Councils & Grantmaking Programs (BPAGAHAH)

Keywords

• Community arts engagement
• Arts festival management
• Participatory arts programs
• Textile heritage festivals
• Social prescribing arts

Headquarters

HQ city

Leeds

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Grant Funding: HATCH operates as a Community Interest Company (Incubating Arts Limited, company number 11864707) funded primarily through grants from Arts Council England, Kirklees Council, local authorities, and other institutional funders. Projects include WOVEN Festival, Art Doctors programs, and community engagement initiatives.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

HATCH is a Community Interest Company (Incubating Arts Limited) that designs, manages, and delivers participatory community arts programs across West Yorkshire. Its core offerings include WOVEN in Kirklees, a biennial celebration of innovation in textiles, and Art Doctors, a collective of approximately 12 artists running playful public interventions that break down barriers to arts participation. The organization also delivers supporting projects (Park Here and Play, Crossings and Gateways, On Yer Bike, Discover Work, WOW Rotherham, GLAM Cares) and provides project management, consultancy, and free creative activities for communities.

Product overview

HATCH is a Community Interest Company (Incubating Arts Limited) that operates as a platform of creative projects and programmes rather than a unified software product. The core offerings include WOVEN in Kirklees (a biennial textile festival), Art Doctors (an artist collective for public arts interventions), and Park Here and Play (a family play festival). Additional projects include Discover Work (educational sculpture workshops), WOW Rotherham (women's festival support), On Yer Bike (cycling community storytelling), Crossings and Gateways (public art murals), and GLAM Cares (sector support network). The portfolio spans festival management, community arts facilitation, public interventions, and sector support services.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Art Doctors: A collective of artists and facilitators who playfully break down barriers to participation in the arts and explore the positive role of creativity in all our lives.
• WOVEN in Kirklees

Products and services

• WOVEN in Kirklees A biennial celebration of innovation in textiles across Kirklees that connects generations of innovators linking heritage with the contemporary textile industry, arts, and community expression. Delivered in partnership with Kirklees Council, community groups, schools, textile businesses, and cultural venues.
• Art Doctors A collective of approximately 12 artists and facilitators who deliver playful public interventions that break down barriers to participation in the arts and explore the positive role of creativity in daily life across galleries, museums, workplaces, libraries, schools, and online settings. Offers mobile clinic services for festivals and events with customizable prescriptions and activities.
• Park Here and Play A family play festival delivered in Victoria Gardens, Leeds, showcasing the community programmes of Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds Libraries, and the Henry Moore Institute.
• Discover Work A Kirklees College and Dewsbury secondary schools education project inspired by Antony Gormley's sculpture WORK, engaging students with 3D sculpture techniques.
• WOW Rotherham A celebration of women, girls and non-binary people festival in Rotherham, supported by HATCH through Community Producer development and mentorship.
• On Yer Bike A project delivered with Capital of Cycling and Bradford 2025's Creative Communities Fund that tells cycling stories of under-represented communities in Buttershaw, West Bowling, and Keighley through creative collaboration.
• Crossings and Gateways A public art programme as part of Our Year 2024 Wakefield District, embedding murals in communities across the Wakefield district to celebrate heritage and local aspirations.
• GLAM Cares A peer support network for the creative and cultural education community sector, providing mutual support, care, nurturing, and professional development.

Quantifiable outcome

• 23,000+ visitors to WOVEN Festival 2025 across 120+ events
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

16 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Ravensthorpe Community CentrecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerKey partner for WOVEN Calico Dress project in Kirklees. Multiple local groups from Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury, Huddersfield, Slaithwaite, Batley, Skelmenthorpe, Kirkburton, Meltham, and Holme Valley are involved.
• Sunnybank MillscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost venue for the Calico Dress project in Leeds, extending WOVEN's reach across West Yorkshire.
• Spectrum People (Appletree Community Garden)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHosting Wakefield's Calico Dress as part of the West Yorkshire Calico Dress Project.
• Keighley Town CouncilcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSupporting the Conduit project working with local communities in Keighley and river-loving creatives.
• Bradford Producing HubcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAlison McIntyre serves as Visual Arts Instigator at BPH, supporting visual artists and organizations across the Bradford district with a needs-led approach to developing the cultural sector.
• The Cultural Institute, LAHWN and The Centre for Cultural ValueminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerLed the Beyond Measure? conference and commissioned Art Doctors for a creative prescription project working with healthcare professionals.
• Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds Central Library, Henry Moore InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartners for Park Here and Play festival in Victoria Gardens, Leeds. The festival showcased community engagement activity of these organizations.
• Leeds, Wakefield and Kirklees LibrariescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerArt Doctors project working with librarians over six months to create bespoke creative activities for local libraries, supported by Arts Council England.
• University of HuddersfieldcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in WOVEN Festival and Textile Futures event. The university hosts tours of the Barbara Hepworth building and Technical Textiles Research Centre. Recommended HATCH for UNESCO Learning Cities exchange.
• Space 2coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLead organization for Leeds Thriving Communities project where Art Doctors serves as arts partner.
• Capital of CyclingcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner for On Yer Bike project in Bradford 2025, telling cycling stories of under-represented communities in Buttershaw, West Bowling and Keighley.
• The Space (digital support agency)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommissioned the Growing Colour Together film explaining the WOVEN natural dyeing project.
• Flux RotherhamcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHATCH supported Community Producers to deliver the WOW Festival in Rotherham. Nat mentored and worked with three Community Producers to develop the festival.
• GLAM CaresminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNat is founder and board member of GLAMCares, a network developed to support peers in the cultural education and community sector through peer support, care, nurturing and development.
• Fabrication CraftsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSocial enterprise dedicated to supporting artists and makers, particularly those experiencing social isolation or at early career stages. Emma Manners serves as Director. Operates through high street venues in Leeds and York.
• Leeds Beckett UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner supporting Art Doctors in Libraries project alongside Arts Council England, Leeds, Wakefield and Kirklees Libraries.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Heart of Glass: A St Helens-based community arts agency commissioning co-created participatory projects with local communities. Directly comparable to HATCH in operating model — small core team, community interest/charitable structure, focus on co-creation and social impact through participatory arts — making it one of the closest operational analogues in the UK.
• The Art House Wakefield: A Wakefield-based artist-led community arts organisation providing participatory programmes, exhibitions and creative engagement. Nominated alongside HATCH in the Yorkshire Post Tourism Awards 2025 Culture category; directly comparable in mission (community co-creation, gallery-based engagement), geography (West Yorkshire) and CIC/charity funding model.
• Flux Rotherham: A South Yorkshire arts organisation that HATCH actively supported through the WOW Rotherham festival via community-producer mentoring. Directly comparable as a small participatory-arts CIC operating in a Yorkshire region, delivering festivals and creative engagement programmes with similar grant-funded community-interest structure.
• Bradford Producing Hub: A Bradford-based arts development organisation supporting visual artists and organisations across the Bradford district, where HATCH Director Alison McIntyre serves as Visual Arts Instigator. Directly comparable in West Yorkshire geography, focus on artist development and community creative engagement, and grant-funded delivery model.
• Fabrication Crafts: A Leeds and York-based social enterprise supporting artists and makers, particularly those facing social isolation or at early career stages. Emma Manners, now a HATCH Director, is also a Director at Fabrication Crafts. Directly comparable in social-enterprise model, Yorkshire base, and focus on creative careers and community inclusion.

Broad incumbents

• The Albany (Deptford): A South East London community arts centre running participatory creative programmes, festivals and health/social-prescribing partnerships. Comparable to HATCH as a multi-project community arts organisation with co-creation values, social-prescribing work, and mixed grant/local-authority funding — operating at larger scale and London-based.
• Battersea Arts Centre: A long-established London community arts venue running participatory festivals, co-created projects and creative engagement programmes — comparable to HATCH as a UK charitable/community-arts organisation with a participatory, co-creation-led programming model, though at significantly larger scale and London-based.
• Harrogate International Festivals: A long-established North Yorkshire festival operator running multiple festivals and year-round community programmes. Comparable to HATCH through shared Yorkshire geography, festival-led community engagement model, and Arts Council England / council funding relationships; nominated alongside HATCH in the 2025 Yorkshire Post Tourism Awards.

Regional players

• Yorkshire Sculpture Park: A major West Yorkshire visual arts and sculpture organisation delivering public engagement, learning and community programmes. Comparable to HATCH through its West Yorkshire regional base, arts-and-heritage community engagement remit, and grant-funded model, though at a much larger institutional scale than HATCH's CIC structure.
• Freedom Festival Arts Trust: A Hull-based arts and freedom festival, nominated alongside HATCH in the Yorkshire Post Tourism Awards 2025. Comparable as a Yorkshire cultural festival with strong council and ACE funding ties, participatory community programming, and multi-day event scale similar to WOVEN in Kirklees.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/WovenInKirklees
• Instagraminstagram.com/hatch_projects
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hatchprojects

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about HATCH