Bold, beautiful Carnival art that tells unheard stories.
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Cabasa is a women-led Carnival arts organisation with a focus on traditional textile craft and powerful storytelling.

We create stunning hand-crafted textiles, Carnival costume, large-scale sculpture, body art, and murals that are deeply meaningful. Everything we do is rooted in storytelling, community, and collaboration.
 

For the past 20 years we’ve been working with communities in Greater Manchester and beyond to tell their often unheard stories, inspired by Carnival practice from all over the world. Our spectacular work has reached millions across the UK and beyond.

Flagship Projects: The Living Dress (2025), a UK touring large-scale climate-kind installation; Endomorphosis (2023-2024), women’s creative health body painting project exploring Endometriosis with national reach; ‘A Sharing of Gifts’ for The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant (2022) commissioned by Global Grooves; The Spirit of Manchester (2019), a large-scale lead figurehead for Manchester Day Parade, commissioned by Walk The Plank.

OUR FOCUS

Promoting Carnival Arts 

We are passionate about setting and then elevating the standard for Carnival art in the North, showcasing it as a beautiful, powerful art form, accessible to everyone.  

Working with Women & Communities 

Cabasa amplifies underrepresented voices with a focus on women’s health and working with diverse communities across Greater Manchester and beyond. 

Climate-Kind Practice & Innovation 

We are part of a growing movement in the Carnival sector working towards a climate-kind future in the arts through thoughtful, sustainable, and innovative practice. 

Young People – Nurturing Creative Future

We work with young people of all ages to explore identity, wellbeing, and belonging through art, textiles, heritage, and Carnival. We co-design our projects which can involve costume design, silk painting, giant sculptures, body art, and more.

OUR VISION

 A joyful, connected world where everyone sees themselves in Carnival. 
 
“The poem, the song, the picture, is only water drawn from the well of the people, and it should be given back to them in a cup of beauty so that they may drink – and in drinking understand themselves.” 

– Federico García Lorca.   

OUR TEAM

Cabasa is a small women-led team of creatives, each with a different route into Carnival and textiles, from volunteering with the organisation themselves to becoming incredible artists in their own right.

Our core team is made up of Emily Wood Artistic Director and CEO; Kate Rothery General Manager; Dan Jones Head of Marketing & Communications; Mary O’Neill Producer & Sales Lead.

We are also supported by an amazing freelance team of artists and makers. We also call upon our incredible volunteer community, who are at the heart of all of our projects. 

OUR BOARD

To help us fulfil our focus and our vision, we are supported by our wonderful Board of Trustees, each bring their expertise, knowledge, and kindness to Cabasa.

Ann Wilkes (Chair) – Fundraiser for MASH (Manchester Action on Street Health)
Akeisha Brown – EDI Development Lead for Creative Support
Becky Shepherd – Head of Scheduling and Programme Administration at Aviva Studios, Home of Factory International.