News & Opportunities

A dark-haired woman in her mid-thirties with olive toned skin and mid length wavy locks cascading down either side of her shoulders. She is wearing a sleeveless sapphire blue dress and sunglasses, affecting a soft smile while standing in front of lush greenery.

Extant’s Operations Lead

Posted on: 28 Sep 2026

Announcing Extant’s Operations Lead Extant are delighted to announced that Summaya (Sammy) Musani has been appointed as our Operations Lead and starts their role in October 2026. Our Artistic Director, Dr Maria Oshodi says: “We’re thrilled to welcome Sammy to the team as Operations Lead. This is an exciting time for Extant, and this role […]

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Tam has a broad smile. Her blonde, curly hair is shoulder length, and is she is wearing a predominantly blue and grey striped hooped top.

Reflections on the Unexpected

Posted on: 28 Sep 2026

Reflections on the Unexpected By Tam Gilbert “Fifteen months – that’s a nice long time!” It’s flown by. I’m now in my last week as Trainee Artistic Director and have been reflecting on my time at Extant, and can honestly say, it’s been eclectic! But rather than focusing on the artistic side of my time […]

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The courtyard of Woolwich Works, a cobblestone plaza with human size statues. The statues stand in front of the Georgian brick building, with large arched windows and doorways.

ExtantFuturism Festival – Save The Date

Posted on: 18 Sep 2026

ExtantFuturism Festival – Announcement / Save The Date: March 10th – 12th 2027, Woolwich Works, London, UK The ExtantFuturism Festival is a globally significant, never before experienced festival and historical moment that will create a rich, visually impaired crip spacetime event. In celebration of its 30th year and watershed transformation of structural leadership, Extant will […]

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Chris McCausland and Dr Maria Oshodi standing together in discussion. Chris is a white man wearing an open long sleeve beige shirt, a navy-blue shirt and black trousers. Maria is a mixed heritage brown skin woman, wearing a navy t-shirt and blue and green peacock patterned skirt and she holds her cane. Behind them is a giant green chair.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2026

Posted on: 2 Sep 2026

Extant’s extensive impact at Edinburgh Festival 2026 – including Meta partnership Building on the success of our work at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2025, we returned this year with a significant increase in the number of activities, partnerships and profile delivered by the entire Extant team. This impact could not have been achieved without […]

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Maria standing in front of CKK Jordanki cultural centre with unusual architecture smiling in sun.

Heliocentric Revolutions and Universal Design

Posted on: 23 Jun 2026

Heliocentric Revolutions and Universal Design By Dr Maria Oshodi, Extant Artistic Director & CEO. The regional cultural centre in Torun, Poland invited me to contribute to their international conference, Universal Design in Performing Arts in early June 2026.  This marked the culmination of their Universal Art Design (UAD) project that had worked with 36 artists […]

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Sitting around a firepit, a group of 12 people are smiling and posing for the photo. They are wearing thick jumpers, coats and woolly hats. The group consists of collective dreamers, Extant staff and access workers. A black guide dog is present in the picture.

The Extant Hive -New Roles

Posted on: 17 Jun 2026

Applications are now open for The Extant Hive! About Extant is the UK’s leading professional performing arts company that explores visual impairment to create unique and innovative artistic experiences. We place visually impaired people at the centre of all we do: from the productions we create, to the artists we support to build deeper careers […]

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Two Actors stand on a stage in blue lighting. To the left a black woman holding a folder. She wears glasses and is dressed in a smart red top and black trousers. To the right a white woman holding a folder and speaking in mid sentence. She wears glasses and is dressed in a smart green top and black trousers.

Operations Lead -New Role

Posted on: 17 Jun 2026

Applications are open for our Operations Lead role! About Extant is the UK’s leading professional performing arts company that explores visual impairment to create unique and innovative artistic experiences. We place visually impaired people at the centre of all we do: from the productions we create, to the artists we support to build deeper careers […]

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Extant team on Par Beach, from left to right Maria, Louisa, Tam and Ian. They face towards the camera, Maria holds her white cane. They stand in the water, with the waves behind them. In the backdrop, a blue sky with white fluffy clouds.

Testing The Future

Posted on: 16 Jun 2026

Testing The Future: How organisational R&D and Collective Dreaming informed the new shape of Extant By Ian Abbott, Extant Operations Director. Since 2023, Extant has been working towards a known transition. Our founder, CEO and Artistic Director Dr Maria Oshodi will be stepping down at the end of March 2027. In these intervening years, we’ve […]

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A person with short curly brown hair, glasses, and a nose ring is smiling warmly at the camera. They are wearing a dark sweater and standing on a balcony overlooking a London street lined with terraced houses. The background is softly lit by the setting sun, casting a golden glow over the scene.

Thinker In Residence: Design and Disability / Beyond the Visual

Posted on: 17 May 2026

Design and Disability / Beyond the Visual By Aisling Keavey, Extant Thinker-In Residence. In the last six months at Extant, I have explored recurring themes of access, perception, and knowledge prioritisation across archiving, exhibitions, conferences, symposia, and academic texts. A core tension stands out: while inclusion is attempted, cultural institutions still favour visual conventions. Efforts […]

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Maria is leaning and smiling next to a large Hawkwood wooden sign.

Hawkwood – Matter and the immaterial

Posted on: 17 May 2026

Hawkwood – Matter and the immaterial Artistic Director, Dr Maria Oshodi reflects on the path to her PhD; as well as how the echo of the place Hawkwood, past and present, has played its part for Extant. What is the Matter? It is that in 1998, Blind and partially sighted theatre practitioners, Liam O’Carroll, Damien […]

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Poster for Marking time, which displays the background of a dark empty prison cell, with a large bright barred window at the top of the cell wall. The window lighting reflects towards the grey floor. Tally markings of various sizes cover the dark bricked wall. Below the window is large white bold text, which reads: ‘Marking Time’. In smaller green text by and below the title, ‘Written by Mandy Redvers-Rowe’ and ‘Directed by Tam Gilbert’. At the bottom of the poster are the Extant and ACE logos on a white backdrop.

Marking Time

Posted on: 8 May 2026

Marking Time – Tam Gilbert’s Artistic Project ‘Marking Time’ – A Research and Development Sharing James Baldwin Studio, Kiln Theatre, 269 Kilburn High Rd, London NW6 7JR. 14th May 2026 Directed by Tam Gilbert, written by Mandy Redvers-Rowe and created by a visually impaired team, Marking Time is a gritty, politically-driven new play exploring the […]

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A 3x3 grid with off-kilter white sloping lines forming trapezoids rather than squares within the grid. From top left the images are: Aarian Mehrabani’s face against an orange background, Neil Skene in profile speaking into a microphone, Holly Thomas crouching with hands raised, Ebony Rose Dark in a huge wig mouth wide, Tito Bone fanning themselves with a rainbow fan, Tom Skelton smiling widely, Shashank Sharma in a trenchcoat raising a glass, and then in the bottom right a logo with the text Extant Festivals in white against a purple background.

Extant returns to Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2026

Posted on: 6 May 2026

Extant pioneer sector-wide change in visual impairment access We will return to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer building on the success of our landmark 2025 programme. We will present two ‘Enhance’ shows alongside a new showcase, in partnership with Underbelly. This momentum is reflected in our rapid year-on-year growth: from an estimated 30–50 visually […]

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