Giving students creative industry experience at Moving Parts

We welcomed University of Salford Fine Art student Grace Bredael on a placement with us here at Moving Parts during March and April 2026. It was pleasure to have Grace working with us on Wind Garden and A Treasury of Tyneside Tales and she brought so much to our team during the time she was with us. Grace tells us a little bit about her time at Moving Parts Arts...

Grace helping to facilitate Wind Garden community workshops

I am a second year Fine Art student at the University of Salford, and through my second module, Art in Context, I had to find a placement relevant to my future career path. As an aspiring prop designer, originally from Newcastle, I reached out to Moving Parts and was offered a placement. 

During my time there, I worked on two projects, Wind Garden and A Treasury of Tyneside Tales, where I got to design props for their shows, work alongside a network of talented local artists and performers, as well as engage directly with the public. These experiences have not only helped develop my creative practice as an emerging artist, but also my communication, teamwork, and problem solving skills.

I found Moving Parts Arts to be a very welcoming and supportive environment for my placement as a young, neurodivergent and queer artist and they went above and beyond what I could have expected from my placement, giving me the opportunity to interview staff for my project research, volunteer with the public, get involved in installations, design props, and perform onstage. I am very grateful for the opportunities provided for my by Moving Parts Arts, and would love to work with them again in the future.

Grace performing as Wolf in The Last Believer. Grace made the wolf head, as well as some other props in the show.

We were so impressed by Grace's enthusiasm and skills, that we extended her placement, adding a week of paid performance work for the show run of The Last Believer at the Great North Museum: Hancock.

We do not currently have any placement opportunities coming up, but we offer these whenever we can. Sign up to our mailing list or follow us on social media to keep an eye on call outs. We prioritise students who are either based in the North East of England or have clear links with the region, or those studying puppet theatre or related subjects.