Creativity, Culture and Wellbeing in Motion
For more than two decades, Nine Red Presents CIC has been creating culturally rooted, community-led work across art, poetry, healing, storytelling and public life in Luton and Bedfordshire.
Art Un-Defined! is one expression of that wider living ecosystem.
This studio site is part of the wider NINE RED Presents…(CIC) ecosystem, and About NINE RED leads to the main website for the full gateway experience.
More Than Two Decades of Creative, Cultural and Wellbeing Practice
For more than two decades, Nine Red Presents CIC has been holding creative, cultural and wellbeing space in Luton and Bedfordshire, including women’s listening and storytelling circles, roundtable conversations, and multimedia projects that have generated films, audio and digital resources.
Across this period, our work has been recognised with honours including a Queen’s Award, recognition from the United Nations Association, and acknowledgement as Luton’s longest-serving CIC, reflecting both the depth of our commitment and the challenge of sustaining independent, community-led work over time.
We now bring this experience into our current programmes — Radiant Roots, Sekhmet’s Sanctuary, Bedfordshire Voices and Bedfordshire Day at the Rufus Centre — and we are keen to collaborate with partners who share our vision for culturally rooted, trauma-aware arts and wellbeing.
Nine Red Works as a Wheel, Not a Hierarchy
Every person who touches our work — staff, volunteers, participants, partners and audiences — can move through different positions on the wheel over time.
Sometimes they are part of the outer rim, being held and carried. Sometimes they are a spoke, offering skills, support or connection that strengthens others. Sometimes they move into the inner hub, helping to hold the structure together.
People are not fixed in one role; they can be held, hold others, and help steer the work, often all within the same project. This non-hierarchical wheel model shapes how we design programmes, how we share power, and how we understand community: everyone has the capacity to support and be supported, to lead and be resourced.
Each Nine Red project also turns like a wheel: we attend to body, work and creative expression, systems and resources, and energy and relationship. This pattern repeats in each session, each programme strand, and in the wider organisation — from Radiant Roots and Sekhmet’s Sanctuary to Bedfordshire Voices and Bedfordshire Day.
Our Creative Ecosystem
Nine Red Presents CIC operates as a creative ecosystem where each programme supports and enriches the others.
Trauma-aware treatments supporting recovery, resilience and self-development through LMNt, Destination Wellness, Sound with Vision and Butterflies in Shades of Grey.
Culturally rooted wellbeing, heritage herbs, bodywork and grounding practices that connect us to ancestral wisdom.
Women’s listening circles, creative healing spaces and therapeutic arts — monthly sessions across Bedfordshire.
County-wide poetry, storytelling and community voice projects celebrating Bedfordshire’s creative life.
Annual celebration of Bedfordshire’s culture, creativity and community at the Rufus Centre.
Holistic health journeys and immersive wellbeing experiences integrating body, mind and spirit.
DJ and poet collaborations, live soundworks and sonic storytelling where rhythm, word and vision become one.
A carefully held recovery and creative-expression space for people living with complex experiences, offering gentle support, reflection and agency.
Words as Energy treatments using light, colour, sound, herbal support and poetry affirmations to restore balance across mind, body and spirit..
Alchemy of art, spirit and material transformation — where ancient practice meets contemporary creativity. Candles, massage candles and skincare created as energy cosmetics rituals that nourish skin and spirit through colour, fragrance and texture.
Tailored creative and wellbeing workshops bringing together heritage, healing, imagination and embodied learning.
Workshops, Literature and Exhibitions using Poetry, prose, visual art, candle crafts and installations that hold space for story, reflection, justice and belonging. For Heritage, healing and embodied learning.
The Shape of the Work
Nine Red Presents CIC is sustained by long practice, fluid collaboration and a living ecosystem of programmes, people and partnerships.
Our Achievements
Our sustained commitment to community-led creative practice has been recognised locally, nationally and internationally through honours, appointments and long-standing civic trust.
The highest award given to voluntary groups in the UK. Celebrating our 10th anniversary of this national honour.
Recognised by the United Nations Association, Luton, for years of service empowering women and promoting community cohesion.
Incorporated in 2006 at the very inception of CIC legislation — the longest continuously operating CIC in Luton.
Appointed by the Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire to champion poetry across schools, communities and cultural spaces.
Creative voice at Kenilworth Road, bringing poetry and community storytelling into the heart of the club.
What we have built is rare. Independent, community-led, and culturally rooted — from 2003 to today.
“Born to transcend labels — design refined, no labels assigned, uniquely defined. Art Un-Defined!”
Built With Many Extraordinary People
NINE RED Presents CIC has been, and continues to be, created with the help of many different people and organisations across the world.
Our customers help fund charitable work and improve lives. To each and every one of you — thank you. We appreciate you.
Keep shining. ✨
Join the Wheel
Whether you are an artist, partner, community member or funder — there is a place for you in this ecosystem. We warmly welcome conversations about collaboration, co-facilitation and shared vision.