Executive Director
IAP is led by founder Mhari Robinson (she/her), who is responsible for all areas of programme, operation and strategy. Mhari lives with her partner and daughter in a wee flat off of Leith Walk in Edinburgh.
Mhari produced performance projects and ran small theatre and dance companies for 10 years before she founded Independent Arts Projects in 2018. She has led the company since working with a range of independent artists to create thrilling performance projects for audiences across Scotland and beyond.
Previously, Mhari worked with Janice Parker Projects, Fire Exit, Royal Lyceum Theatre Company, A Play, a Pie and a Pint, and Wee Stories. She has toured work across Scotland, the rest of the UK, Ireland, Western Europe, North and South America. She has published texts, managed the production of complex film & audio projects as well as producing new theatrical works.
Associate Artist
Kirstin Georgia Abraham (she/her) is a neurodivergent sensory artist and play practitioner born in Gibraltar. She is based in Fife, Scotland. Kirstin is passionate about creatively connecting with children and young people with disabilities and complex needs and their families/carers. Her practice involves co-designing/co-authoring immersive creative play experiences and installations: responding to the needs, interests, and wellbeing of individual and family dynamics.
Kirstin is committed to creating and facilitating inclusive, accessible and bespoke arts spaces, programmes and projects. Her passion is driven by her own personal experiences; being brought up to value diversity by parents with cerebral palsy, visual impairment and mixed-race heritage. She is also a young parent with three children, including a son who is autistic.
Associate Artist
Max Alexander (he/him) is an artist, playworker and creative facilitator who specialises in working with neurodivergent and/or disabled children and young people. Working as ‘Play Radical’ Max creates and co-creates spaces for play, exploration and connection with a focus on neurodivergent joy and ways of relating.
Max is passionate about access to artistic, playful and creative experiences for neurodivergent and disabled individuals and the idea of beautiful creative accessibility is at the centre of his practice. He has worked with numerous organisations in the arts, theatre and education to make their practices and services more accessible to neurodivergent and disabled audiences and uses writing to further explore and share ideas in this area.
As an autistic artist Max’s practice is a space to communicate in his primary language, which is inherently a sensory one. He creates playful objects and environments which offer different ways of interacting with people and the sensory world. He is drawn to repetition, pattern, movement and loves to dive deep into things that might seem mundane or insignificant to discover new detail, beauty and very often absurdity and humour. Max is currently very into light switches, sticks and the colour orange.
See PlayRadical.com for more.
Producer
Nina Doherty (she/her) joined IAP in November 2021 to produce and coordinate IAP’s Culture Collective project, the Sensory Collective until September 2023. She now works across IAP’s programme of projects.
Nina is an arts manager who is passionate about widening access to the arts. Her background is in theatre and creative learning but she loves working with all artforms.
Nina is a 2015 Arts, Festival and Cultural Management graduate from Queen Margaret University and was Producer with Eco Drama for 5 years, where she managed creative learning and theatre projects which bring children and young people closer to nature. She previously co-founded and co-ran an environmentally focused emerging theatre company, Makeshift Broadcast, which ran for six years. She carried out a Federation of Scottish Theatre Producer placement at Birds of Paradise Theatre Company in 2015 and held the role of Treasurer on the board of trustees for The Hidden Gardens in Glasgow for 4 years.
Nina is visually impaired and particularly enjoys collaborating with and
advancing the voices of other disabled people, believing that being disabled can give an insight and perspective that brings a richer understanding of each other and the world.
Nina works 3 days a week at IAP and also works as General Manager at BOOM! Community Arts in North Glasgow.
General Manager
Chloe Lyth (she/they) joined IAP in June 2025 as their General Manager. Chloe brings a deep-rooted passion for creativity and strong track record in community empowerment to their role as General Manager. Raised in a creative household Chloe developed an early appreciation for the role of the arts in self-expression, connection and social change.
With a background in community engagement, empowerment and organisational leadership, Chloe has supported a wide range of individuals, artists, facilitators, well-being practitioners and groups. Helping turns ideas into action and giving the opportunities to explore their creative work. Chloe’s approach centres on access, inclusion, care, and collaboration and these are the values they bring into every aspect of their work.
Associate Artist
Kirsty Biff Nicolson (they/them) is an artist and faciltiator who’s works with different people and places. Kirsty is committed to co-creating spaces where different ways of being can exist together. They are passionate about pleasure, play and neuro-queering spaces by and with neurodiverse, queer and trans folks.
They were part of the Sensory Collective an 18 month project which involved research, collaboration play, artistry, film making with different communities and people.
In collaboration with Lung Ha artists they have established a process lead, artist led model of artistic development that centres learning disabled and neurodivergent artists.
Kirsty is one half of the anarchic drag-clown duo Oasissy, named “one’s to watch” by The List.
They are a mentor on the Shutup and King programme, sharing practice and support with emerging drag kings.
Kirsty also often works as an access support collaborator. Through this work they support other disabled and neurodiverse artists’ creative processes and access needs.
They have collaborated with Luke Pell and collaborators, Janice Parker and, Annabel Cooper, Lars Neupert, Melanie Jordan, Queen Jesus Productions, Surge, Birds of Paradise, Garvald Edinburgh, Amanda Noble, Anatomy, Craig Simpson, Independent Arts Projects, Nelly Kelly, Dive Queer Party, Queer Theory and more.
Lead Artist: Sensory Workshops for Elders at Dixon Community
Joanna Young (she/her) is an independent choreographer currently practicing in Govanhill. Her work often involves a meditative and sensorial tone, intricate crafting and time to tune into the movements between people, places, and things. Interdisciplinary collaboration is at the core of Joanna’s work. Projects and practices emerge by listening and responding, which facilitates an inclusive, co-authored and participatory process. Joanna works in both rural and urban contexts, which have resulted in outdoor, gallery and site-specific installations; stage productions; film; and audio walks.
Recent collaborative projects include: ‘Conditions for possibility’ (a research project funded through a Creative Wales Award); ‘And all the men we saw today’ (Commissioned by Southampton university); ‘Unknown Places’ (Commissioned by Shropshire Inclusive Dance); and ‘Bodies of water’, made in collaboration with Saffy Setohy, Aya Kobayashi, and Nicolette Mcleod. .
In 2017 Joanna completed a Masters in Choreography (with distinction) from London Contemporary Dance School. Joanna regularly facilitates inclusive workshops in a range of education, community and health contexts. She is a visiting university lecturer specialising in expanded choreographic practices and theory.
Joanna was a founding member of Groundwork Pro (Cardiff), and is an associate artist at Interval (Bristol). She regularly collaborates with composer Jamie McCarthy and has worked with dance artists Deborah Light, Jessie Brett, Beth Powlesland and Ania Varez in a supporting role / rehearsal director / mentor capacity.
Our Team
We work with extraordinary people to create our programme of performance projects and events. Our team grows and contracts based on the projects we’re working on at the time.
Board of Trustees
The company is supported by a board of volunteer trustees:
– Roz Bell (she/her), retiree, former Head of Live Performance, Eden Court
– Marion Geoffray (she/her), Artist & Creative Practitioner
– Natasha Lee-Walsh (she/her), MD, Edinburgh Open Workshop (Chair)
– Leigh Mullin (he/him), Consultant/Technical Architect in Technology
– Michelle Rolfe (she/her), Producer, Birds of Paradise & Co-Dir, Stage Sight
– Ayo Schwartz (they/she), Head of HR, National Theatre of Scotland
– Sara Shaarawi (she/her), Playwright
We are always on the look out for new Trustees to join our board. If you’d like to request more information, do take a look at our trustee information pack.
