About us
Gosforth Civic Theatre is an arts venue, events space, and café bar in the heart of Gosforth, three miles north of Newcastle upon Tyne. We programme high-quality live music, theatre, comedy, spoken word and community events, while delivering long-term arts and health and wellbeing programmes for over 100 people with learning disabilities every week.
We are the only public-facing theatre in the UK founded and guided by people with learning disabilities. Our aim is to reduce social exclusion and division by bringing people together through shared cultural, creative, and community activity, while creating meaningful opportunities for people with learning disabilities to participate, work, and contribute.
“Historically society has created places for people with learning disabilities to go, at Gosforth Civic Theatre, people with learning disabilities are creating a place where everyone can come together.”
Our story
​​The Liberdade Project
Liberdade (Pronounced li-ber-dar-jie) was a project under the umbrella of the Lawnmowers Independent Theatre Company. The aim of the apprenticeship scheme was to enable a group of people with learning disabilities to set up and run their own physical theatre company.
2012
Liberdade CIC
In 2012, we were delivering programmes of arts, and health and wellbeing activities, but the company members decided they wanted to open a theatre where everyone was welcome - a place where they could have jobs and create the same opportunities for other young people that they themselves had experienced.
2023
Capital Development Project
Thanks to capital funding from Youth Investment Fund, and other funders, we were able to successfully carry out a multimillion-pound redevelopment of the building in 2023.
The beginning of our story
2003
2008
Liberdade CIC
To deliver our mission, our company members needed to gain control, so we formed our own organisation.
2016
Opening of Gosforth Civic Theatre
We became a registered charity (Liberdade Community Development Trust) and took on formerly council-run Gosforth Civic Hall.
2025
Award winners!
We are voted Best Museum or Cultural Venue at the North East Culture Awards at the The Globe, Stockton.
10 years of Gosforth Civic Theatre
2026
Through it all, one thing has never changed: Gosforth Civic Theatre exists because a group of people with learning disabilities wanted it. They imagined a building that brought people together, broke down misconceptions, and showed that we all share the same needs for connection, respect, and joy.
It’s an important message that, there are places where people can come together, can share their jokes, their stories, what concerns them, discuss the way the world is. We are social animals, we need places to meet, to talk, to have a drink, to have a laugh. This looks like a good place where people can be that.
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Ken Loach (At the screening of 'Spirit of '45 At Gosforth Civic Theatre Aug 2016)
How it all began
Liberdade, pronounced [Li-ber-da-jie], began with a spark far from Newcastle, in Salvador, Brazil. There, a company of professional dancers with learning disabilities told us their work gave them Liberdade (freedom, in Portuguese). That word became our name, and the belief behind it still drives us today: that an organisation's structure can give people with learning disabilities real power, choice, and visibility.
In 2003, we launched with eight apprentices who trained to run their own company. They built the culture that still guides us:
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The Lazy Rule – if our Company Members can do it, staff shouldn’t.
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The Shadow Board – decisions should be discussed, shared, and understood.
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Raising expectations – work should always be of the highest quality, because quality changes perceptions.
As the company grew, members told us what they wanted next: a building of their own, jobs within it, more chances to perform, and opportunities for younger people to follow in their footsteps. Those aspirations became our roadmap.
The reality was harder. Finding and running a building was no simple matter. Our plans shifted with every site we explored, and finances were always at the forefront of our minds. When Gosforth Civic Hall came up in 2014, we saw its potential and worked tirelessly to make it ours. In 2016, after years of planning and a lot of trial and error, we opened Gosforth Civic Theatre.
From the start, we held to four rules:
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The theatre must be for the whole community, not just for people with learning disabilities.
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People with learning disabilities must be visible and active within it.
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Everything we do, from coffee to performances, must be high quality.
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Staff and company members must work side by side.
These principles gave us purpose and shaped how the public saw us.
But ideals alone don’t pay wages or fix leaking roofs. Running a theatre meant compromises, financial pressure, and at times stopping things that weren’t working until we could do them well. Our company members didn’t always want to be café staff or ushers; they wanted to perform and lead. So, we created new pathways like work placements, mentoring roles, and dedicated staff to support them. We learnt that to achieve real impact, good intentions had to be backed by proper resources and planning.
Through it all, one thing has never changed: Gosforth Civic Theatre exists because a group of people with learning disabilities wanted it. They imagined a building that brought people together, broke down misconceptions, and showed that we all share the same needs for connection, respect, and joy.
