Springboard Neurodivergent Arts Network
An accessible and welcoming community made for you, by you.
In February 2026, Mainspring Arts launched Springboard Neurodivergent Arts Network, a new national network designed by and for neurodivergent creatives.
This new network is a direct response to feedback from neurodivergent creatives we’ve worked with since 2015. It will be a core part of our programme, creating a supportive and accessible creative community that offers a programme of activity shaped and led by its members.
The Plan
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Our Steering Group of 8 amazing neurodivergent creatives co-created the values and programme of the network. We wanted to make sure that the community was accurately represented in selecting a diverse group of creatives from different backgrounds and places in the UK, and working with a variety of art forms.
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Here is where you came in - with the support and guidance of our steering group, we launched a survey and you had your say! We asked you what the network needed to offer and what kind of community you wanted to join.
Your answers and ideas continue to inform the curation of the network, helping us to make something that is useful and valuable for you.
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We commissioned three exciting neurodivergent artists/collectives to create new pieces to celebrate ND joy and connection at the launch of the network. You can find out more about the artists below.
We presented the pieces at our online launch event on 18th February. Missed it? You can watch a recording of the event here, using the passcode um&j8=E3
Springboard artist commissions
To celebrate the launch of Springboard Neurodivergent Arts Network, we commissioned three incredible neurodivergent artists/collectives to make new work. Find out more and see the work below.
E Numbers
E Numbers are a creative neuroqueer collective:
Tiiva (they/them) is a music producer, composer and sound designer.
Jané Mackenzie (she/her) works with multimedia collages, installations and curation.
Serafina (she/her) is a visual artist focusing on ceramics.
Their Springboard commission is an audio-visual conversation: Tiiva makes the sound. Serafina makes the visuals using sensory objects of her choosing. Jané makes the live edits/effects and adds creative captions.
It’s a live and tangled communication that welcomes and aims to create space for new ways of being that align with our most authentic selves.
There is no one way to experience it. It is intentionally multi-dimensional/sensory and plays with the interplay of our experiences and interactions.
You can choose to:
listen just to the audio / switch off the audio
only look at visuals / only look at the captions
Opt in / opt out as you choose
You can find E Numbers on Instagram: @e_numbers_ @tiivamusic @serafina.mbg @jane_emac
Ziran by REMa Grace - Entangled Artist
REMa Grace (she/they) is a Cumbrian-Filipino radical artivist, outdoorsy critter and explorer of cultural undergrounds.
Her work as Entangled Artist seeks to disrupt the status quo and nurture our more mycelial futures. By connecting with divergent human and creaturely voices, her hybrid work embodies our just transition to more feral, liberated and entangled ways of being.
REMa’s Springboard commission, Ziran, challenges modern ideas of what's 'natural' or 'normal'.
They’ll be sharing a three-part video journey celebrating the transformative power of neurodivergent thinking through visual poetry, outdoor wanders and sound.
This will be followed by a short nourishing group activity for reflection together (sharing optional).
Find REMa Grace at entangledartist.com or on Instagram @entangledartistlife
The Stimming Song by Maddie Morris
Maddie Morris (they/them) is a bold and socially conscious folk artist who uses traditional music to explore contemporary issues. Winner of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award, they have been described by Jim Moray as “leading the next generation of socially conscious songwriters”.
Their work explores personal narratives and political storytelling, blending English folk traditions with their lived experience as a trans, autistic person.
Rooted in the oral tradition, Maddie’s music seeks to preserve, challenge, and expand folk heritage by writing historically excluded voices into the canon.
Passionately political yet gently understated, this is music that deftly treads the path between art and activism.
Maddie’s Springboard project, The Stimming Song, is a new song that celebrates stimming as a form of neurodivergent joy and connection. Maddie collected videos of people stimming and composed the music in direct response to those movements and thoughts shared by the neurodivergent community about what stimming can mean to them.
The final piece combines live performance and stimming visuals into a video that celebrates shared joy, community and autistic connection.
Find Maddie at maddiemorrismusic.co.uk or on Instagram @maddiemorrismusic
“It was really special being in a space where we all felt on the same page. Being able to fully unmask without worrying how others would understand me was so freeing, and it was amazing seeing how accessibility was intrinsic to the session. The breakout discussion left me fizzing with enthusiasm for the project!”
— Feedback from Jaime Starr, a member of our Steering Group