About A Line Art
Anna Bruder is an Artist and Creative Producer making hand-drawn, interactive experiences for the whole family. She founded A Line Art in 2012, specialising in immersive theatre and art events for children, young people, and their families. For over 14 years, her work has blended illustration, interactive theatre, and participatory play to create tactile, high-quality experiences where audiences can touch, move, make, feel, and take something home.
“What an amazing idea. At last something exciting and fun!”
Honed over 20 years, Anna’s hand-drawn illustrative style combines loose lines, playful shapes, and gentle humour with a thoughtful understanding of signs, symbols, and how people read visual stories. Anna turns audiences into participants, guiding them through playful, hands-on experiences that feel like stepping inside a sketchbook, part playground, part theatre and part art studio. Through approachable materials and her childlike illustrative style, Anna designs inclusive, accessible experiences that invite everyone to create, making art feel possible, playful, and utterly engaging.
“Impeccable. By aiming at naivete, her drawing style functions anti-hierarchically: anyone in the room, adult or child, could have drawn what she’s drawn, and that allows anyone to give it a go”
Since 2013, Anna has created the ‘Ready Steady Series’, including Ready Steady Colour, an interactive colouring restaurant; Ready Steady GO!, an interactive driving school; and Ready Steady Lift Off!, the OFFIE-nominated space adventure where children learn to be astronauts and create and fly their own illustrated cardboard rockets. A Line Art pushes the boundaries of participatory work, bringing playful, interactive projects to weird and wonderful places.
Their work has been supported by Arts Council England and has successfully toured to theatre and art spaces including The Southbank Centre where The Wriggle and Scribble Playground first premiered in 2018, The Barbican Theatre, The Young Vic Theatre, The Oxford Playhouse, Battersea Power Station, The Unicorn Theatre where they premiered their interactive Christmas cafe, Christmas Feast in 2018; Story Centres such as Discover Children’s Story Centre and the Story Museum in Oxford; The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A); Tate Britain, SEND and mainstream schools; outdoor festivals including The Big Draw and Emergency Exit Arts; community spaces, libraries and shopping centres around the UK, amongst others. Anna and her team have toured internationally to Bravo Children’s Festival in Helsinki; Oulu Children’s Festival in Finland; Fabriano Big Draw in Milan and Act 3 International in Singapore. In 2026 Anna exhibited A Line Florist at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA). Anna has reached 1000’s of families and communities in a wide range of cultural contexts.
“A Line Art has developed a huge following for their unique brand of interactive art and musical theatre shows where children and adults take part together.”
A Line Artists
Anna Bruder
Anna, a Central Saint Martins graduate of 2004, has thrived in the world of theatre. Her expertise extends beyond being a highly skilled prop maker for West End musicals, encompassing the design and construction of breathtaking sets for institutions like The Young Vic, Sadlers Wells, and The Southbank Centre. This has seen her collaborate with some of the best-known directors and designers in the country. Since 2011, she has passionately pursued her design concept, A Line Art, specialising in crafting interactive art events and musical theatre shows for children and families. Touring both nationally and internationally, Anna aims to inspire creative play within families, with a recent focus on her acclaimed Wriggle and Scribble Playgrounds and Family Activity Trails. Explore Anna’s imaginative world at www.alineart.co.uk.
Arji Manuelpillai
Arji is a Poet, Performer and Creative Facilitator and partner of A Line Art. For over 15 years, Arji Manuelpillai has worked with community arts projects both nationally and internationally. This experience has given him the privilege of collaborating with some of the world’s most interesting people. From prisons and immigration removal centres to schools and youth clubs, he has continually pushed creativity and self-expression. He believes deeply in the value of every art form and is a passionate advocate for the power of the arts to strengthen relationships within communities across the world. Alongside his work as a creative facilitator, Arji is also a published poet. His debut pamphlet, Mutton Rolls, was published by Out-Spoken Press in 2020, and his debut collection, Improvised Explosive Device, was released in autumn 2022. The highly acclaimed book was featured in The Telegraph’s Top 20 poetry books of the year and The Guardian’s best recent poetry section. It was also the Winter PBS selection and was shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize.
The Team
Ross Bolwell-Williams: Art Psychotherapist & Participatory Artist; Lucy Grainge: Artist & Facilitator; Anna Van der Poorten: Community Artist & Facilitator; Kevin Campbell Davidson: Multi-Disciplinary Artist; Zhaolin Zhou: Theatre Maker & Facilitator; Toby Hulse: Director & Writer; Alex Milledge: Maker & Facilitator; Robin Hemmings: Performer; Shae Rooke: Performer; Abigail Huan: Performer; Martin Bassindale: Performer; Oliver de Rohan: Performer; Bolu Dairo: Set Design & Assistant