About
Inspired by neurodivergent lived experience as a source of knowledge and creative possibility, Neuropirates sits somewhere between a research space, coaching practice and creative studio.
Who We Are
Neuropirates is a Cardiff-based creative practice working across Wales, the wider UK, and Ireland, at the intersection of neurodivergent experience, creative practice and research.
We’re interested in what happens when we take neurodivergent experience seriously — not simply as something to be made allowances for, explained or overcome, but as a unique lens through which to explore different ways to ask questions, make things, and do things differently.
Our work moves between creative enquiry, coaching, research, collaboration and knowledge exchange. Sometimes that means helping an individual find ways of living, working, and achieving that don’t demand the sacrifice of wellbeing in pursuit productivity. Sometimes it means working with researchers or organisations to turn knowledge into something that people can engage with. And sometimes it means starting with an interesting question and seeing what we can make of it.
The format changes. The thread running through it doesn’t: curiosity about how different minds experience the world, and what becomes possible when we make radical space for individual experience.
Our Approach
A lot of the systems we move through are built around assumptions about how people should think, learn, work, communicate and create.
We’re less interested in teaching neurodivergent people to get better at fitting into those systems, and more interested in re-imagining what shape and texture the systems themselves might be remoulded into.
Our mission is to support neurodivergent ways of thinking, knowing and creating.
That means foregrounding lived experience. Staying curious, rather than assuming that we already know the answer. Bringing research into conversation with real lives. Using creativity and creative practice as a way of thinking, not just a way of presenting a pre-defined idea. And designing enough flexibility for people to find approaches that work for them.
And remaining ever in pursuit of creating something we haven’t yet quite imagined, and definitely can’t yet name.
Her work brings together academic research, creative practice, and lived experience — translating between those worlds and occasionally causing useful trouble at the edges of them.
Clare loves to chat, especially when its about stories, identity, ideas, or projects-in-progress and she would love for you to reach out. She is also sometimes slightly haphazard about email replies, and promises that a gentle nudge is always welcome, and she does, definitely, mean to get back to you.
Meet the Founder
Neuropirates was founded by Clare Fitzsimons, a creative producer, researcher, educator and ADHD coach who’s career has involved an apparently unreasonable number of different job titles.
Her background spans contemporary circus and creative producing, arts management, education, neurodiversity, and research — which makes considerably more sense when you realise that the thing that connects all of them is a fascination with people, ideas, how we tell stories, and how we express inner worlds.
Clare holds an MA in Arts Management and Cultural Policy, a PGCE in post-compulsory education, a postgraduate qualification in Neurodiversity, and is an accredited ADHD coach. Alongside leading Neuropirates, she is also currently undertaking funded doctoral research at University College Dublin exploring the subjective experience of effort in ADHD through participatory creative practice.
Get in Touch
Whether you have a question, an idea, or just want to say hello, feel free to reach out—we love a chat.