TYPE OF WORK
International community arts collaborations and youth arts exchange projects, with a particular emphasis on contemporary and traditional music.

TARGET GROUPS
Disaffected young people and ethnic minorities in urban environments.

GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT
UK, North Africa and Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, North America, South America, Central and Eastern Europe

COMPANY POLICY
To support and advocate the creativity of people working outside of traditional artforms and cultural institutions, and for the potential of community arts in engaging that personal creativity with wider processes of regeneration and community development.

To provide advice and training in policy and practice relating to arts activities which empower individuals and their communities.

SCALE OF PROJECTS
Number of practitioners: 5 maximum
Number of participants: 30 maximum
Preparation time: Varies
Contact time: 1 week

PERMANENT STAFF
Steve Garrett, Director

Ugandan Cultural Strategy (Uganda, 2003)
Aims: To acknowledge and support participatory arts and cultural activities in Uganda’s cultural strategy, and to work with a group of community arts organisations and practitioners to clarify principles of good practice and a strategy for expanding statutory support for their work.

Outcomes: Influence on the content of the Ugandan cultural strategy: practitioners formed the Uganda Community Arts Forum to lobby for resources and to enhance documentation and recognition of their contribution to cultural life as well as to social and economic development.

Partner: British Council.

Participatory music project (Israel, 2001)
Aims: To provide a group of Israeli post-graduate music students with a ‘Rapid Apprenticeship Programme’, using music to work in a participatory and empowering way with a mixed ethnicity group of disadvantaged young people. To run a three-day intensive music project with a group of 25 young people, resulting in a final performance and live recording.

Outcomes: The students had practical experience of the benefits of working in a flexible and ‘non-traditional’ way as a means of engaging with young people; the young participants had their musical skills and confidence greatly strengthened, and all directly experienced how collective music-making can transcend ethnic and cultural differences.

Partners: British Council, Levinsky Academy of Music Education, Beid Dani Community Centre.

Wales/Uganda Community Dance Exchange
Mixed-age community dance groups from both countries working together in Wales to develop a performance piece which reflects their own personal experiences and concerns. (Cardiff, UK/Kampala, Uganda, early 2004)

Wales/Québec Music Base
Combined tutor training and arts skill delivery programme resulting in a public performance by young marginalised people. A trained cadre of local tutors will take this work forward. (Montreal, Canada, spring 2004)