We are excited to announce the recipients of the second round of Co-Creating Change Project Commissions.
These four brilliant projects have been awarded just over £50,000 between them. They have been chosen because they harness the crucial role that arts practice and the creative process can play in effecting real social change – and because they demonstrate communities, artists and arts and cultural organisations genuinely collaborating without hierarchy to make that change together.
We are really looking forward not only to seeing the great work these projects will do, but also learning from their experience, and making that learning available to anyone who is interested in co-creative practice.
The four Round 2 commissions are:
Conflaboratory
Conflaboratory seeks to cultivate positive actions against racially motivated intolerance. It aims to help reduce fear of the ‘other’, challenge toxic misrepresentations and bring about greater connection between diverse ethnic groups as an attractive alternative to a narrative of hate. Ministry of Others and the Conflab group, a small but burgeoning diverse community who came together as strangers for a project in the wake of the EU Referendum, will work together through a process of curated conversations and communal dining. The process is designed to create social bonds across opinion divides, whilst simultaneously creating space for challenging conversations and experimentation… en route to co-created antidotes.
Events for Gloucester’s Black Communities
Philippa Smith and Strike A Light
Gloucester resident Philippa Smith is working with Strike A Light to challenge traditional perceptions of cultural events and explore ways of having a year round cultural offer in Gloucester which is driven by the city’s Black communities, brings people together, and engages diverse audiences. Philippa will be working with a small team of community promoters from different backgrounds and of different ages, to consult with and engage people as co-creators. Through these events and the conversations they facilitate they will work collaboratively to define what the cultural offer could look like in the future.
Opening Doors
Opening Doors is a social engagement project that aims to identify and begin to tackle the barriers that mean learning disabled (LD) adults from BAMER backgrounds rarely engage with the arts and other social activities. Additional barriers for LD people of colour mean they often face double discrimination. This collaboration between BAMER LD people and families, artists and community organisations will deliver a co-created programme of social get-togethers, detailed focus groups, welfare advice and artistic activities. It will identify barriers to engagement and tackle them head on, instil confidence, alleviate fears, and ultimately empower LD people to take ownership over their lives.
Speakers Corner x Bradford Modified Car Club
Common Wealth will collaborate with Speakers Corner and the Bradford Modified Car Club to explore Islamophobia, racial profiling and car culture. Speakers Corner is a collective of young women who programme and facilitate events, campaigns and workshops. The Bradford Modified Car Club is a network of 200+ car enthusiasts who build modified cars: their passions and their works of art. Together with Common Wealth and Fuel, they will co-create an ambitious new performance event that is a celebration of car culture in all its sound system, massive engine glory – and an open challenge to systemic racism.
(cover photo credit: Aina Khan)
Meanwhile, the third and final round of Co-Creating Change Project Commissions is currently open, and the deadline for applications is Monday 18th November. You can read more about this, download guidelines and information, and apply here.