Aspiration / Diversity / Heritage
Parachute Project
| Aim | To support, develop and celebrate the creativity of young asylum seekers and refugees and their families |
| Summary | Building on You Are Here, this project places arts practitioners with supported groups of newly arrived young people, to explore creativity, have fun, develop confidence and self-expression. This assists and eases their transition to adulthood, and adjustment to a new country and culture.Parachute project operates mainly in Stockton and Middlesbrough |
| Duration | May 07 – May 10 |
| Outcomes/ Outputs | Young people from varied backgrounds and cultures, all of whom have experienced difficulty and change, are strengthened by working together in harmonious and creative ways. Outputs include written work, pictures, music and performance (recorded and live). Much of the work will be showcased in the annual WorldFest festivals. |
| Funding | Paul Hamlyn Foundation |
| Partners | North of England Refugee Service; Stockton Asylum team; Middlesbrough Asylum team; Welcome project |
Best Dresses
| Aim | To support the creativity and mental wellbeing of women with substance abuse issues worked with by the partner agencies, with the particular focus of promoting raised self-esteem. |
| Summary | Three women artists – a writer (who worked as group co-ordinator), a textile artist and a digital artist met with a group of 6-8 women once a week for 10 weeks. They explored fashion, non-fashion, and (self) image and created portfolios of artworks. The project took place in Redcar. |
| Duration | Jan – April 07 |
| Outcomes/ Outputs | The participants enjoyed new forms of self exploration and self expression, in a convivial and accepting atmosphere. They found this relaxing, stimulating and enjoyable. They made pictures, poems, weavings, collages, etc and kept scrapbooks and diaries. |
| Funding | Home Office |
| Partners | Redcar and Cleveland Probation Service; OnTrack; Redcar and Cleveland Drug Action Team; RCVDA; Offender Management |
You Are Here
| Aim | A large scale programme of creative activities to ‘ease, explain and celebrate’ the presence of people seeking asylum and refugees in the Tees Valley. |
| Summary | YAH worked across the Tees Valley with individuals and groups of newly arrived people from over 40 countries, all (by definition) with histories of insecurity – at the very least. The programme used writing, visual and digital arts, dance, music, animation, film and encompassed a number of well attended, enjoyable events which led to the development of the WinterFest/ WorldFest. |
| Duration | 2002 - 2006 (continued as Parachute Project and WorldFest) |
| Outcomes/ Outputs | 200 people from hugely varied backgrounds took part in hugely varied creative activities; for some the engagement was brief, for some it changed their lives. Audiences totalled thousands, and inter-cultural dialogue was broadened and strengthened. The Safe Havens DVD, officially endorsed by John McCarthy, was shown in schools across the Tees Valley, and shown and praised in animation festivals in the UK and America. |
| Funding | The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund; ERDF; Redcar and Cleveland Council; Home Office Purposeful Activities for Asylum Seekers Fund; Arts Council |
| Partners | North of England Refugee Service;Asylum teams and support agencies in the Tees Valley; Redcar and Cleveland Education Service; various community groups and organisations; North East Consortium for Asylum Seekers. |
Phoenix Arts
| Aim | To engage students in science. To raise the aspirations of Tees valley students. To promote science as a potential career path. |
| Summary | A range of projects that explore science through art-based activities such as animation, creative writing, dance and sculpture. |
| Duration | 2002 to present |
| Outcomes/ Outputs | A range of teaching resources which provide new and innovative ways to engage and motivate pupils, strategies for the retention of learning and arts based approaches to positive engagement. These small scale projects laid the foundations for the Evolve Project. |
| Funding | NEPIC Tees Valley Partnership |
| Partners | NEPIC (North East Process Industry Cluster) |
Small world: Big Drums
| Aim | To support and enhance the creativity of people with complex needs through the creation and performance of new, original music. |
| Summary | Sw:BD placed professional musicians to work with adults with physical disabilities and/or autistic spectrum disorders, to develop and create new music. Recordings were made throughout as memory aids, as pieces were developed. The participants, many of whom required support from carers, discovered astounding new talents and enjoyable ways of working together, showing communication/ understanding/ response abilities hitherto unseen. The core group, with lead musicians, performed at a number of public events, including WinterFest, to great acclaim. There was also a summer school for students from three special schools, with their families, carers and teachers, which was very much enjoyed and valued. This made use of Soundbeam technology. Additionally, two creative writers worked with some sw:BD members to create poems and lyrics that fed into the main project. |
| Duration | 2002 - 2006 |
| Outcomes/ Outputs | Outcomes for participants included enhanced self- expression, enhanced self-esteem, enhanced confidence, the empowerment of performing publicly, a very strong statement of advocacy on behalf of the talents of under-represented individuals, and status transformations. Some participants also gained direct physical therapeutic benefit from the activities, and identifiable lessening of stress related behaviours. In the summer school, students, parents, carers and teachers enjoyed the rare experience of working together in a fun and creative way, to enjoy themselves and achieve together. Outputs included CDs, an animated DVD, creative writing and a number of public performances. |
| Funding | Articulate Programme, Health Action Zone; ERDF; Lloyds TSB |
| Partners | Tees Valley Physical Disability Teams; Lansdowne Centre, Middlesbrough; Warren Road Centre, Hartlepool; Teesside Ability Support Centre; Ashtrees School, Billingham; Catcote School, Hartlepool; Priory Woods School, Middlesbrough. |
Gallery TS1
| Aim | To work with young people, either not in education, training or employment, or involved with the youth justice system, or in some other way vulnerably situated in life, to support their progression into and re-engagement with mainstream training/ educational provision, based on an E2E model. |
| Summary | A pioneering creative apprenticeship scheme for young people not in education, employment or training. Modelled on a programme developed in Chicago, and brought to Tees Valley by Middlesbrough Council’s Cultural Services, delivered in partnership with them by TVA. The young people work with artists in a shop premises, to design, make, package and sell original goods to the public. |
| Duration | 2004 - ongoing |
| Outcomes/ Outputs | Approximately 200 hundred young people, nearly all in vulnerable or fragile life situations, have designed things, made things, sold things, have grown personally in attitude and maturity, and over 90% of them have progressed into or returned to mainstream provision. More recent Galleries have also seen 40 young people achieve the Arts Award Bronze level. Skills developed include arts based activities, packaging and presentation, and dealing with the public, as well as turning up on time and behaving appropriately. The participants’ feedback has been uniformly excellent. |
| Funding | Funded by Middlesbrough Council, through Neighbourhood Renewal Scheme funding. |
| Partners | Middlesbrough Cultural Services; Middlesbrough Youth Services; Connexions; Adolescent Psychiatric Services; Youth Justice; SECOS; other training providers |
WorldFest
| Summary
The WorldFest is an annual festival which celebrates diversity in the Tees Valley and showcases top line talent from the wider world. It began life as WinterFest and took place in March, but now, as WorldFest, happens in May. The main festival weekend takes place over May Whit weeken, with satellite events in the week leading up it. The Festival includes all and any artforms (eg film, poetry, dance, visual arts), but the gala events are music concerts. WinterFest 06 performers included Sakoba Dance, Dede Saint Prix, Steven Wright Band and Transglobal Underground. WinterFest 07 performers included Les Freres de la Rue, Kanda Bongo Man and his Band, the Northern Lights and Tinariwen. WorldFest 08 took place on 22nd & 24th May at the Arc, Stockton and Middlesbrough Town Hall and performers included Gregory Isaacs and the Live Wyya Band, Beta Simon, Kanda Bongo Man and Kasai Masai. See website www.worldfest.co.uk for further details |
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| Funding | Arts Council England North East, Middlesbrough Council, Dickinson Dees, Proportion Marketing Ltd, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Creative Partnerhsips Tees Valley |
| Partners | Middlesbrough Council, African Arts Association, Arc, Middlesbrough Music Live |