Tees Valley Arts is celebrating after being awarded a grant of £71,962 over three years from The Baring Foundation to support its work with refugees and asylum seekers.
The grant will permit Tees Valley Arts to employ a part-time Refugee Arts Worker with the dedicated remit of developing, supporting, co-ordinating and promoting the cultural activities of newly arrived peoples and their creative/cultural interests.
An example of the work that TVA has developed in this sector is WorldFest which celebrates diversity in the Tees Valley and showcases world class talent. WorldFest, now in its fourth year, has brought acts such as Tinariwen, Aswad, Horace Andy and Gregory Isaacs to the region.
The worker would be based at and managed by TVA but would offer a service to other partner organisations in the Tees Valley, such as ARC, Stockton, the Tees Valley Refugee Service and the five Local Authorities.
Rowena Sommerville, Director of Tees Valley Arts commented,
“we are delighted to have been awarded this grant from the Baring Foundation’s Arts Programme, one of only eight made nationally. We believe that creative activity supports individuals, groups and communities and promotes cross-cultural dialogue and understanding, to the benefit of those communities and of the host populations.”