This is the first posting on a new blog to accompany the Making the Connections network. Launched in April 2006, this network aims to explore the role of arts in relation to newly arrived communities in the English Eats Midlands. The network is sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council with support from the Arts Council East Midlands, and is co-convened by Maggie O'Neill and Phil Hubbard, both at Loughborough university. The network focuses on a series of workshops in which questions of migration, diaspora and identity are explored from the perspective of newly arrived individuals, particularly asylum seekers and refugees. The network is supported by local asylum organisations, arts practitioners, academics and activists. Membership is open, and free, and most workshops are open to all.
This blog will run alongside our website makingtheconnections.org, and mailing list, and will be used for our reflections on the network as it proceeds. All are welcome to leave comments and suggestions, and we will hope to stimulate discussion through this blog both prior and subsequent to workshop events.
