18th December - a date for your diary

John Perivaloris, who is heading up the Making The Connections image makers' subgroup, has drawn my attention to Radio 1812, a global event dedicated to International Migrants Day, producing and broadcasting programmes from radios worldwide. As well as clips from last year's broadcasts, the site has some of John's stunning photos

See:

http://www.radio1812.net/it/image_galleries/migrados_2003_2005



(rights reserved, John Perivolaris)

7th Making the Connections event

Telling Tales: a free workshop exploring issues of narrativity, diaspora and migration with a focus on the value of telling stories. The event is, as per usual, free with assistance available for the unwaged. Pre-registrations by 8th November.

AHRC award!

Maggie O'Neill and Phil Hubbard have been awarded a 12 month Knowledge Transfer Fellowship to extend and develop the activities of the network, developing an online database of artists and activist in the East Midlands working around themes of asylum, diaspora and migration and completing a Sense of Belonging project to explore experiences of dislocation. The award will involve the collaboration of Loughborough University with Long Journey Home, Charnwood Arts, City Arts and Soft Touch, and is an outcome of the ongoing collaborations fostered by the network.

More news to follow!

Distant voices: migrant workers, representation and the arts

A big thank you too all those who made the workshop so stimulating. Especial thanks to Francois for convening and chairing proceedings, and Rebecca for organising and running the event so smoothly.

A lot of themes were raised around the experiences of rural migration and migrant workers facing potentially poor working conditions and lacking access to cultural facilities and spaces which most take for grant. Issues relating to voice, representation and mistranslation were repeatedly emphasised, as were ideas of the sustainability of artistic interventions. There seemed to be a healthy consensus that positive representations of multicultural ruralities can change attitudes, with projects needing to think about the dialogue between new arrivals and ‘established’ communities lest their work becomes exclusionary and inward-looking.

A full report will be published on the website in due course. In the meantime, I will include some pictures of the event and invite all who were there to add their comments or thoughts!

New Workshop event

Culture East Midlands & ‘Making the Connections’ present ‘DISTANT VOICES

The 5th ‘Making the Connections' Research Seminar.
Wednesday 17 October 2007
Trinity Arts Centre, Grantham, 11am – 4pm

Culture East Midlands and Making the Connections: Arts, Migration and Diaspora Regional Network are pleased to invite you to take part in a seminar looking at how the arts and culture can represent the views and experiences of migrant workers within the broader context of relationships between culture, identity and migration.

These days, everyone seems to be talking about migrant workers. But while the views of politicians, academics, researchers and campaigners fill the airwaves, the voices of those most concerned are rarely heard. What are their needs and motives? How do they see their situations and this country’s response?

Art and culture are important spaces in which migrant workers can be heard and seen – directly and indirectly, and with all the complexity of artistic expression.

This regional seminar will present some recent experiences of this work, from within and beyond the East Midlands, in the context of EMDA’s research into the contribution of mi-grant workers to the regional economy. It has a particular bearing on rural issues, where migrant workers are now an important part of the workforce. It will be of interest to policy makers, planners, artists, creative entrepreneurs and anyone working in cultural services, economic development or rural affairs.
Speakers include EMDA, Rural Media Company, New Perspectives Theatre Company, Na-tional Institute for Continuing Adult Education (NIACE) and others; there will be exhibitions by Roaming Pictures, a sound work by Heather Connelly, an installation by Jo Da-combe from Colab and a short theatre performance.

Please see: http://ruralculture-em.org/cgi-bin/cemr.cgi