A sense of belonging regional exhibition

Press Launch: Friday 9th January between 2pm - 3pm.
Private View: Friday 16th January between 5pm - 9pm
January 2009

Exhibition to explore refugees sense of belonging

An exciting new collaborative arts exhibition is to open at the Bonington Gallery in Nottingham in the new year.
Sense of Belonging will showcase the work of emerging exiled artists as well as work created out of participatory arts initiatives, and will explore the concept of belonging for refugees and asylum seekers in the East Midlands.
Using film, sculpture, mixed media textiles, painting, photography, music and performance the artists, both individually and collectively, synthesize issues of cultural identity, displacement, relationships to surroundings, personal reflections on the process of exile and belonging with a celebration of the rich cultural contributions refugees and asylum seekers bring to cities and communities.
The exhibition represents the perilous journeys people make to reach freedom both physically and emotionally, the places left behind and what makes people feel a sense of belonging a sense of being home away from home
The viewer is presented with a rare opportunity to witness the double consciousness of transnational belonging, where art may be used as a tool for social and political activism.
The exhibition includes contributions from visual artists Aria Ahmed, Jasim Ghafur and Thaer Ali; sculptors Obediar Madziva and Emmanuel Changunda; filmmaker and musician Gaylan Nazhad; and several community arts organisations Charnwood Arts in Loughborough; City Arts in Nottingham; Long Journey Home; and Soft-Touch Arts in Leicester.
The exhibition will be open from 9 to 30 January 2009, Mon- Friday from 10am to 5pm and Saturday 10th, 17th and 24th, 10am to 4pm.

For media enquiries contact:
Hannah Baldwin, Head of PR, T: 01509 222239, E: H.E.Baldwin@lboro.ac.uk

Beyond Borders website

Diversity Pool also luanched the new website http://www.beyondbordersuk.com/ Please have a look and register if you are (a) a new arrival in the East Midlands who works with the arts, however defined (b) someone who works with new arrivals and asylum seekers using participatory or community arts techniques (c) are interested in the relationship between arts, research and participation. The website has been designed by Charnwood Arts/Cuttlefish and is administered by Kevin and Anthony, who will oversee its use. We hope it becomes a valuable hub for connecting people in the East Midlands

Diversity Pool

A few brief comments on today's event: well attended by programmers, some really nice art on display, some super performances and films, great venue, good food. An all round success! Well, at least we hope people go away with positive experiences, new contacts and ideas for future events and collaborations. Well done to all, especial thanks to City Arts for organising so effectively (Alma and Gaylan ran affairs really nicely, so a special thanks to them).

Arts of cities (may be of interest!)

LONDON GROUP OF HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHERS

Seminar Programme, Spring Term 2009

“Arts of Cities” (co-convened by David Pinder, QMUL)

20th January – Luke Dickens (Royal Holloway, University of London), ‘These are a few of my favourite fiends: post-graffiti, art worlds and the city’

3rd February – Ian Walker (Newport School of Art, Media and Design), ‘City gorged with dreams: surrealism and urban photography in Paris, London and Prague’

17th February – Rachel Lichtenstein (Artist, writer and oral historian), ‘Memory embedded in place: exploration of city streets’

3rd March – Esther Leslie (Birkbeck, University of London), ‘On cold climates’

24th March – Jane Rendell (Bartlett, University College London), ‘Critical spatial practice: site-writing’

These seminars are held on Tuesdays at 5pm in the Wolfson Room at the Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, University of London. For further details, contact David Lambert, Royal Holloway (01784 443640) or Miles Ogborn, Queen Mary (020 7882 5407). We are grateful to Queen Mary, Royal Holloway, Kings, UCL, Birkbeck, the Open University, Sussex University the Historical Geography Research Group of the RGS/IBG and the IHR for supporting this series.

Job opportunity

Arts and Cultural Co-ordinator – ‘Here - Our Voices’

Salary £19,400 per annum
3 year fixed term contract
Part time 22.5 hours per week

Closing date: Monday 1st December at Noon
Interviews: Friday 12th December 2008

Supported by a three-year core funded programme from The Baring Foundation, Charnwood Arts, in partnership with Loughborough Youth Affairs and Charnwood Independent Youth Action, is currently developing a new project to work with young refugees and asylum seekers and other young people in the Borough of Charnwood, North Leicestershire.

We want to create a project which will enable young people to engage more widely in the artistic and social life of the area whilst exploring both their own individual artistic talents and working collaboratively with others. This is a project which will enable them to learn new skills, explore and share their own cultural heritage, create new works and engage with a wider range of arts and cultural experiences on offer locally.

We are looking for a creative person with exceptional personal qualities and resilience to work to develop new creative relationships, undertake projects and support individual development in and through the arts over the three year period whilst working closely with other agencies engaged with the participants.

For further details, and to download an application pack, please click on the link below. Alternatively you can contact Terry Allen at Charnwood Arts on 01509 822558 or info@charnwood-arts.org.uk

Please note that it is not possible to complete the application form and return it electronically. Forms will need to be printed and returned by post or fax.

Charnwood Arts is an equal opportunities employer.
Enhanced CRB Disclosure will be required (this can be arranged).

Diversity Pool - a reminder

Beyond Borders - Making Connections
In partnership with Long Journey Home.

Diversity Arts Pool 2008

This is a special event for programmers to meet artists who are new arrivals to the UK, who are migrants or who deliver work within these communities. The Arts Pool will be an opportunity for artists to showcase their work to education professionals and other creative organisations.

If you are someone who organises creative activities for your group, school, organisation or local community, this is a unique opportunity to meet regional professional artists.

This free event will be bursting with participatory artists who have come together to share their work. It will provide programmers with the opportunity to talk fact to face with artists, sample their work and discuss how your organisation and artists might work together.

The event will include a programme of dance, music, drama, spoken word, visual media, performance, visual and community arts.


25th November, 2008
12.30 to 6 pm
The Art Organisation
Nottingham

To book your place please email alma@city-arts.org.uk or phone 0115 978 2463.
Please email us your name and job title, organisation, a sentence about what you do and a contact address/email/phone number.

Event in Leicester, 17th Oct

Leicester, City of Sanctuary
invites you to hear the Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky
Canon of Westminster Abbey, and Sir Peter Soulsby MP for Leicester South, speak about the findings of the recent
Independent Asylum Commission reports:
Saving Sanctuary, Safe Return and Deserving Dignity,

on Friday 17th October 2008, from 10.30am - 1pm
at the Secular Hall, 75 Humberstone Gate, Leicester LE1 1WB

Taken from the Independent Asylum Commission website: www.independentasylumcommission.org.uk.
The UK has a proud record of providing sanctuary to those fleeing persecution. From the Huguenots fleeing France to the Jews fleeing pogroms in Russia, Britain has been a safe haven
to the present day.

After the Second World War, shamed by the fact that Jews fleeing Germany had been denied protection and sent back to the Nazis, the victor nations established a system by which those facing persecution would be able to seek protection in safe countries. This was the basis of our modern asylum system – the 1951 Convention on Refugees.

Since that time, the 1951 Convention has saved millions of lives. It grants refugee status if a person, "… owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country…"
Article 1, The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees

The Commission believes that the UK has a duty to provide sanctuary. We believe that most British people agree with our international obligations under the 1951 Convention and would want to offer protection to those who need it.

But the principle of providing protection to refugees is under threat. Far-right groups whip up fears about asylum seekers. Elements of the media and public opinion seem hostile to asylum seekers themselves. Politicians raise questions about the suitability of the 1951 Convention and the concept of asylum itself. “Asylum” has become a political football and “asylum seeker” a term of abuse.

The concept of asylum needs to be rescued. Flaws in the system need to be addressed. Citizens need to have confidence that the asylum system treats those seeking sanctuary fairly and humanely, but that it is also robust in dealing with those whose claims have failed.

The Independent Asylum Commission aims to take a fresh and impartial look at the system and make credible recommendations for reform that will ensure that we continue our proud history of sanctuary while restoring public confidence in the system.

Refreshments will be available from 10.30am ready for an 11am start.

To reserve your place, or to be added to our circulation list,
contact Gill on: leicester@cityofsanctuary.com or 07716 073403.

Display space is available for groups and organisations working with asylum seekers and / or refugees.

City of Sanctuary is a movement to build a culture of hospitality for asylum seekers and refugees
www.cityofsanctuary.com

Millennium Development Goal and World Peace Festival

Click on image for larger version

Arts Pool Tuesday 25th November from 9 - 6pm

This event is intended to encourage local artists in exile and refugees to display or present their work to programmers and established artists. The day will include workshops designed to help artists develop their portfolio, establish connections and also circulate their Cv via the BeyondsBordersUk website, which will be launched on the same day.

The venue its the arts organisation, 21 station st, Nottingham, adjecent to the railway station. This will be an open event from 12.30 onwards, with morning sessiosn reserved for artists and exhibitors only.

We will be producing a brochure of artists for programmers to take away on the day and will therefore need an image from each artist (this could be of the artform/practice or artist themselves) a brief statement consisting of no more than 85 words and contact details (this could include an email address, telephone number and website address). Could you please get this information over to Alma (alma@city-arts.org.uk) no later than Friday 31st October?

Please spread word of this event and encourage and assist artists in exile to get in touch as soon as possible about this event

International Migrants in Rural Areas: Communities, Impacts and Issues

May be of interest?

International Migrants in Rural Areas: Communities, Impacts
and Issues, 10am – 4pm, Tuesday 7th October 2008

St Martin-in-the-Fields Hall, Trafalgar Square, London WC2

For further information or to confirm attendance please contact Holly Andrew,
Migration and Equalities Team, ippr 0207 470 6165 or h.andrew@ippr.org

Blue

Photography and video installation by Maggy Milner

20 September 2008 - 11 November 2008, Pickford's House, Derby

Blue, an installation of backlit photos and video, sets up equivalents for loss, absence and tragedy. Relying on the spiritual qualities of light, emotive colour and iconic form, Maggy Milner invites the viewer to decode and unravel visual clues. The play between darkness and light creates disquiet. The work is visually arresting but disorientating, haunting and enigmatic.

http://www.derby.gov.uk/LeisureCulture/MuseumsGalleries/Blue.htm

Final conference: report and reflections

A big thank you to all those who made the conference a fun and successful two days. There was some good discussion of ways forward, some critical reflection on what has been achieved and many new friendships made.

You can also view some photos of the event online:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gypjh/sets/72157605976027716/

FINAL CONFERENCE 3-4th JULY

With just over a week to go until our final conference, we wanted to post some important information regarding the schedule and travel arrangements.

The conference starts at 1000 on Thursday 3rd July with registration from 0930. Registration, and the majority of sessions, will be in the Business School - the Richard Morris Building - at Loughborough University. This is marked as 60 on the campus map, in the Central Park part of campus.

There are directions for accessing the campus here. There will be parking on campus and you will be directed to visitors parking upon arrival at the main entrance security barrier. Please note this is likely to be on car park 9, some 5-7 minutes walk from the Business School, so if you required a disabled or reserved parking space you should let us know in advance. The bus service from the station will be operating, but as it is out of term time it will be less frequent than usual. A taxi from the station should cost around £5.00.

Those who are being provided with accommodation will be provided with information about where and when to check in upon arrival at the conference. Those who have yet to book accommodation can access a list of local hotels here

A buffet lunch will be provided on both the 3rd and 4th of July and there will also be free food and entertainment on the night of the 3rd July from 1830 (in the Fusion Bar, Loughborough Student's Union). There will be a cash bar available for the purchase of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks at this social event.

The provisional conference programme is available online to download here. The conference is scheduled to wrap up at 1615 on Friday 4th July.

We look forward to seeing you there, but please email Maggie or Phil with any queries you might have. Thanks!

Waking with Thaeer

As part of our day of waking in May, photographer John Perivolaris walked in Nottingham with the Kuridsh artist-refugee Thaeer Ali, tracing an imaginary route from his home to somewhere meaningful to him. Thaeer has given permission to reproduce these powerful photos and Thaeer's words. See: http://tinyurl.com/4lfrn2

Walk of suffering

As part of Refugee week, the former chair of Derby Refugee Action Emmanueal Neba Fuh is walking from Derby through the East Midland and then on to Number 10 to present a million signature petition to highlight human rights violations in Africa. Doign the walk barefoot draws attention to the conditions which many Africans have endured in nations where corruption and effective dictatorship have led to widening disparities in wealth, fear and hunger which have driven processes of displacement. On the walk he has been joined by local activists and supporters, including members of the Making the connections network. see: http://www.derbyforafrica.org/Barefoot_Walk_to_London_About.aspx for more details - and hopefully the national press too.

Women and migration

The ninth and final workshop in the Making the Connections series saw Maggie and Laurie (Cohen) organise a day on the theme of women and migration. The morning set the scene with presentations by Usha Sood (on the law as it effects, and can sometimes work for asylum women); Marsha Meskimmon on the work that art can do to challenge stereotypes of sexuality, gender, nationality and ethnicity; Ruth Lister on the challenges of global citizenship and Hildegard Dumper on the numbers of women asylum seekers. The afternoon offered five workshops coordinated by local arts groups and activist groups working with women asylum seekers, allowing participants to discuss (and experience!) ways in which arts can be used as a means of challenging the forms of oppression, exploitation and destitution that effect many asylum seeking women. The outcome, to be published on the Making the Connections website as a Manifesto for Women's rights within the Asylum system. A good day, and a nice way to round off our network series in Refugee week. Two weeks and counting until the Final Conference!

A sense of belonging

On Friday 16th May, simultaneous walks began in Leicester, Nottingham and Loughborough involving recent arrivals and asylum seekers to the East Midlands, walking with co-walkers including local key workers, council officials and public servants. Each of the 7 walks involved asylum seekers using a map of a walk that they used to make in a place they called home to navigate the city in which they now find themselves. Tacking between the near and far, past and present, the walks brought issues of belonging and identity into sharp relief. The walks will act as the springboard for future arts initiatives as well as providing a basis for writing on the dislocation of new arrivals.

We wish to thank all walkers and co-walkers, as well as the regional arts organisations who facilitated the walks, and Misha Myers for co-ordinating the post-walk discussions.

WOMEN AND MIGRATION: art, politics and policy

An AHRC ‘Making the Connections’ Regional Network Workshop
Loughborough University FRIDAY 20th JUNE 2008

The ninth event in the Making Connections: arts, migration and diaspora series will be held in The Business School, Loughborough University, on Friday 20th June 2008, during Refugee Week.

This workshop focuses upon ‘women and migration’ within the broader context of the asylum-migration nexus and the relationship between women’s experiences as asylum seekers, refugees, or migrants and questions of culture, law, citizenship, and politics. What is clear from the available research is that women face many barriers - including a gender biased asylum system - with their voices and experiences usually mediated by others (journalists, advocacy groups, researchers), and are rarely heard. Culture is an essential aspect of our identity and the available research tells us that women migrants bring a great deal to culture and communities. It is hence vital we create the spaces for women’s voices to be heard and the opportunities for women to achieve their potential.

Speakers from a variety of sectors (arts, social policy, media and law) will focus on outlining the important role that the arts and the media have in ensuring women migrants have a voice. Speakers include Marsha Meskimmon (women and art); Usha Sood (women and the law); Hildegard Dumper (research on women’s experiences of the asylum-migration nexus) and Ruth Lister (women, poverty and citizenship).

Presentations and workshops will be led by a range of organisations including the Nottingham African Women’s Empowerment Forum (NAWEF), the National Institute for Access to Continuing Education (NIACE), The Long Journey Home, Nottingham Trent University and Paragon Law. There will be an opportunity for all delegates to engage in discussion, and explore how the issues raised can be taken forward practically through the creation of a Manifesto for the region on ‘What Women Want’

The event is FREE and Buffet Lunch and Refreshments are provided. We also want to provide plenty of opportunity for discussion and debate, so places are limited. We are happy to assist with transport costs for unwaged delegates. If you’d like to attend, please contact Richard Bessell on R.Bessell@lboro.ac.uk Tel: (01509) 223383 by May 30th at the latest.

Final conference announcement

'Hidden Voices'

Eighth workshop - February

By all accounts a big success - and thanks to Andrew Lake and especially the Dreamers Youth Group, Loughborough

The workshop was the launch of the ‘Hidden Voices’ publication, which endeavours to record the development of the ‘Dreamers’. Dreamers is a Leicestershire Youth Service project providing support and informal educational opportunities for young asylum seekers and refugees aged 13-25 years.

At the core of this publication are the personal reflections of youth worker Andrew Lake who established Dreamers in May 2002. For 4 years Andrew recorded his conversations with young asylum seekers in his professional diaries. Extracts from these recordings form the basis of much of this publication

The publication can be downloaded here, and a full workshop report will follow in due course

Eighth network workshop - Helping asylum seekers through arts inclusion

Encounters and Intersections: Religion, Diaspora and Ethnicities Conference

9th-11th July, 2008 (NB: after the Making the Connections Conference, 3-4th July, Loughborough)
St Catherine’s College, Oxford

The Diasporas, Migration and Identities Programme is hosting a joint conference with the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme, and the ESRC Identities and Social Action Programme. The conference will be entitled: Encounters and Intersections: Religion, Diaspora and Ethnicities, and will be held at St Catherine’s College, Oxford from 9-11 July, 2008.

Below you will find some information about the conference, and I look forward to hearing from you if you are submitting an abstract (details below), which needs to reach me by email by 28 February 2008 (k.a.roche[@]leeds.ac.uk). A booking form is also attached, which should be returned to Kerry Carter at the address given.

This conference takes encounter and intersection as its frame. It explores the nature of relations between different faith and ethnic groups, between diasporic and indigenous citizens and between convivial, and not so convivial, multicultures in current, complex, post colonial contexts. We are interested in patterns and trends in contemporary identity practices, the intersections between social identities and how intersection and multiplicity are experienced and lived.

Encounters can be hostile, intimate, violent, anxious, celebratory, defensive, banal or historic. Participants can feel consumed, tolerated, included, marginalised or empowered. In policy terms, encounters can be read through the lens of ‘community cohesion’, the ‘duty to integrate’ or the ‘clash of civilisations’. How do different forms of encounter organise (and how are they organised by) particular relational spaces? How do they create and reflect ‘contact zones’? How do people negotiate multiple identities of faith, class, ethnicity, gender, nationality, place, etc? What are the social, political and ethical consequences?

This conference is organised by the ESRC/AHRC Programme on Religion and Society ( www.religionand society.org.uk), the AHRC Programme on Diasporas, Migration and Identities ( www.diasporas.ac.uk ) and the ESRC Programme on Identities and Social Action (www.identities.org.uk). It will show-case the interdisciplinary research taking place in the UK on these themes across the arts, social sciences and humanities.

The conference includes a keynote address from Prof. Paul Gilroy (London School of Economics) and author of After Empire; The Black Atlantic and Ain’t no Black in the Union Jack.

There will be panels on Living Intersections – New British Identities and Encounters – Materials, Spaces and Performances highlighting the research being conducted in the three Programmes. The conference will include parallel sessions of paper presentations, photographic and poster exhibitions, a conference dinner, drinks receptions and many opportunities for discussion and networking with researchers from a wide range of disciplinary and intellectual perspectives.

We welcome submissions to present papers (20 minutes plus 10 minutes for questions) on the conference themes. Your paper might present some empirical findings, it might consist of a performance, a theoretical review, critique and new argument; it might consist of a textual analysis, raise provocative questions or analyse one case, site or context. Abstracts should be submitted to Katie Roche (k.a.roche[@]leeds.ac.uk) by the 28th of February, 2008 including full contact details for all authors.

Left luggage

Image (c) John Perivolaris, all rights reserved

Image maker's subgroup co-ordinator Jon Perivolaris has launched a year-long photographic project/blog on the theme of objects of migration, entitled Left Luggage. As he explains:

"An empty suitcase lent for a month each to a series of collaborators. Each one fills the suitcase with objects of their choice and according to the project’s key terms. These are:

Homeland
Journey
Arrival
Destination

The idea for the project was sparked when my mother gave me my grandfather’s monogrammed, leather suitcase. For several months it sat empty on the floor by my desk like an absent presence by my side.

I knew that the suitcase had travelled around the world with my grandfather, who was a sea captain with the Greek merchant navy. Why should it not continue on its travels as a tribute to the memory of Captain John Perivolaris, whose birthday was on the same date as mine?"

see: http://leftluggage.wordpress.com/