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