In Place of War recipient of Award for Civic Arts Organisations
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch), in partnership with King’s College London, announces the recipients of the second award for Civic Arts Organisations. In Place of War is one of three organisations that will be receiving this prestigious award, alongside The Art House Wakefield (main recipient) and Project Art Works. In Place of War will receive £25,000.
All three organisations were chosen from over 200 high-quality applications from across the UK for their outstanding capacity to adapt to the pandemic and for how they have all deepened their commitment to their communities over the past two years. During the pandemic we worked with 11 grassroots community organisations in the UK to find 100 Agents of Change. The project has involved refugees, asylum seekers, people living in poverty and LGBTQI+ communities and resulted in 100 young people connecting with artists and activists around the world to share their experiences, skills, and knowledge. The panel was impressed by In Place of War’s ability to bring their experience of working in the Global South to the UK, addressing the issues of asylum and conflict.
The 100 Agents of Change programme is our first major UK-based programme, funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC), overseen by Prof James Thompson at the University of Manchester. Partnering with 11 grassroots UK youth organisations and the international change-maker network, we developed and delivered a programme that brings Global South knowledge to the UK through an online residency programme, mentoring & seed funding. Forming a Youth Advisory Board (YAB) to advise on the design, the project brought together change-makers (artists, activists & cultural leaders) from 26 countries, all working to create lasting change in their local communities, to share practice with young people in the UK. The role of the youth organisations was recruitment for and co-design of the residency, drawing on their wealth of experience, implementing many of their suggestions on how to mutually support the young people. We are now fundraising for a new and extended three-year model of the programme, and the Award prize money will help to kickstart these efforts.
Ruth Daniel, CEO & Artistic Director of In Place of War, says, "This is the first time that we have brought our international work to the UK. We have always been inspired by the energy and drive of the young people we work with, so to link those with limited opportunities in the UK with the inspirational change-maker network across sites of conflict via the 100 Agents of Change Programme, was a dream come true and led to remarkable impact. It's amazing to have recognition from such a prestigious foundation for this work, which we will now grow to impact more young people. We are now moving onto the next phase of fundraising to create a three-year version of this to impact many more young people.”
Visual Scribe of a residency workshop session by illustrator Amber Anderson
Visual Scribe of a residency panel talk by illustrator Amber Anderson
For more information on the programme see:
