CASE REFUGEE, MANCHESTER

CASE: THE CREATIVE AND SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR PROGRAMME

Our Creative and Social Entrepreneur Programme (CASE) was delivered to a cohort of refugees in Manchester, in collaboration with the University of Manchester, the Whitworth Art Gallery and the Manchester Art Gallery. 

The CASE Programme is an innovative six-week programme certified by the University of Manchester, which supports the development of creative and social enterprises in disadvantaged communities. It has been developed using living examples of innovation across the creative industries, drawing on models of collaborative working and alternative business models. It was delivered at the Manchester Art Gallery and the Whitworth Art Gallery, as well as the online learning platform Canvas. This programme was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project: Understanding Displacement Aesthetics and Making Change in the Art Gallery. 

Of the participants, 60% went on to establish registered creative enterprises and 20% went on to develop creative and curatorial opportunities within the two partnering arts institutions. This included curatorial work and commissioning of new works for, Traces of Displacement exhibition at the Whitworth Gallery and Rethinking the Grand Tour project at Manchester Art Gallery. Furthermore, four participants have set up new creative businesses including DIPACT and Kofo Kego.

All participants reflected the project was excellent or very good in helping them build new entrepreneurial skills in the creative sector: 

“It has changed my life! It has helped me reinvent my social enterprise”

“It gave me new ideas and expanded my ways of problem solving. I learnt how to research and make decision based on this information”