(Mini project, experimental with mini expenses)
To encourage refugees and asylum seekers to become evolved in the art through
Participation in a series of workshops, which will allow them to express
Themselves, tell their stories, and work with local and international artists this project proposal will be the first experimental project of RAS BABI PRESENTS.
Project Summary: Bringing together a group of asylum-seekers and artists from the Edinburgh community to create pieces of drama and art. This will involve a series of workshops totalling 16 hours over the course of a month, and will culminate in a mini-weekend festival, in the Forest, which will include performances, films, speakers, documentaries, DJs and a social gathering/party. The aim of the project is to narrow the gap and build trust, understanding and confidence between different sections of the Edinburgh community through art and performance. Details of Project: The group of asylum-seekers will be of between 5 and 13 people, of both sexes [asylum seekers who live in Edinburgh]. The age is not important. I aim to build an artistic group that shows and offers an interesting side of their story…
Edinburgh, the city in which we all live, offers its magic and stages to a lot of international artists. Who are the asylum seekers? And why are they here? What do they offer to such a beautiful and inspiring city? Do the asylum seekers who live in this city “exist”? -do we meet with them? -do we do things with them, besides offering help and support? What do they know of their new home? And how do they identify with it? What is that they want to do? And what is their future?
Although their bodies are here; their thoughts and their dreams are somewhere else and there is a reason for that… Across art forms we can represents artistic creations basically created by a group of people who seek harmony and peace… Using drama and the creative process that it generates we can bring people from diverse communities and engage them together, to come together, helping them to talk to one another and create together. Working collaboratively to produce artistic pieces that are created by a group of asylum seekers and artists from Edinburgh will help in increasing diversity within the arts sector and help in the professional development of artists. I am going to organize a series of workshops – twice a week, each one will be 2 hours, for the whole of one month – so that’s 8 workshops, totalling 16 hours. The workshops will be in 3 stages 1st stage is encouraging the group to come together through music, dance, fun, to build a creative atmosphere (4 hours) 2nd stage is working with an existing piece of drama, meanwhile encouraging them to write and create around the characters of the play, a poem, a short story or even a short play. (6 hours) 3rd stage is preparing for the final performance, which will take place in the forest and perhaps other venues. We will present this to artists from the Edinburgh community who will join in by adding their pieces and critiques.
This will build trust and confidence before the final show. (6 hours) Final showI will invite the Art College, the Refugee Council, Human Rights Groups, Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations, to give support and attend the performance. This will be part of a weekend mini-Festival, which will include performances, films, speakers, documentaries, DJs and social gathering/party. This weekend of events will be heavily promoted and I hope to have big audiences.
