With so much
of the world experiencing ongoing wars, economic collapse
and environmental crises, increasing numbers of people
are seeking to relocate somewhere they can feel some
sense of hope and security for themselves and their
families. The resulting process of displacement is a
theme and an experience which is having an increasing
impact on the cultural landscape of many countries,
as sanctuary-seekers struggle to find a balance between
preserving their own culture and adapting to that of
their new home, and host countries find their own culture
influencing, and being influenced by, the new arrivals.
In recent years the British Council has become increasingly
concerned with how the arts and culture can contribute
to development, as well as being of value in their own
right. It seems appropriate that they are sponsoring
A Sense of Place - a 4-day conference in Cardiff in
November - that will investigate, question and shed
light on concepts of 'displacement' and 'integration'
in Europe, through the intellectual focus of the role
of the arts, culture and media.
A Sense of Place is being planned in the context of
heightened public suspicion, fear and intolerance of
the displaced people who arrive on our shores, and against
the backdrop of a re-examination of human rights and
immigration policies in Europe. It will consider how
culture, media and the arts are contributing to (or
standing in the way of) the rebuilding which is taking
place in response to this process at both a physical
and psychological level. The event will show creative
work that values displaced people as individuals and
as skilled members of the community, and draw on the
rich legacy of both professional and community arts
in Wales and elsewhere in Europe. It will focus on common
threads and questions such as:
- how much are artists with experience
of displacement contributing to the evolution of innovative
artistic expression and practice?
- how does the displaced artist re-encounter or re-define
his or her identity within this process?
- what place does, and could, the arts have in constructing
social policy and practice around immigration?
People with direct personal experience of displacement
and seeking sanctuary will be central to the event and
associated programmes.
A programme in schools and community venues in South
Wales will run in the lead-in period, the results feeding
into A Sense of Place, to ensure that it is rooted in
the concerns and realities facing displaced people.
A three-dimensional arts project will involve residents
in a local asylum seekers' reception centre working
with members of the surrounding community to create
sculptures and installations. The works produced will
aim to reflect the diversity of cultural backgrounds
at the centre and elements of the personal experiences
of those who live there, while at the same time improving
the physical environment of the centre.
The project will encourage people from different cultural
backgrounds to work together. Local residents from around
the Adams Court centre will be invited to participate
in elements of the project, as a way of building better
links between the centre and the local community. Children
and young people who live at Adams Court will be encouraged
to collaborate on the project with other young people
they have met through school or activities in the wider
community. Teachers at selected schools are invited
to be partners in the project, to help provide an educational
context to the arts activity and to explore issues which
may arise both for local children and those who are
displaced, as a result of their taking part.
A video project will involve schoolchildren in Cardiff
and Swansea. The objective is to use video for a mixed
group of children to explore and reflect on the experience
of arriving in, and coping with living in, a new and
unfamiliar culture. The project will help local children
to grasp some idea of the reality which faces displaced
children who have been arriving in their school - with
some of whom they may have developed a friendship without
knowing much about their particular circumstances. Mutual
understanding between displaced and local children will
be developed through working together and through devising
and discussing the material which is produced. It engages
with the issues facing young refugees and asylum seekers
in three ways. Firstly, the participants will work together
on the production of a film which will express and portray
(from first hand experience) the experience of young
displaced people. Secondly, the video will be shown
to school-age children in and around Cardiff as a means
of increasing their knowledge and understanding of the
issues confronting young refugees and asylum seekers.
Thirdly, a video documentation will be made of the process
of this project to introduce to school teachers and
governors the potential of this way of working with
displaced children.
We felt it was important to host this event in Cardiff,
home to one of the first 'multi-cultural' communities
in the UK, and now a major UK dispersal point for asylum-seekers.
There is a long tradition of community arts in the city
and surrounding valleys, and Cardiff is home to one
of the UK's leading media and journalism schools, which
is well placed to carry out research into press coverage,
press attitudes and press freedoms. A Sense of Place
will consider how this experience at a city level is
relevant to the wider European and global picture of
displacement and integration, and will provide a forum
for taking these issues forward and contributing to
awareness, discussion and decisions from UK and European
perspectives.
Contact:
Contact:
Steve Garrett
Cultural Concerns
35 Beauchamp Street
Riverside
Cardiff CF11 6AX Wales, UK
Tel:029 2022 7982
e-mail: culturalconcerns@onetel.net.uk
Info on A Sense of Place (Cardiff 24-27 November 2003)
contact
info@asenseofplace.org.uk
or visit www.asenseofplace.org.uk
|
