Project AWE (Artists With Elbows)

@impactartorg 📢 have just published this brilliant blog by @sebakourani - long term @project_awe collaborator, theatre maker, facilitator and incredible all round creative force. “I’m half-Syrian and half-Lebanese. I’m currently staying away from home in Istanbul, but I was born and raised in Beirut. In addition to being a theatre-maker, I’m also a performer and puppeteer. I often use theatre as a mediation and communication tool when working with young people and on projects related to social transformation; it’s great at catalysing conversation among different people. For me, there’s always this kind of magic whenever I work on the arts with young people.” 👉 Read Seba’s full story, in @impactartorg bio #ImpactCreateHope #ImpactArtOrg #ahaproject

Today I had the honour of holding a Ritual Of Endings for the Foundry Cohort @therepbirmingham - complete with pantone pallet, rubber dinosaurs, gold lame bags and gum drop squish balls! @project_awe has been a partner in the last two years of design and delivery for the programme, supporting the cohort at key milestones on their learning journies, encouraging a plurality of approaches and lenses without hierarchy. What’s the Foundry? Foundry is the Rep’s artist development programme. Each year, six successful applicants from across the West Midlands take part in 8 months of paid in-depth training, facilitation practice, coaching, workshops and masterclasses to develop their practice as facilitators in community settings. Often, socially engaged artists work with little resource to navigate lots of complexity - this means that endings can get squashed and that the vital process of integrating experiences and learning can be overlooked in favour of smiley faced documentation. This was a session exploring approaches for ensuring processes have full, deep arcs, that participants or co-designers have supported, valuable outros and that we prioritise reflective, collaborative learning and insight sharing before people part ways. It also held a space to harness the collective imagination to create Rituals of Remembering and Projection. Exploring ways to mark and honour our discoveries and growth, pathway finding and compass setting to guide our next steps. #facilitatortraining #facilitator #learningcohort #sociallyengagedart #communitycodesign #ritualsofending #learningandinsights #dinosaur

Great to hold space this evening for creatives in #thelivingroomlibrary in #Enfield to explore the stickiness or complexity of working in social/participatory contexts. >> How and where do we draw our boundaries to make sure we’re looking after ourselves and our participants/collaborators/partners? >> What does good hustle look like and how do we sustain it? >> how do we make our intentions explicit and our invitations transparent? >> how might we find tools/ideas/approaches being used in other contexts/sectors that mught fuel and feed our practice? (and bellies!!) >> how do we acknowledge the asymmetries and wider systems (and power structures) we’re part of? >> where does fun live? Thanks @enfieldcouncil and #pennyskerrett for the invitation to come and connect with such a brilliant group of creatives. #participatorypitfalls #sociallyengagedart #harmreduction #boundarysetting #carecentredcreatives #mirrorsandgeese #turningtablesupsidedown #facilitator #conversationsacrosschasms

Great to spend the day with the #foundry cohort @therepbirmingham today exploring ideas around cultural democracy and equitable collaboration as they embark upon their community codesign projects. We drew on Service Design Thinking and Emergent Strategies to develop facilitation tools and resources and explored boundary setting as a tool for creating the conditions for cultures of belonging and accountability. We visualised the tangles that people are navigating in their community contexts with huge tug of war rope from @tts_resources and dug deep into our responsibilities as practitioners using care-centred co-design cards developed by @beyondstickynotes . We created our own mini-decks to help orient ourselves within our projects and ground ourselves within our values. “What you pay attention to grows” - adrienne maree brown We surfaced the poetics of failure Remembering the gift of the journey Reminding ourselves that we are ALL learning ALL the time That everyone has expertise That we need there to be many ways (without hierarchy) And we ate hot cross buns. #culturaldemocracy #equitablecollaboration #servicedesignthinking #accountability #belonging #boundarysetting #emergentstrategies #poeticsoffailure #learningcohort #facilitation

On Friday 20th September we’re delighted to be participaring in Create Hope Together: The Art Of Collaboration event with @impactartorg 📅 Save the Date! 🗓️ Friday, September 20, 2024 at 2:00 PM CET | 9:00 AM EST | 10:00 PM JST | 1:00 PM BST (UK) @project_awe is joining @unrival.network for a reflective journey into the deeper dimensions of collaboration and creating hope together across borders and difference. The aim is to move beyond the practicalities of working together to accomplish more. Project AWE member @sebakourani will be joining from #Lebanon to share her insight and learnings about collaboration as a mindful practice—one that grounds us, sharpens our self-awareness, and clarifies our purpose. 🌱 Discover how walking together with others can transform us, enrich our effectiveness, and help overcome feelings of isolation and loneliness. 🌍💫 Don’t miss this opportunity to deepen your understanding of true collaboration! Link in @impactartorg bio #CreateHopeTogther #ImpactArtOrg #Collaboration

Tomorrow *Tangle* gets it’s first public outing! Co~Designed by a cohort of creative Lived Experience Partners from across the UK… @project_awe has been working to bring “Tangle” to life - part game, part evolving artwork and part creative campaign. Commissioned by @trusselltrust , it invites festival goers to collaborate to find creative solutions that move 11.3 million people - currently experiencing financial hardship and food insecurity in the UK - towards a future where they have ready access to essentials. It continues the exploration of how we ensure people aren’t reduced to numbers, that their stories and experiences are not told by dehumanising stats. Visualising a tangle of the systemic drivers of food insecurity and the reality of navigating them first hand, it invites people to consider their next step… How do we deepen people’s understanding? What is it that will help people move #frombeanstopolicy - what more can we do than donating food to foodbanks? How might playing our way into the conversation help people to connect, consider and DO differently? It is an experiment… a playful way into vital conversations across difference. Because we don’t have a problem of poverty. We have a problem of wealth! Imagine a world without the need for foodbanks Now Play Your Part #codesign #trusselltrust #livingroom #creativecampaign #playbasedlearning #play #ludicarts #haptic #kinaesthetic #endpoverty #endpovertynow @greenbeltfestival Footage of the playing to come shortly! Big up to @kc_design_and_illustration and @anarchitecture_fabrication for working with me to realise the co-designed vision and to @amywestpaints for ongoing genius and support.

In 2010, a group of Palestinian young people who were part of @ashtartheatre wrote a series of monologues highlighting ‘the horrors, hopes and resilience of the courageous Gazans to a wider audience, bringing out the voices of the children of Gaza’. Today, on the 29th November 2023, Ashtar are mobilising people around the world to perform and share these monologues, to show solidarity at a time when again, young people are not as safe as they should be as the conflict continues; with readings happening in cafes, community centres, public libraries and town squares from New York to Beirut, the team at Project AWE join in this global moment of solidarity. #gazamonologues @ashtartheatre / @artipics35

In 2010, a group of Palestinian young people who were part of @ashtartheatre wrote a series of monologues highlighting ‘the horrors, hopes and resilience of the courageous Gazans to a wider audience, bringing out the voices of the children of Gaza’. Today, on the 29th November 2023, Ashtar are mobilising people around the world to perform and share these monologues, at a time when again, young people are not as safe as they should be as the conflict continues; with readings happening in cafes, community centres, theatres, public libraries and town squares from New York to Beirut, the team at Project AWE join in this global moment of solidarity. #gazamonologues @ashtartheatre / @chloe_does_stuff @offyellowradio @lyrixorganix @edianoberry @salmaveli @sarrasolo @naomi_waring @ifa_life_art @lauraleedockrill @sarabdavies

In 2010, a group of Palestinian young people who were part of ‘Ashtar Theatre Company, wrote a series of monologues highlighting ‘the horrors, hopes and resilience of the courageous Gazans to a wider audience, bringing out the voices of the children of Gaza’. Today, on the 29th November 2023, Ashtar are mobilising people around the world to perform and share these monologues, at a time when again, young people are not as safe as they should be as the conflict continues; with readings happening in cafes, community centres, public libraries and town squares from New York to Beirut, the team at Project AWE join in this global moment of solidarity. #gazamonologues @ashtartheatre / @sebakourani

In 2010, a group of Palestinian young people who were part of @ashtartheatre wrote a series of monologues highlighting ‘the horrors, hopes and resilience of the courageous Gazans to a wider audience, bringing out the voices of the children of Gaza’. Today, on the 29th November 2023, Ashtar are mobilising people around the world to perform and share these monologues, at a time when again, young people are not as safe as they should be as the conflict continues; with readings happening in cafes, theatres, community centres, public libraries and town squares from New York to Beirut, the team at Project AWE join in this global moment of solidarity. #gazamonologues @ashtartheatre /

This Thursday 20th we will be hosting the first of two online institutional Talking Shops as part of the Meqaqar.Live series. From large scale international cultural institutes to smaller grass roots organisations from across the UK and the African continent, we will be coming together to explore our evolving digital landscape, full of newly commissioned artist provocations from artists including @bongani_njalo @freddiejacob.art @mamadatismas @thatotatai @the.dancingbiochemist @ahmed.janatii and more. The series intends to kick up the dust, sew the seeds of new international collaborations that invite new ways of thinking. If your organisation; • wants to (re)think about the narratives it upholds, or disrupts • dances around problematic colonial legacies • wants to explore creative ways into the conversations that need to be had. Then this event could be for you. Spaces are filling up fast but there is still time to register for a place. Send us a DM or an email to [email protected] by lunchtime on Wednesday 18th to secure a spot and be part of a creative conversation across chasms. @wakethe_beast @crescentarts @roundhouseldn @trigger_stuff @people_united_ @cryingwildernessproductions @aimfilmfest @lakuneg @roehamptonrocks @eastsoultrain @artguysafrica @barefeettheatre @britisharts @ngbritish @ibn.zohr @goetheinstitut @goethejoburg #collaboration #conversationsacrosschasms #meqaqar #newnarratives #experiment

The story behind the MEQAQAR Logo.

The Creative Rationale by: @artguysafrica 
@mr.sss_lives In collaboration with artists @project_awe One of the oldest written languages in Africa is Amharic, and we chose the word "chasm" or "Meqaqar" spelled in Amharic to create a dual brand identity that addressed the historical relationship between the United Kingdom and Africa. Our color palette of black, white, and orange was chosen to represent the complexity of our undertaking. In Western culture, black is often associated with mourning, but it also has profound spiritual energy that can represent maturity. White represents purity and is usually worn for festive occasions, while orange symbolizes an individual's relationship with the external world, their needs and wants, and the world of work. In healing, the orange may increase immunity, and in the aura, it signifies thoughtfulness and creativity. Our creative exploration is premised on the intercontinental conversations occurring online across various digital platforms. #meqaqar
#መቃቃር #artistswithelbows
#conversationsacrosschasms
#newnarratives #artistprovocationsConversations #creativerationale #creativedirection