Culture, Arts and Refugees

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Cathy Weatherald, Cardboard Citizens

Location Visited

Cairo, Egypt

What did you do?

Todd Lester at freeDimensional in New York invited myself and a colleague, Max, to visit freeDimensional’s partner organisation in Cairo, Townhouse Gallery. Townhouse is itself a social enterprise incubator/donor and community arts space hosting a theatre, contemporary art gallery and regular arts workshops. I initially focused my visit on Townhouse’s Community Outreach initiative, SAWA (meaning ‘together’ in Arabic). In particular I was interested in how its regular arts (visual and performing) workshops aim to encourage local Egyptians and refugees from all backgrounds to come together and express themselves creatively in an inclusive space. This line of enquiry led me to become interested in another initiative of Townhouse Gallery’s, called Tadamon (meaning ‘Solidarity’).

Contacts

What did you learn from your study visit?

It was so interesting to witness the different ways of working with artistic projects for social change in a completely different context. Egypt is an important hub for work with refugees/asylum seekers because of its critical geographical location between the rest of Africa and the Middle East. I experienced how human rights NGOs, Governmental agencies, Universities and Community Organisations can use arts projects to meet agendas for the successful integration of new communities and the promotion of community cohesion and inclusion in today’s multicultural societies, without losing the value that new communities can bring to their host community in terms of creative diversity and exchange.

What key issues or questions did it raise for you?

For me this trip highlighted the importance of providing inclusive, accommodating, positive spaces (physical as well as communicative) for promoting interaction and sharing between new and host communities through creative expression. Townhouse Gallery has such a space and I found it to be an inspiring place that the local community took pride in, fostering a whole range of opportunities for cultural exchange and appreciation through the arts. Cardboard Citizens workshops have been based at Crisis for the last few years and it is widely recognised that having our own space would be ideal. My visit also reiterated to me the importance of creative methodologies such as film-archiving, photography, and participatory/drama-based evaluations to assessing the impact of creative projects for all stakeholders; from the funders to the beneficiaries themselves.

In what ways has this experience changed or enriched you professionally?

For me, the study visit was the most important opportunity that the PLN has provided over the course of the year andI feel I have gaineda greater awareness of international work and exciting overseas partnership opportunities for both Cardboard Citizens and Creative Exchange. Watching the Living Together programme evolve gave me a real overview of the international context of our work as a network and was also a great boost to my networking skills and strategic thinking and planning! Our host, Todd, was also a huge inspiration to me in utilising the power of networks to facilitate fantastically exciting initiatives and the meeting of minds to grapple with the very pertinent question of how multicultural societies can be a force for positive change, not conflict.