About Arts Bridge

11.9% of UK’s working age population is Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME), only 0.04% of leadership roles in creative & cultural sector are held by BAME professionals.

As a Black-led organisation we are passionate about making change. Our work in local communities empowers participants by introducing them to art forms, making the arts accessible and encouraging them to take ownership of their creativity through practical and analytical exploration.

Giving them the tools to create their own work and/or develop an informed appreciation of the arts.

Recent Projects

Queens

This project was a response to the Queen’s platinum jubilee and an exploration of what a true Queen looks like. Featuring a diverse, multi-generational selection of Black British ‘Queens’ from the local community. QUEENS aims to shine a spotlight on the Black British experience within a country reigned by a monarch that doesn’t look like them, who represent a status quo that is often harmful to them, and whose life and experiences feel a world away from our own.

QUEENS also explored how creative expression allows us to see someone’s innate regality, using a creative mix of traditional regal elements such as swords and crowns, inspired by paintings of British Monarchs from the past, with African and Afro-futuristic elements that reflect the heritage and history of the participants.

Images were exhibited at Bernie Grant Arts Centre, Tottenham throughout June 2022 and was featured as part of their Windrush Day celebrations.

Wellness Warriors

Wellness Warriors has received additional funding from Mayor of London to roll out the project for 2023.

The original project was made possible thanks to funding from The Big Lottery Fund (£10K). Wellness Warriors was a 6 week, remote, online arts project supporting the emotional wellbeing of children from ethnic minorities and/or low-income families.

Wellness Warriors aimed to create a safe space for children to come together, share, be listened to, and support each other. Using the arts to empower them to develop self-care practices during lockdown.

Wellness Warriors was the first stage of Arts Bridge developing a different way to work with our communities in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, continuing the charity’s emphasis on—and tradition of— working in-person in a practical way within the community.

Wellness Warriors saw participants engage in creative, fun activities designed to help them develop their emotional vocabulary and create their own ‘self-care toolkits’ - activities and techniques they can use whenever they feel sad or anxious which will help them return to a place of calm and contentment. 

Wellness Warriors was participant-led, from its early developmental stages right through to the delivery of the project’s weekly sessions, reflecting the charity’s belief in collaborative artistic practices between participant and practitioner. This included the pre-project focus groups which were key in helping us create the initial format of the project by offering us the opportunity to ascertain what the participants (ie the children) are currently thinking and feeling, especially in relation to the pandemic.

The pilot was delivered throughout Feb and March 2021 and we completed two focus groups with pupils to ensure that the project is catered to their needs. As well as Arts Bridge Practitioners, we worked with a child psychologist and an external evaluator to monitor the impact of the project.

Windrush Stories

Made possible thanks to funding from the government’s Windrush Day Grant Scheme (£12K) and Arts Council England (£7K), Windrush Stories took place throughout May and June 2019 in both Tottenham and Lambeth.

Uniting elder community members from care homes with local children through the arts, Windrush Stories explored and commemorated the dreams, resilience and legacy of the Windrush Generation.

The project was divided into three sections:

1. In-school Windrush workshops at primary schools in Tottenham & Lambeth - an introduction to the topic and developing devising skills.

2. Half Term Intensive (27 - 31 May 2019) - Theatre-making week, including intergenerational drama workshops at local care homes. The stories shared by the elders were the stimulus for a devised play created by the children during the intensive week.

3. After school rehearsals to prepare for the final performances.

The project culminated in two community performances - 1 in Tottenham, 1 in Lambeth - on 22 June 2019 - Windrush Day.

Our Tottenham

A pilot project delievered in August 2018. Funding: Tesco Bags of Help Foundation (£1K) and ABC funds (£1K). Partners: Protheroe House Care Home. Intergenerational project. 7 – 11 yr olds from Tottenham creating theatre inspired by historical Tottenham landmarks & stories from elders living in a local care home. Outdoor performance at SKFEST community arts festival

Free to attend, Our Tottenham (OT) aimed to unite and make a ‘positive contribution’ to the community by promoting the following values: Work as a team; trust & respect each other; listen, support & say thank you; share knowledge and experience.

Children (7 - 11 yrs) local to the area will visit Tottenham landmarks, hear stories from local care home residents about  growing up in the area and use these stories as stimuli to create a theatre piece.

The pilot of this project was a great success and we plan to apply for funding to roll it out across Tottenham and into others boroughs.

Reach for the Stars

Made possible thanks to funding from Arts Council England, Reach for the Stars was a project inspired by the first African-American woman to go into space, Mae Jemison. Reach for the Stars saw Arts Bridge Charity collaborate with Little Angel Theatre and The Albany and aimed to support the Black Lives Matter movement and inspire young minds to ‘reach for the stars’ and dream big.

Reach for the Stars began with a professional development scheme for black female identifying actors. Successful applicants received a week’s intensive training in puppetry skills and facilitation - a free opportunity with each participant, receiving a week’s wage in line with Equity rates. All participants were guaranteed work with Little Angel Theatre as a puppeteer or facilitator within one year. Two actors from the intensive were cast in a new production Reach for the Stars - created and & devised by Arts `bridge Charity Founder, Amanda Wright:

‘Rocket into space with Nat as she strives to achieve her greatest ambition – to fly. Told through dazzling puppetry and inspired by the life of Mae Jemison, the first African American woman to go into space, this heart-warming and inspiring story encourages us all to strive for our goals.’

The show, recommended for ages 7 – 11, toured UK schools and venues in 2020 and was reprised again in 2021.

Case Studies

Young Theatre Makers

A ‘school refuser’ at St Saviour’s Primary School started attending school again. As part of our Young Theatre Makers project, we worked with a Year 3 and a Year 5 class at St Saviour’s. Before our first session with the Year 5 class, we were informed that in attendance would be a pupil who had been refusing to come to school. The class teacher had persuaded the pupil to come in by telling her about our visit.

This shy, introverted and very insecure pupil found her voice in our drama sessions. By playing other characters she was able to share her worries and fears - which gave her teachers and classmates more understanding of her internal struggles. For example, during an exercise about overcoming obstacles, the pupils worked in pairs. One person was to be the protagonist of our book - filled with self doubt - and the other person, their reflection. The reflection’s role was to fill their partner with praise and support - externalising the voice inside us that helps us overcome obstacles.

Creative Learning

Feedback from schools about our projects was that using performing arts activities as a stimulus to engage children with subject matter was extremely effective:

When the school refuser and her partner performed, the school refuser was in-role as the protagonist and shared her feelings of inadequacy and fear of being seen as different. Her partner, as the mirror, then reassured her and started to list everything that was great about her and how much strength she had inside her. The class teacher and the TAs were holding back tears as they had never heard the school refuser speak so honestly about her feelings. It was an important moment for that pupil. The class teachers described it as a cathartic release for her. She attended our sessions every week, and then also enrolled on the intensive course - much to the delight of her family. The drama activities allowed her confidence to develop, she made friends and, as of February 2018, has started attending school more regularly.

Windrush Project: The Arrival

A disruptive pupil is now able to focus in lessons. A Year 5 pupil at St Jude’s C of E Primary School was in danger of being put ‘on report’ because of his disruptive and aggressive behaviour in class. The pupil would refuse to follow the instructions of his teachers and would often be ejected from the classroom and sent to sit in a corner table in another classroom.

It became clear to ABC practitioners that the pupil found it difficult to be still - he would get restless and bored and would then act out to entertain himself. His restless energy had also started to affect his classmates. Our sessions were filled with fun, unusual activities which required physical effort and abstract thinking. The structure of the sessions allowed him and his classmates to expend a lot of energy at the start and gradually become more focused as the session continued. 

The disruptive pupil benefitted immensely from this format as it allowed him, and the rest of the class, to gradually come to a place of focus. Then instead of sitting at a desk and getting bored, the focus was used to create something imaginative which would then be shared with classmates and discussed. The pupil had a big imagination and, when focused, contributed great ideas to his group.

During feedback, he beamed whenever his classmates gave his group praise and he began to take pride on his work. His class teachers said that after our first two sessions, he started to make more of an effort to focus in his other classes too. They reported a vast improvement in his behaviour and, as a result, the overall behaviour of the class.