Cultural Voices
 Cultural Voices was a community based arts project that engaged young people from SRB and ERDF target neighbourhoods in Coventry. It produced a multi media installation and live performances over a twelve-month period. It discovered and
reflected upon the history of cultural celebration in Foleshill and Stoke Heath. It featured a collection of oral histories, two short films, and a website, as well as a fusion dance piece and contemporary music.
We worked with 40 young people from the two neighbourhoods and employed two arts organisations, Frontline AV and Equus Arts to deliver the workshop based scheme in partnership with Groundwork. We were supported throughout by the YMCA in
Stoke Heath, and the youth service in Foleshill.
The group from Foleshill included a young persons support group for Refugees and Asylum seekers, known as the Jigsaw group. The inclusion of these young people made a vast difference to the scheme and transformed it into a socially
relevant piece of work. Cultural Voices has now developed into a two year scheme across four neighbourhoods delivering accredited training in the cultural industries, focusing on contemporary media and music technology. We hope to commence
delivery in September and will target young people facing exclusion with particular regard for refugees and asylum seekers.
Project Aims
- To engage young people between the ages of 13 and 26
- To deliver a workshop based programme of activity
- To provide accredited training in multi-media and arts activities
- To promote cultural integration and positive images of minority communities
- To enhance community cohesion and develop social capital
- To create installation and performance pieces based on the diverse cultural heritage of the community
- To sign post young people facing exclusion into further education
How we did it
- Developed good partnerships with local youth service and YMCA key workers
- Investigated and assessed young peoples wants and needs through neighbourhood plans and direct consultation
- Met with and subsequently employed two arts agencies to develop and deliver the scheme with. They were discovered through existing contacts and local recommendations. One organisation was actually formed as part of the Groundwork
Coventry Arts Development programme in Foleshill as a capacity building exercise; they are now a successful independent organisation.
- Provided a ten week pilot scheme for young people in one neighbourhood.
- Evaluated all the feedback from the initial scheme and drew on that information to develop a year long programme
- Applied for funding from the Heritage Lottery 'Young Roots' scheme to compliment existing ERDF funding
- Investigated suitable venues, made use of a local school with 'Arts College' status. This enabled us to make use of their excellent media facilities as part of their community remit.
- Delivered two week long session of skills based workshops in each of the two areas through the summer leading up to the start of the project in order to engage the young people for the scheme
- Commenced delivery with the support of all partners and arts agencies
- Conducted regular steering group meetings to monitor the progress of the project. The group included young people, artists, support staff and Groundwork officers.
Key Learning Points
- Keep it simple, ask people what they want and find out how you can deliver that
- Successful and continued engagement of young people is due to ongoing consultation and development of the skills based element. Ensuring that the dj-ing and dance etc. are truly appropriate to the target group
- Production of good quality outputs, film etc. is due to rigorous investigation of community artists employed, the relationship between artists and young people is extremely important.
Top Tips
- Develop good partnerships with key stakeholders at an early stage and involve them in the development if possible
- Where possible involve artists in the creation of your workshops, they know the art form best and can advise on what will or won't be possible within budget, timescale etc…
- Draw up good service level agreements at the beginning of partnership work with arts agencies. Get advice from other agencies if this is a new thing for you, but DO IT!
Further details
Commissioner
- Groundwork Coventry and Warwickshire
Artists
Project partners
Other participants
- Jigsaw Group
- Excluded Young People
- Refugees and Asylum Seekers
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