Arts for Health & Social Change

WHY DONATE ?

Since its birth Intercultural Roots (IR) has established a unique not-for-profit charity that

A) offers a diverse and accessible ARTS FOR HEALTH & SOCIAL CHANGE program to the public, while

B) SUPPORTING ARTISTS to collaborate and be better enabled to work with communities 

We apply the arts to address challenges that our communities face including mental and physical health and interrelated social, political, economic and environmental issues.

*  BUT IR IS FACING AN URGENT FUNDING PROBLEM  *

To continue its work in 2022 it needs to raise £20,000 by the 15th of December. These funds will support the basic structure of the organisation to continue in supporting and paying artists, offering a high quality ARTS FOR HEALTH & SOCIAL CHANGE program to a wide audience and in applying for grants and project related funds.  Thanks to £10,000 match funding from the National Emergencies Trust Local Action Fund any donation you provide up to £250 will be doubled.  We need to attract £10,000 in donations to release the £10,000 match funding - please help us in any way you can including sharing this campaign with friends and family and donating.

Achievements and plans:

-IR was one of the first to get its program online in COVID and has offered more than a thousand 'Health & WELLth' & 'Get Active Online' classes that have benefited more than 10,000 participants since March 2020

-IR is also dedicated to supporting global artistic voices, inclusively commissioning global artists to respond to 'What Matters to You?' ('Ripples' included 90 artists generating 28,000 online video views) and with a board of volunteer trustees including artists from Colombia, New Zealand, Canada, Brazil & UK

- In late 2021 IR is beginning in-person activities once again like many others including Practitioner Labs offering unique interdisciplinary research moments for embodied practitioners as online collaborative duets between indigenous and western artists.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Intercultural Roots began to deliver 'ARTS FOR HEALTH & SOCIAL CHANGE' programmes in 2019 focussed on being a bridge between embodied research and community practice. To achieve this we focus on enabling artistic practitioners so that they can do what they do best which is making art to benefit communities. In March 2020 we were one of the first such groups to adapt to Covid-19 lockdowns and offer an online participatory arts programme to support practitioners and the public through the toughest times of the pandemic. We have continued to deliver almost a thousand classes that have benefited more than 10,000 participants!

This Crowdfunder call for support is necessary as we don't receive any external funding. We are currently struggling to cope with unprecedented demand for our services including requests for additional online and in-person classes together with requests for one to one assistance. Our core aim is to positively impact people's mental and physical health - bringing hope and resilience through the arts and somatic practices towards addressing issues such as trauma, climate change, the economy, social injustice and oppression...

We need your donation to continue to fund this vital support. In short, without additional funding streams our work cannot be maintained nor can a future for it be secured.  No funding equals no cultural enrichment through Intercultural Roots and a loss of social capital that will make everyone poorer. PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY

Our Core Team is passionate about the applied arts and includes our Directors Dr Alex Boyd (Exec), Dr Andréa Maciel (Artistic) and Wendy Boyd (Admin & Finance). They are supported by Alice Motta (Production) and Peter Kramer (Promotion).  We need your help to carry on the important work in supporting the artists and their work in their communities. 

Our voluntary Board of Trustees and Advisors includes Prof Lynette Hunter (Canada), Prof Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal (New Zealand), Dr Alvaro Hernandez and Regina Gutierrez (both Colombia), Dr Andréa Maciel (Brazil) and Dr Ian Kenvyn, Dr Ben Spatz, Clare Kenvyn and Dr Alex Boyd (UK).  We are a UK based yet globally facing not-for-profit artistic charity delivering within local communities wherever there is a need.  We have access to many of the world's foremost artistic practitioners in their field and utilise these for the benefit of local communities.

Our idea is to sustain and also grow our online programme of health and social change classes and courses wherever there is demand while at the same time offering support to practitioners wherever they are based to deliver arts based interventions addressing local issues.

Our vision is to bring together practitioners, artists, scholars and teachers to create collaboratively and develop their ARTS FOR HEALTH & SOCIAL CHANGE. We are creating a healthy and nurturing environment for practitioners where the seeds of artistic practice can flourish to bring positive changes to the world.  

As an ethical and charitable organisation we aim to pay all our staff and practitioners fees that are at least equivalent to the London living wage for the hours they put in regardless of where they are based. We aim to use the funds raised through this campaign to also support our ‘IR Practitioner Labs’ that enable collaboration between artists locally in-person and online from around the world. We are supporting the creation of pairings or 'duets'  that enable deep dialogue and sharing of practice between artists from diverse cultures and backgrounds, supporting the creation of new intercultural and transcultural approaches to arts for health and social change.

We are grateful in anticipation of your donation however large or small - and assure you that it will be spent carefully, and that our Trustees will report back to you on its positive impact in addressing the complex health and social issues so many people are experiencing.  THANK YOU!

Image Credits: Kevin O'Connor (Canada), Ripples Initiating Artists (across 6 Continents), Sena Atsugah and the Tifali Organisation (Ghana), Caleb Isiche and the Newstar Group (Kenya), Tiago Gambogi (UK/Brazil), Otavio Avancini (Brazil), Dr Alex Feng (California), Tau Dance - Peter Rockford Espiritu (Hawai'i).