Target reached!
We're so encouraged to have seen the immediate support for this project, thank you s...
Dovetail Orchestra
Bristol, Bristol City, United Kingdom
Aim
To provide a regular music group and free lunch for asylum seekers in Bristol
The Dovetail Orchestra is a new project that I think comes at a very important time for the UK's troubled relationship with asylum-seekers.
Our 'orchestra' will be open to all asylum-seeking musicians, whatever their instrument, style or ability. Through meeting every Tuesday we are going to create original pieces together, representing all the cultural identities in the room.
It's about giving a voice to people who don't have one, building confidence and skills, and providing a creative oasis in very stressful circumstances.
It builds on a successful model I've developed over the last three years with Sophie Wilsdon at Bristol Drugs Project: the Bristol Recovery Orchestra (with some inaugural members pictured below):
We've found the key ingredients are consistency over a long time (surprise surprise), keeping people learning and challenged, and treating everyone primarily as musicians when they're in the space. For the 2 hours of the rehearsal, the rest doesn't matter. You're just a musician, and that's liberating.
So, that's going to be the foundation for Dovetail Orchestra too. When you walk in through the rehearsal door, you're a bassist, or a kora player, or whatever. That's your principal identity. We can chat about the bigger story afterwards.
Afterwards - very importantly - there's a free lunch to help socialising with the wider BS5 community.
Your money will go towards buying free bus tickets for people who want to attend, to providing the lunch regularly at the Beehive Centre, to obtaining instruments and to paying for the professional musicians involved.
Our vision is to grow activities beyond Bristol in time, but this is where we'll start, with the first sounds dovetailing in St Ambrose church this autumn.
Here's our website if you want to find out more or if you know anyone who would like to join us: dovetailmusicworkshops.co.uk/dovetail-orchestra
Please do share this link and invite others to donate, and thank you for any support you can give.
Sovereign Network Group: Thriving Communities has provided £1,400 of match funding
This project successfully funded on 12th July 2022