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AWE

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Project AWE

 

Creative, strategic and very human.

 

We use creativity to connect people across chasms.

We bring creative practice into strategic decision making.

We create transformative events online and on land.

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Artists determine the possible, governments determine the probable.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbadosat the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Pavilion

Our Offer

Partnerships

We design creative interventions for a wide range of organisations and institutions in order to catalyse change processes and alternative leadership models.

Communities of Practice

We support emerging arts-led social change practices and projects by connecting artists locally, nationally and internationally.

Practice as Research

We are engaged in ongoing practice as research, exploring how to move beyond western-centred collaboration.

Projects

We draw on multiple knowledge systems, ideas, perspectives and practices to facilitate high impact social change projects.

Artist With Elbows?

Elbows are strong but flexible, they’re vulnerable and they’re human.
One of the most complex joints in the body, the elbow is a hub of collaboration and connection.
Here different systems – bones, ligaments, nerves, and blood vessels – work together.

What does the elbow enable?

Extension – a movement of stretching. Allows us to reach beyond what is comfortable, to discover new things.

Flexion – a movement of bending. Holds integrity while adapting to a changing context or need.

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And if you [artists] don't work to help us really find what this world must look like, what this world must feel like, must sound like, then we're not going to make it. It is hearts that move people & not necessarily logic. Those of you who know how to sing in tune & to cause people to remember the tune... you are the true global ambassadors. Your message now must matter, because if you don't get that message to matter, you're going to have to get a different planet to live on.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbadosat the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Pavilion

Key Resources

Our Instagram

Meqaqar.Live Conversation across Chasms.

Hope Street, Sub Saharan Africa collaboration and practice as research.

Arts in Uncertainty toolkit co-authored with Ettijahat, Lebanon. 

The Tricky Balancing Act, Arts, Culture and Development, a thought piece created,
as part of The Change Collective, for the British Council.

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We have worked closely with Dan and Chloe and The Change Collective in the design and implementation of Create Syria, a capacity building programme in which we offer young activists the guidance, mentorship and seed funding they need to develop innovative community-level arts intervention projects. They have been pivotal in inspiring creative thinking among our beneficiaries, and the entire team understands the nuances and sensitivities inherent to working with local communities.

Abdullah AlkafriExecutive Director, Ettijahat
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I have worked with Artists With Elbows on several occasions. I am always impressed by their ability to hold safe spaces, unlock people's creativity, foster empathy and create deep and lasting connections. They challenge themselves and others to think, experiment, and grow as people and professionals. Comfortable in the uncomfortable, understanding complexity and systems, they bring people together across geographies, lived experiences and abilities for an enriching and mutual experience.

Rosanna LewisSenior Relationship Manager, Culture Responds to Global Challenges, British Council
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Working with Project AWE is like reconnecting with parts of your body you haven’t used for a long time. I was reminded how possible it is to find new solutions if we use new approaches, if we can create spaces for more voices and more ways in.

Meqaqarworkshop participant
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This workshop relit the fire in my stomach. Discovering new ways of collaborating, realising that we don’t have to keep doing things the same way! Reconnecting with hope!

Meqaqarworkshop participant