Inspired by The World From My Window (TWFMW, an initiative founded by AWE co-founder Dan Boyden and his old school friend Dan Shipton) Hope Street is a cross-cultural collaboration that encourages artists and communities to reflect on the following questions;
- When the immediate future is uncertain, where does hope sit? and, if we find it, how can we wield it as an act of resistance?
- What might we discover through gathering and weaving our stories together about what it costs to access hope? About where it manifests? About our own relationships with hope?
- How might what we discover help others understand more about hope in their own lives?
As part of The British Council’s UK – Sub Saharan Africa 2021 Cultural Exchange programme, this new trilateral creative collaboration brought together artists and communities from the UK, Sudan and Ethiopia, to co-design a body of work that reflects back the untold stories, experiences and relationships the people in these places, have with hope.
Hyper-local and at the same time global in its ambitions, Hope Street explores questions of identity, belonging and connection – with our neighbours down the street and those on the other side of the world. We’re creating a collaboration that is rooted in three separate local realities whilst also looking outwards, connecting across cultures and physical boundaries.
This conversation is happening at a time when the world feels increasingly polarised and disconnected and as the research and development phase draws to a close, plans for evolution of Hope Street are taking place; to better understand Hope as a resource feels important and we’re excited about what comes next.
Get a flavour of Hope Street…