Community Projects

Music Event: London

The Wind That Shakes

The Wind That Shakes is a monthly event celebrating the power of music in times of struggle and resistance, a vehicle to communicate individual stories and histories. It takes place the first Thursday of every month @ Jam in the Jar, Haringey, London. All donations support further community projects and citizen journalists in precarious situations.

Photography Project: Lebanon

The Hero’s Room

In 2018, two of Brush and Bow’s Director’s, worked with local NGO Mishwar to create the “Heroes Room”photography project with over 40 Syrian children in two camps in north Lebanon. Over three months, we worked with Mishwar giving weekly classes teaching children how to use a camera, exploring ways of framing and creating pictures and discussing representation and portrayal.

Cultural Workshops: Romania

Stories from the Roma community

From May – June 2016 Brush&Bow undertook a six week project funded by The British Arts Council in collaboration with Fundatia de Sprijin Comunitar (FSC), an NGO working with art therapy in northeast Romania. We offered creative storytelling workshops with Roma children, using comic strips and street photography to allow them to explore their daily experiences. We also worked with a community of rural Roma musicians using sound-recordings to collaboratively document the cultural heritage of marginalised groups within Europe.

Community Radio: Lebanon

Radio HAKAYA

Radio HAKAYA – حكايا is an online community radio project started by Brush&Bow in northern Lebanon. Between September 2018 – 2019, Brush&Bow has been working with communities in the region of Akkar and beyond, to produce podcasts on stories of life and displacement amongst the Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian communities there. This project was funded by Lush and Open Society.

Refugee Exhibition & Music night: Bristol

RISE

RISE Exhibition (3 – 8th March 2017): From January 2017-March 2017 two of Brush&Bow members, Hannah Kirmes-Daly and Roshan de Stone worked with Borderlands charity in facilitating art and music workshops which led to a collaborative exhibition and music night featuring refugee artists, musicians and DJ’s.

Mural Painting: Lebanon

Re-Imagining Space

In 2018 Brush&Bow worked with the local NGO Mishwar in northern Lebanon to create several murals on the walls of a refugee camp with its residents. The project aimed to create a process where all members of the community felt comfortable to participate and re-imagine the architecture of the space. We spent many days creating the mural, first sketching designs in charcoal on the walls, and creating a festive feeling with music and games.

Music & Art Workshops: Calais

‘Jungle’ Sessions

From 2015 and throughout the period when the ‘Jungle’ refugee camp in Calais was a busy city squashed between the borders of France and England and home to ten thousand asylum seekers, Brush&Bow created many impromptu music and art spaces as a way to highlight cultural celebration and communication.