WHAT IS THE URBAN MUSIC THEATRE PROGRAMME ABOUT?

Funded by The Big Lottery Fund and The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, The Urban Music Theatre project is a 3 year collaborative artistic programme running from 2006-2008 bringing young people from Manchester's Refugee and Asylum Seeker communities together with culturally diverse young people from local host communities who have an interest in sharing creative and cultural dialogue on issues that are relevant to their lives.

The Urban Music Theatre programme is a complex and multi-layered, large scale project designed to offer young people of diverse cultural, geographic and economic background the chance to participate in a wide range of arts and cultural activities. The programme has a strong focus on supporting performing arts skills through development activities in five art forms which include Music making, Drama, Digital arts, Hip Hop and African dance facilitated by a team of experienced arts professionals. The aim at the end of each development period is to put on a professional standard, youth arts production that will be shared with audiences from across Greater Manchester.

YOUTH VOICES IN 2006

I’m glad I took part in this project because...

"I was able to learn about different cultures."
"I learnt different music and how to compose a tune."
"It is fun and helped my confidence grow."
"It was stimulating and kept me busy."

We are interested in reaching out to young people from across Greater Manchester to give them the opportunity to get involved in this highly creative process and to create new work that will enable them to excel. The project will be strong on process and will encourage cross collaboration, cultural exchange, communication, integration and positive representations of young people.

To date we have had great success in doing just that and the benefits to young people and their audiences have been enriching for all. We're looking forward to building on this work in 2007 & 2008.

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?

Through the Urban Music Theatre Programme, CAN hopes to increase young people's confidence and self esteem, increase social interaction between groups of young people who might not have had the chance to work intensively together before and to reduce the sense of isolation that is often felt by young people of Refugee and Asylum Seeker background.

CAN recognises that young people need opportunities to communicate ideas about their identity in a space that is safe and empowering. We are keen to create work that brings young people together to share, learn and enjoy themselves, to create work that challenges as well as celebrates representations of Greater Manchester's young peopl and showcases their talent.

We are interested in reaching out to young people from across Manchester to give them the opportunity to get involved in a highly creative process and to create new work that will enable them to excel. The project will be strong on process and will encourage cross artform collaboration, cultural exchange, communication, integration and positive representations of young people.

To date we have had great success in offering youth communities from across Greater Manchester access to high quality resources to help them develop their own artistic styles. The benefits to young people and their audiences have been enriching for all. We want to build on this work.

The Urban Music Theatre project builds on the performance based youth arts work that CAN has developed over the last 3 years, through projects such as Now We Talkin', The International Crew, In the Mix, Afrocats and the Exodus Refugee Arts Festival. We want to continue to develop contexts and methodologies that bring together diverse youth communities, to encourage cross collaboration, cultural exchange, communication, integration and positive representation of young refugee and asylum seekers. We recognise that young people who arrive in Britain as asylum seekers from international destinations experience two major transitions that can have a significant impact on their lives: their journey from their home country and their arrival in a new country which may be very different from what they are accustomed to.

These young people may have fled from countries where there are human rights abuses and armed conflicts. They may have had traumatic experiences and difficult journeys to safety. Some will be coping with grief and bereavement and may remain separated from one or both of their parents or other close family members. A number of new arrivals may also experience stress in the UK because of problems with health, language, poverty or racism.