NGO
BAC Visby, Sweden
BAC - Baltic Art Center is a residency for contemporary art on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. We constitute an international meeting place in the Baltic Sea Region that brings together artists and organisations regionally and internationally. As a place for research and work for artists and other practitioners engaged within the field of art, BAC develops, produces and presents artistic projects together with partners who share our engagement in today’s society.
BAC is a flexible organisation that follows the artistic process and that adjusts its modus operandi to suit specific productions. By bringing together different methods, artistic practices and knowledge, BAC contributes to the vitality of the art scene and highlights Gotland as an arena for contemporary art.
ActionAid Denmark (Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke)
ActionAid Denmark is a Danish NGO and civil society organisation with 25,000 members. It was founded in 1945 in an effort to help German war refugees in Denmark and grounded in a belief that the development of cross-cultural and cross-national relations would prevent another world war. Since then it has been doing civil society work fighting for equal rights and a life in dignity. In the local Aarhus chapter, the NGO works with grassroots and activists running a bar and event space Cafe Mellemfolk as well as having a shared office space with other green activists organisations. The profits from these places go to projects determined by the activists themselves.
In addition to these socioeconomic enterprises we have a wide network of political working groups on subjects such as Climate Justice, antidiscrimination, LGBTQ+, Feminism, Economic Inequality etc. In 2019, we hosted just short of 200 different events in Aarhus, we organised and helped organise various demonstrations and festivals for a more just and sustainable society and world.
Mads Dahl Thomsen is coordinator and manager of ActionAid Denmark's event space, non-profit cafe and community centre in the heart of Aarhus, Denmark's second-biggest city. He works as a social entrepreneur and political organiser at the NGO in Aarhus.
Compass Collective UK
Compass Collective assists unaccompanied minor refugees and young people seeking asylum to build resilience and integrate into the UK through theatre, music and film projects and arts-led professional development programmes.
The aim of our work is to strengthen communities, build resilience and help people seeking sanctuary integrate into the UK. We connect organisations and work in partnerships, collaborating with charities like the British Red Cross and arts organisations such as Shakespeare’s Globe to offer a platform for cultural sharing and celebration.
The benefits experienced by our young people extend far beyond the lifetime of our projects, and will have a lasting impact on their futures. Research has found that projects in the area of art and culture can help increase confidence to articulate experiences and express our feelings. It also provides a greater sense of dignity and humanity. We aim to alter perceptions and invite audiences to engage positively with our young people in a way that has not been seen or done before.
Aesthetic Workshop Facilitators
ANDROMEDA 8220, Denmark
ANDROMEDA 8220 is an independant art platform based in the neighboorhood of Gellerup, Aarhus (DK). A non-profit housing neighbourhood that houses 6500 souls who brought the area to life since the 80s, currently undergoing the biggest renovation and demolition plan of its kind through the Masterplan, due to the state-run "Ghetto-List"/"Ghetto-Law". Our work within the cultural, architectural, and art sector is collaborative, futuristic, critical, intersectional and curious, including cross-disciplinary collaborators regionally, nationally and internationally in the conversation. We frame our work through many different methods and media, such as film screenings [Vest for Paradis], dinners [Decolonize your Tastebuds], performance and walks [Demolition Tours], talks and debates, workshops and exhibitions, a DJ school, a seminar on architecture and city development for local teenagers [Vi Fællesskaber Vores By]. Practicing empathy and care, creating open spaces that offer truer representations, nuances and images that are whole, inspiring young generations to follow. The latter are invited to recognize, reflect and re-imagine themselves in a plethora of voices, faces and forms. Andromeda 8220 thus uses the arts, education and culture to reclaim the reality of Gellerup and Aarhus, connecting the communities, experiences and conversations within the ghetto-list galaxy.
Andromeda 8220 was exhibited and highlighted during the Venice Biennale 2018, Dimensions of Citizenship at the American Pavilion.and was also partaking in the exhibition at the 11th Berlin Biennale. Our platform houses other similar initiatives such as the local driven food cooperative and platform [Smag] à la Gellerup, and the national run CAFx: Aarhus Architecture Festival
Victor Rios, UK
I am Victor Rios, a digital facilitator and artist, originally from Bolivia, I have been in the UK for almost 20 years. I found my passion for acting and filmmaking which eventually led me to work in theatre and film facilitation. As an artist from an ethnic minority I felt I did not have a voice, and through working with participatory arts projects such as with students in schools of minority backgrounds, migrants and refugees, young and adult people with disabilities, the elderly and more. I was able to bring those unheard stories to life and expose them in the form of video such as films, documentaries, theatrical and more.
I am currently working on a platform called Filmlocos which is focusing in bringing representation of the Latin American community in the UK.
Eva Hållsten, Sweden
The artist Eva Hållsten led the MaHoMe aesthetic workshops in May and June 2022 in Southern Gotland working with Anna Norberg and Helena Selder of BAC.