Triple giveaway!

Hello you wonderful bunch…

Wishing everyone a Happy Halloween this week and hope that at least some of you are getting creative with brilliant costumes and decorations for some spooky fun this weekend. May there be more treats than tricks for you gorgeous lot!!

And in the spirit of creativity, this week we are splitting the pot between three artists/arts projects that need a little helping hand. We find ourselves with a little surplus due to some kind donations and so we’re sending each nominee £200 this week. Nominations come from the brilliant Katie and Nathalie – along with one from myself this week.

Just a reminder to you all to keep nominating and here’s to the power of the arts!!

Love from your arty admins!!

Hi 500 Reasons team and the lovely 500 Reasons community! 

I'd like to nominate Routes to Roots for this week's donation. In the current climate, I wanted to put forward a lovely project that helps promote cultural understanding and acceptance.

It's a heritage project working with South Asian communities in Bradford, Sheffield, and Croydon. I've been helping them for the past 4 years, capturing the stories of women who migrated to the UK since the late 1950s.

One woman I interviewed this year was an 83-year-old named Latifa (or Queen Latifa as she liked to be called). She was funny and kind but had had a very hard life. She moved to England in the 1960s and ended up in an abusive marriage. She gathered the strength to leave that life behind and build a new one for herself,  working and thriving in Bradford. As an older woman, she hiked Ben Nevis, and inspired by her, lots of other ladies from Bradford followed suit and hiked it too! Barely a month after we recorded her story, Latifa passed away. She was such a character and I felt so honoured to have captured her story. That really showed me how important this work is.

Routes to Roots run creative workshops doing poetry, embroidery, and art with the ladies, all aimed at helping these women tell their personal stories of migration to Britain. They've created exhibitions, documentary films, and performances to tell those stories to the public. There's an exhibition at Bradford City Library right now! They are crowdfunding to keep the project going and support the public exhibition sharing these stories with the wider community.

Just seems like exactly the kind of thing we should be supporting.

Let me know what you think!

Natalie

Dear wonderful humans  

I am writing to nominate my incredible friend Eleanor, a brilliant performer who is in need of urgent support after an on-stage injury has left her with permanent damage, in constant pain and facing huge financial challenges. 

Eleanor was performing in Magic Mike on the west end, when she fell very badly mid-show. She was ambulanced from the stage to the hospital where she found out she had badly broken her foot. No accommodation was made for her recovery, Eleanor was just cruelly replaced and despite the fact she was injured at work Eleanor’s contract was immediately terminated and she has sadly received little to no support from the company, or our union it would seem. Eleanor keeps a letter to Channing Tatum in her handbag in the hopes that she might one day be able to reach out to him as someone involved in the show and explain to them how badly she’s been treated and how heartbroken she is. 

Eleanor is an immensely kind, hard working and caring individual- she does so much good for our industry - I met her at a summer camp where she was teaching young people who were interested in film making - and she puts her heart and soul into everything she does. After a difficult few years and following the sad loss of her Father - Eleanor truly deserved this opportunity to shine in her dream role, and to see it cut short in this cruel way and for her to have to fight so hard for her recovery is heartbreaking. 

Eleanor’s on-going physio, which she desperately needs, is incredibly expensive - and her friends and family are now raising money to support her. I know many in our group are creatives and I know how strong our community is - I would love us to show Eleanor she is not alone and to help out someone who’s had a very, very unfair ride lately. 

Thank you so much for all you do, crowdfunder link below. 

Much love as ever 

Katie 

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/ellies-injury-x

Hi gang,

Anna is a brilliant artist I met recently working on a project with CAMHS in Newport. They also run a gorgeous project called Well Wagon – a mobile art studio based in Cardiff from which Anna delivers community art workshops that are affordable (or free where necessary). It started during the Covid times of needing to gather outside and the project has gone from strength to strength. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the tricycle itself. It is in need of an upgrade and Anna is raising funds to convert the Well Wagon to an electric cycle, allowing the project to continue to deliver its work, reach more communities and help Anna to arrive a little more refreshed and full of energy! And… the current tricycle will get donated to another organisation!!

Here's how Anna describes the work Well Wagon does…

Through mobile art workshops, I deliver accessible, person-centred creative sessions in outdoor spaces, community venues, and people’s homes. I collaborate with local organisations and create spaces where everyone - regardless of background, ability, or income - can explore art as a path to connection, healing, and wellbeing.

Well Wagon is committed to breaking barriers for communities to access creative experiences and to support inter and intra connection for people to reach one's full creative potential through painting, murals, mindfulness, somatic movement, creative writing, breathwork and interdisciplinary work.

I’d love us to be able to give a small donation to get this fundraising campaign over the line!!

Thanks, Jen. X

https://www.gofundme.com/f/art-on-wheels-help-well-wagon-become-electric