Skimstone Arts

Skimstone Arts

At a glance

Causes

  • Arts

Other details

Organisation type: 
Charity
Geographical remit: 
Regional

Objectives

Skimstone Arts flies the flag for artistic activism. We encourage people to be inquisitive, to challenge norms, embrace differences, interrogate equality, discover new ways of seeing and to forge individual and collective meaning, and in doing so to connect to others.

We exist to support diverse artists, people and communities at risk of social isolation to create work with, for and about the world that matters to them.

We celebrated our tenth birthday in 2018 and became a registered charity in England in 2019 (1182284).

We create collaborative theatre, music and art with artists and researchers. We develop artistic practice with diverse individuals and communities to reflect challenges in society. We have embraced digital technology during the pandemic to make our events more inclusive and accessible to all members of the community. Our reputation and influence for inclusive artistic work with and for people in the most socially-vulnerable groups in the North East of England has also grown during the pandemic.

We originate important professional touring music and performance work inspired by societal challenges and themes - we contribute to the national debate on isolation and loneliness, on inclusion and identity, and mental health including dementia.

We work with our:

  • Young Artists Collective (vulnerable young people aged 16-25 years) and their band Reality Boots
  • The Sun and The Soul Company, Stockton (people of all ages with lived refugee and asylum seeker experience) and Stockton Commissioning Group, Stockton on Tees
  • Byker Commissioning Group, (people facing poverty and isolation living in Byker Ward of Newcastle upon Tyne
  • Other Youth Music funded organisations across the region
  • Older people in day care and care home settings who produce high quality music performances and artworks and support with event management and production.

Activities

We use a Theory of Change (story of change) model to describe how and why our charitable objects serve those we work with, to evaluate our progress, track changes over time and show positive impact with our diverse communities.

By: working with diverse artists, people at risk of isolation and likeminded organisations

To: support them to create work that is with, for and about the world that matters to them and to share what we learn in the process

We will: engage increasingly diverse audiences in quality arts activities and stimulate debate and action around key social challenges This will: help improve connectivity, confidence and wellbeing for the people and artists we work with and lead to greater skills and engagement in increasingly high-quality arts activity.

This model helps us to deliver our four key ambitions:

  • Artists: To create nationally recognised, quality artistic work, with diverse artists, about the world that matters to people and communities today.
  • Communities & audiences: To engage with people in diverse communities to produce artistic work that explores and shares engaging stories and is accessible and meaningful to a broader range of audiences.
  • The wider sector: To collaborate with researchers and arts, health, and social sector professionals, to challenge and instigate debate around the role of the arts in civic change and help find more effective ways to use quality artistic work to improve engagement and well-being.
  • Our organisation: To ensure we are sustainable, with core funding and other grants in place to support diversity in all areas – Board, workforce, commissions, projects, performances, with and for audiences and participants, and in line with our Charitable objectives.

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