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In our hub locations of Birmingham and Bradford we have helped bring about these opportunities by consulting stakeholders on their interests and needs, connecting them to each other, helping communities to visualise the range of creative opportunities available to them, supporting co-created arts and culture projects, and convening our stakeholders to share learning and build a community of practice.
We have consulted our three sets of stakeholders to build trust, identify barriers and themes, and establish interest and potential. This has enabled us to connect stakeholders, both to advance Amal’s work but also on demand, to enable connections and opportunities that would not otherwise happen. In 2022, we connected community groups, artists and arts organisations to each other 51 times so they could develop creative work together.
In 2022, we met with Muslim community groups 143 times to listen and understand what their interests, needs and concerns were.
In 2022, we met with Muslim artists 146 times to think about how we could help them to have successful and sustainable careers.
In 2022, we met with arts organisations 109 times to discuss how we could support them to serve Muslim communities.
Amal has partnered with artists from a wide variety of creative practice and who are familiar with working in Muslim communities to deliver workshops for community groups. These opportunities are important to give a better sense of the range of artistic activities that are available to them.
In 2022, we delivered 29 workshops in the community working with 17 artists. We worked in 12 different wards in our two hubs of Birmingham and Bradford, among the most deprived areas in these cities.
In 2022 and 2023, Amal Connects has helped to develop and has supported 13 high-quality arts and cultural projects. These have been co-created with Muslim-majority participants with the involvement of around 70 Muslim creative practitioners. The projects have also produced opportunities to platform the work created and to run encounter sessions around this platforming that are cross-community.
Amal has held convenings for community groups, Muslim artists, and arts and cultural organisations to share learning and build a community of practice in the arts sector which is fully representative of Muslims as artists, workers, participants, audiences and leaders.