1. The 2017 Pilot: making grants and learning

After extensive consultation (including 48 interviews and focus groups with 75 members of the public) and under the oversight of a Working Group of five people with in-depth relevant experience, Amal began life as a grant-making pilot project of the Saïd Foundation. The pilot supported 39 projects encompassing different art forms and cultural traditions, delivering over 400 events from Aberdeen to Brighton.

2. The 2018-20 Programme: more focus, more support

Amal then evolved into a programme providing support, in addition to funding, to its partners. It encouraged arts organisations to expand their reach to more Muslims and helped Muslim organisations to work more sustainably.  Priority was given to work with a strong participatory element. Despite the COVID crisis, the Amal Programme supported 24 projects, often building on work begun in the pilot.  

3. From 2020 onwards: independent Amal - building a community of practice

In 2020, with the support of its founding organisation the Saïd Foundation, Amal embarked on an ambitious new future as a Muslim-led, independent charity (registered number 1190887). Its cornerstone programme, Amal Connects, was designed to create systemic change by enabling stakeholders – Muslim communities, Muslim artists and arts organisations – to model and grow a community of practice in the arts that fully represents and includes Muslims as artists, workers, participants, audiences and leaders.

Amal Connects’ work was place-based (to build strong relationships, facilitate support to stakeholders and take opportunities to Muslim communities), co-created (to keep Muslim communities always at the centre of everything Amal did) and in partnership (to build a community of practice that fully represents Muslims by growing the ways our stakeholders worked together).   

At the heart of Amal Connects’ work were 12 high-quality arts projects in Birmingham and Bradford, co-created with Muslim-majority participants working with Muslim creative practitioners.  The projects showcased the work created at arts venues and in the community and ran cross-community encounter sessions around this platforming.