New Year, New Partnerships

It’s January 2017 and planning for our pilot year of programming is in full swing.  We’re proud to announce our very first programming partners, who will be working with us over the course of this year to deliver some amazing cultural riches. Here’s more about them:

Khayaal Theatre Company

For almost 20 years, the multi-award-winning Khayaal Theatre Company (KTC) has produced professional English-language theatre inspired by Muslim world culture and heritage, bringing stories from the Middle East, Africa, Turkey, South and Southeast Asia and China to audiences of all ages and backgrounds in the UK. Aptly named ‘Khayaal’ – which means ‘imagination’ in Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Malay and Urdu – KTC has specialised in fostering greater intercultural and interfaith dialogue between Muslim communities and the wider public.

In 2017, KTC will partner with Amal to deliver theatre and storytelling performances to a range of mixed audiences, professional development workshops for female Muslim storytellers, and research and development of new Muslim heritage storytelling products. The project aims to make Muslim literary heritage resonant and thought-provoking to contemporary audiences, whether they are Muslim or not, and to encourage them to want to explore further.

www.khayaal.co.uk

Greenbelt Festival

The Greenbelt Festival is an annual Christian festival of arts, faith and justice, with an established record going back over 40 years. Each year, the festival hosts a rich programme of music, visual and performing arts, spirituality, comedy, and talks and discussion. Its diversity of content testifies not only to its commitment to the arts, faith and justice, but also to its underlying values of tolerance, dialogue and hope – amal.

In August this year, the Greenbelt Festival will showcase a strand of Muslim cultural programming in partnership with Amal. A built-for-purpose venue within the festival will offer performances, workshops, discussions and food to the festival’s 10,000-strong audience, many of whom travel from all over the UK to attend every year. The partnership with Greenbelt will give Amal the opportunity to engage with audiences that have had limited exposure to Muslim culture and arts, in an established forum whose values closely align with our own.

www.greenbelt.org.uk

Watch this space for more information on these and other partnerships in the coming weeks!