Where Shall We Call Home? A fund-raising arts event to assist refugee resettlement in Aotearoa

$0 donated

Started 7 years ago

Can you help us bridge a funding gap for “Where Shall We Call Home?”, an arts event to raise money for refugee resettlement? Thank you.

Auckland

Background

Visual artists Fiona Barrett, Belinda King, Gaël Rowntree, Mary Ann Manchego and

Brenda Liddiard discovered that they all shared deep concerns over the current

international refugee crisis, and the welfare of those who are trying to build a new

life in Aotearoa/New Zealand after unimaginable experiences.

They all felt moved to create work expressing this concern, and decided to form

a group, under the name Art for Change, to act as a vehicle for their endeavours.

They approached Amnesty International with the idea of mounting an exhibition to

raise both public awareness, and funds, to assist refugee resettlement. Amnesty

are fully supporting the project, with their North Shore group planning to organise

activities for young people, alongside the exhibition. Other works for the exhibition are being donated by a number of kiwi artists.

Where Shall We Call Home? runs from 17th June to 5th July 2017 at Depot Artspace (Devonport), with other events in the gallery including an evening of refugee stories taking place on World Refugee Day (20th June), a fund-raising concert, and arts activities for young people.

The recipients of all monies raised through the exhibition and other events will be The Red Cross NZ Refugee Resettlement Programme in Auckland and The Auckland Refugee Family Trust (who assist with refugee family reunification). Any money raised through Give a Little which exceeds the amount we need for running the event will also be divided equally between Red Cross and ARFT:

https://www.redcross.org.nz/what-we-do/in-new-zealand/refugee-programmes/

https://www.facebook.com/Auckland-Refugee-Family-Trust-166470193420349/.

ART FOR CHANGE's involvement (page creator)

I first became really interested in the current refugee crisis in 2015, when I heard about the Australian government paying people smugglers to take boat refugees back to where they had set out from. Having lived in Australia for a number of years when I first came to Australasia from the UK, I was particularly disgusted with this practice, and so created my first painting on the issue. As the boat refugees situation also began to unfold in Europe, I continued painting, and then wondered how I could best use these works. So, together with 4 other artists, I formed the group Art for Change as a vehicle to mount this exhibition.