Social Works
I have designed, developed and facilitated a number of workshops, programmes and artistic projects both in non-profit and academic settings. As a producer of works with a committed interest in socially-engaged practice my projects often crosses over into community fields.
National Circus School of Colombia: Circo Para Todos (Circus for Everyone) - Colombia
Body narrative & performance workshop for world's first social-circus school aimed at teaching circus skills to disadvatnaged young people (2012)
St. Christopher’s Hospice Arts Team - London
Community Artist working in palliative care across South London care homes, cursing home and rehabilitations centres. (2008-10, 2015-16)
Innovative Arts & Literacy Program - New York
Visual Arts & Video teacher running wokrshops with disadvantaged young people to boost literacy through the arts (2004)
Youth Street Theatre Program - New York
Voter registration street theatre campaign director to use street theatre as a method of getting young people and immigrants to register to vote. (1999 - 2004)
Secret Community Garden - New York
Designed, developed and built a community green space and cultural space through community collaboration in an abandoned lot in Manhattan's Lower East Side, supported by NYC Parks Department. (2001 - 2005)
Project Documentary:
Circolombia’s La Suizza - 2012
A documentary music video shot in Favela Vidigal, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
This is a documentary turned into a music video featuring the Colombia circus troupe Circolombia and their original song La Suizza.
Circolombia developed the show Urban which details the lives of the participants in the company. All the members come from the circus school Circo Para Todos in Cali, Colombia. An inner-city initiative that gives under-privileged young people the opportunity to train in a circus academy and work internationally.
Urban is currently touring the world, I joined them on their Rio de Janeiro stop for the 1st International Circus Festival, which took place in the favelas of Rio. A new initiative to bring arts and culture the what is now termed: 'comunidades pacificadas' or pacified communities.
Youth Visions: transforming futures together - 2009
HIV/Aids prevention project in Northeast Ghana, West Africa
Youth Visions was a multi-layered project that took place in Northeastern Ghana. I directed a performance and a mural painting project as well as developed a documentary to show the process. The project was on HIV/AIDS prevention in the sub-sahara. The documentary itself then served as its own learning tool, being shown at red cross stations and to peace corps volunteers in the region.
Laurel’s Care Home, a documentary - 2010
An arts initiative in end-of-life care. South London, England.
A documentary shot with the residents of the Laurels Care home is South London. Completed while working as a Community Artist as part of the Arts Team at St Christopher's Hospice. The Laurels care home shows a group of frail and elderly as well as dementia patients working together on art projects, sharing their life stories and filming their own surroundings. Living 24/7 in a care home at the end of their lives, the documentary became an outlet for shared emotions and experiences.
Directed and filmed in conjunction with the residents.