The next Theatre of Sanctuary Network Gathering which is open to all arts organisations, whether theatres, theatre companies, festivals or museums (or other!) will be taking place this Friday 12th February, 10 – 11.15am online via Zoom. If you would like to register, please sign up to our Network Gathering mailing list on the Arts Stream website where you’ll be followed up with a Zoom link.
Agenda for meeting:
- General check in – what is sustaining us? What is draining us?
- Refugee Week – current plans across the network
- Preparations for Celebrating Sanctuary Week (April 17 – 25th) – see below*
You can find a lovely video of our last Theatre of Sanctuary meeting back in November created by Voluntary Arts who hosted us, featuring SBC Theatre, ice&fire as well City of Sanctuary’s Arts Stream.
Celebrating Sanctuary
*Celebrating Sanctuary is a week of online activities across the City of Sanctuary network April 17 – 25th to promote the positive stories of welcome from across their communities and to invite key influencers who have been involved in that welcome to share their role e.g. teachers, health professionals, faith leaders, arts organisations. The key messages the week will promote are:
- There is broad public support for offering sanctuary to people fleeing violence and persecution (City of Sanctuary groups and mainstream institutions such as Schools of Sanctuary, Universities of Sanctuary is testimony to the fact that people across the UK support welcome).
- The UK has a proud tradition of providing protection to people fleeing war, persecution and human rights abuses and we want decision makers across the UK to uphold this tradition.
- People seeking sanctuary make a huge contribution to the communities in which they live, we recognise and celebrate those contributions.
- A fair, safe and effective asylum system giving people the right to work and support for integration will have huge economic savings as well as build cohesive communities.