In October this year Making for Change participant and creator of Tea4Change campaign Mahnaz Begum accompanied Craftspace staff Deirdre Buckley and Emma Daker on a visit to Ljubljana, Slovenia for a creative exchange programme with 6 other European arts organisations to share our experiences of working with migrant communities. We had a fantastic few days hearing about our different organisations, sharing practice and thinking about the complex issues surrounding migration. Mahnaz led a pop up Tea4change tea party at Ziferblat, a great café space where you pay by the hour not by what you consume.

Mahnaz has written her thoughts on the trip below.

‘United Makers’ Exchange

3 days of workshops, presentations and a performance in

Ljubljana, Slovenia with Emma and Deirdre

From Craftspace, an insight and exchange

With international Arts Organisations from across Europe

It was an opportunity to share ideas and projects

Focussing on migration and asylum seekers being involved.

The United Makers Exchange was inspiring, seeing the similarities, how other creative

Arts Organisations work, and the overlap has made me realise how important exchanges like this are.

To gain insight, to collaborate in the future and most importantly to learn from one another.

The one commonality all organisations including Craftspace

Have that was brought out in the 3 days, was that making and doing is important and creating opportunities

For asylum seekers, migrants and young people is important, also.

Empowering people through the arts and working together through the process is another vital component for

making and doing within the arts.

‘Art is my expression’ a quote from Omar from ‘Kunstasyl’ (Art Asylum)

The freedom to speak is one thing the freedom to think is another.

This exchange was funded by Erasmus+ and was headed by the lovely

Jana from Terra Vera a sustainable arts organisation based in Slovenia.

The Organisations that attended were Roots & Routes (Rotterdam, Netherlands), Africa e Mediterraneo

(Bologna, Italy), Kunstastyl (Berlin, Germany), Manoeuvre (Ghent, Belgium), Tallaght Community Arts

(Dublin, Ireland), and Craftspace (Birmingham, UK)