2024: A Year of Growth and Inspiration

Last year was filled with projects, partnerships, and advocacy. From cultivating new partnerships to reviving old ones, the creative journey spanned countries, cultures, and communities. While the website lay quiet, the work was alive with collaboration, art and transformation. Working with five skilled young professionals, Freya Proudman, Mia Nóbrega, Irina Gănescu, Francesco Pipparelli & Marko Stanković, TCFT members, we now have the support to update the website and share our stories. TCFT’s website update to follow.

2024: A Year of Growth and Inspiration

Stumbling Stones - A New Music Theatre Production

Stumbling Stones
A New Music Theatre Production

Stumbling Stones, (work in progress title) is a new music theatre production with Jewish and Arabic stories of families and migration. Tales of cheese making, a travelling circus, family song and drumming, loss and belonging, historical and cultural identity and the movement of peoples. Collaborating with the brilliant musicians of Klezmer-ish and director James Bonas, we worked on the R and D at the Unity Theatre in Liverpool in April 2023 followed by two concerts at the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s Music Room in January 2024. Further development is planned for 2025 and touring in the Summer of 2026.

Art, Health, and Wellbeing

Our year featured a growing focus on trauma-informed care training, working with artists, academics and producers from the UK, Ukraine and Bosnia, with a pivotal network meeting in Warsaw. From workshops in Brussels to the Why Remember conference in Sarajevo, we engaged in critical conversations about the role of art in mental health. In Bielsko-Biala, Poland, we celebrated culture’s impact on wellbeing — an especially beautiful event marked by its sensitive and generous curation and hospitality.

Stumbling Stones - A New Music Theatre Production

Stumbling Stones
A New Music Theatre Production

Art, Health, and Wellbeing

Stumbling Stones - A New Music Theatre Production

Stumbling Stones
A New Music Theatre Production

Art, Health, and Wellbeing

Local and Regional Projects

In Bridport, we supported the Town of Culture pilot, Dorset’s first, focusing on young people’s creative projects through ToCiYa, a group of young creative activists wanting to develop networks and opportunities. The Edible Garden Project in two of Bridport’s primary schools continued to expand, incorporating art and music workshops and culminating in the Children’s Food and Art Fair in June. The project celebrated its tenth year in working with children on growing cooking and eating local food with our long-standing collaborators Sustainable Bridport and HOME in Bridport.

We ran a series of music and conversation workshops with some of the men from the Bibi Stockholm barge at Weymouth’s Dry Dock, which thankfully has now closed. We recorded a song together called Shamle, which contains musical influences and voices from Iran, Kenya, Kurdistan, Rwanda, Turkey, India and Dorset.

In Dorchester, we collaborated with the Trauma Informed Community of Action and Dorset Youth Association to develop artwork created by young care leavers, both from Dorset and Sudan. This was then exhibited at the Dorset Museum and Art Gallery during the Care Leavers Week.

In August, the work in Ukraine was presented by Professor Nigel Osborne, Dr. Henry Redwood and Dr. Angela Kennedy, at the Healing Arts Scotland symposium in Edinburgh and Glasgow. This was an initiative of the Lead on Arts and Health of the World Health Organisation, Christopher Bayley, and Scottish Ballet.

On September 15th, the International Day of Democracy, there were two days of activities and discussions on democracy, freedom, and human rights led by PhD student Freya Proudman. This event built on the foundation of TCFT’s international youth programmes, to champion democracy, human rights, freedom, and activism, developing this work which began in 2008 in Srebrenica, Bosnia. Plans are being developed for 2025 and will be shared shortly.

At the end of the Democracy Day workshop on September 15th 2024 Darren Abrahams and Tim Fawkes improvised music to bring peace to Bridport’s lovely British Legion Hall and all the work that had gone on in that space that day.

The International Day of Democracy 2024 in Bridport

The Children’s Food and Art Fair, St Mary’s Primary School Bridport

Paintings by some of the children at St Mary's Primary School Bridport about what happens abov and below the soil — Paintings by some of the children at St Mary's Primary School Bridport

Zangi, musician and music producer in conversation

Dr Angela Kennedy working with young Care Leavers on their art work.

Freya Proudman talking about Freedoms with Lisa Osborn Lead Youth Worker of The Drop in Centre on Portland. — Freya Proudman talking about Freedoms with Lisa Osborn

Stories of Resilience: Smile of a Child

Amid immense challenges, drama teachers in a camp in Northern Gaza are developing theatre and drama therapy for hundreds of children. Hassan, one of teachers shared this on December 22nd:

“The year 2024 has been the hardest year ever. We have lived through extremely difficult days since the beginning of the year. I can say it was a period of displacement to Rafah from my city, Khan Younis, from the start of the year until May. Then, we returned to Khan Younis, which was completely destroyed, with no means of life whatsoever.

Amid this, I started thinking of creating a new beginning—thinking in a crazy way—and worked on establishing a new drama team, naming it Smile of a Child. Despite all these challenges, amid this chaos, destruction, and the most horrifying forms of death, we prepared to work with children. We prepared to face the challenge.

In the midst of all this, I feel a sense of psychological victory. I feel proud, along with the team, of this achievement. We are an unarmed people who love life, but reality is completely different.”

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Looking Forward

As we plan for the future, the commitment to creativity, community, and advocacy remains unwavering. We thank our Board, the Artists who have shared their wisdom, partners, collaborators, Accountants, Auditors, funders and everyone else who has helped to guide and support the work we do. They make it possible for us to continue.

A huge thanks is due to Robert Golden for his ever-generous gift of his superb photography and film making. We would be a very different company without his eye telling the other half of our story.

We would especially like to thank the Ernest Hecht Charitable Trust, which closes this year, for the over 10 years of support of the Edible Garden Project and for its future sustainability. They have enabled us to achieve so much with this long-term project and thanks to their generosity can continue for many years to come.

Please keep in touch as we update our website with more stories, projects and performances.