We have one week from 27th Nov – 4th Dec to raise £4000 from the public.

If we do, Big Give will match it and make it £8000.

This is a unique chance for you to include people who have experienced homelessness in a creative collaboration between us and Crisis to create a high quality theatre production, which has a transformative effect on the Crisis members and artists involved.

Arts Council England will match your donation!

If you give us a pound and GiftAid it, we receive £2.25.

And so, through the power of maths:

£10 = £22.50

Magic!

The public come to the Old Fire Station to drink coffee, buy art, attend classes and watch shows.

Artists come to rehearse, create and showcase.

Homeless people come to access Crisis services and build confidence and skills by participating and working in the arts.

They all come through the same door and find themselves sharing the space and having overlapping interests.

No other arts organisation in the UK has such a close relationship with Crisis, whilst simultaneously supporting artistic talent in our theatre and exhibition space, and facilitating a crossover between the two. Here, a homeless person can be an artist, volunteer, or audience member. Some are now members of staff.

We need support from people who understand that what we’re doing is important – to the arts, and to society. By donating, you can create a legacy which means someone can shake off the label of being ‘homeless’ to become something else entirely – an artist, audience member, volunteer, contributor, trainee, participant. It’s up to them. And you can be the person to help them get started on this new path. They can’t do it alone.

The Arts Training Scheme creates training and work opportunities for Crisis Skylight members through the arts.

Each placement is bespoke and designed around the trainees’ interests, ambitions, skills and aptitudes.

Participants gain increased confidence and resilience, skills and work attitudes, and follow-on achievement of jobs, volunteering and education.

Our Place is a bold new project which enables homeless people facing severe disadvantage to work with professional artists to create high quality work to exhibit in our public gallery in December 2018.

We have done visual arts exhibitions in collaboration with professional and homeless artists before. However, this is the first time that homeless participants will firmly take the lead in the creation, curation and direction of the exhibition.

Think of this as an investment – in a creative project, but also in someone’s future. Who knows where this could lead for participants. Some homeless members who have exhibited in our gallery have gone on to sell their work, study art at university, and started to believe that they are worth something again. Changing their label from ‘homeless person’ to ‘artist’ has the potential to completely change their life.

The impact on the lives of homeless participants could be enormous. But without funding, we can’t get started.