Across Borders – arts and pop culture commissions

Image: Rubble Theatre by Manaf Halbouni, Glasgow 2018

Counterpoints Arts is delighted to announce that we have been successful in our application to Comic Relief’s “Across Borders” programme.

The overall goal of Comic Relief’s new programme is to support refugees and people seeking asylum to safe, legal and dignified routes to fulfilling and happy settlement, whether that be in the country of destination, transition country or country of origin.  They aim to achieve this through a combination of:

• Direct service delivery at grassroots level;
• Shifting public attitudes and countering negative narrative through campaigns, the arts,
media and popular culture, both in the UK and internationally; and
• Changes to policy, practice and legislation.

Our project as part of this programme will run for three years, until 2023. Working with partners in the UK, Greece and Germany we will develop a series of arts and pop culture projects that help normalise and diversify representations of refugees in mainstream media, arts & culture.

The work will be shaped by local concerns and help to develop cross-sector collaboration and improved arts infrastructure in the context of a culture of welcome.

The project will commence in September 2020 and more details will be published in due course.