2019 is nearly over and what a year the Geraldine Connor Foundation has had! We’ve run loads of projects across Leeds as well as supporting many of our Creative Associate Artists in their own projects. We have worked with nearly 1,500 young people in Leeds through workshops in schools and projects such as Global Mash Up. Bringing art and culture into peoples’ lives has never been more important and we are so glad to be able to introduce new artforms into the lives of young people and watch them explore new interests and develop their talents.

Take a look at this infographic to see what we have been up to:

As you can see it’s been an action-packed year! Here are some of our highlights:

The Journey of Things at the Hepworth Wakefield marked a new programme and partnership. Khadijah Ibrahiim and Rheima Robinson worked with ESOL students from Wakefield College interpreted the work of Magdalene Odundo through spoken word.

It was fantastic to watch Adeline and Lulia become so confident at delivering in schools with their Windrush workshops! It was a huge achievement to create a workshop and deliver it themselves to over 600 young people.  

Global Mash Up is a regular highlight of our calendar. This year we worked with new artists Rob Green and Ella Mesma who were great to work with. The project was led by Stella Litras who we always love working with as she brings out the best in all the young people she works with! Global Mash Up will definitely be back next year.

We really enjoyed watching Nii Kwartey Owoo’s Kweku Ananse carnival piece come to life, from its conception in community workshops through to its performance at Leeds West Indian Carnival 2019. We look forward to seeing more of Nii’s work in the future.

Our new website, that launched in September this year, is much easier to navigate than the previous site and allows us to do so much more through it - for example, participants can now book event places through the website without having to go through a third party.

In October, Geraldine Connor was given a Legacy Award for Lifetime Achievement which was a real highlight of the year for us. It is really wonderful to see her work continue to be recognised through the years and we hope that her legacy continues for many years to come!

When Glen Scott came to visit us to give a masterclass in music production we were able to learn about the process of creating music and he even gave us a sneak peek at new music that is coming out in January! We learnt about the importance of the ‘journey’ of becoming a creative and how important it is to love the process and the adventure.

We would like to thank everyone who has supported us over the year, whether financially or through giving up your time to volunteer or just telling people about our work. We couldn’t do it without you.

Make sure to follow us on social media and sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date with our latest projects and news in 2020!