Mansfield District Council is planning a major six-month project next year to celebrate the cultural richness of the district’s global connections.
All Together Now! will be an ambitious and pioneering community-focused programme. After its launch in January, it will build up to synchronise with National Refugee Week in June and with Mansfield’s existing celebrations for Carnival and Windrush Day.
The project will include an exhibition at the museum, public performances, educational outreach and chances to bring communities together.
Sian Booth, the council’s Cultural Services Manager, said: “We want Mansfield to embrace and celebrate the cultural richness of its town and to find common ground in its shared desire to be a safe and welcoming home for everyone.
“All Together Now! invites local people and sanctuary seekers to see themselves as part of a bigger creative and cultural picture in which everyone is valued, and we hope it will lead to courageous conversations.”
Cllr Stuart Richardson, Portfolio Holder for Regeneration and Growth, said: “We want Mansfield to celebrate everyone’s right and psychological need for a safe, welcoming home. It’s fundamental and something that can unite us and make us more resilient as a community.
“This project is not just for people from ethnic minority or migrant backgrounds. It is about how we all meld and play a part in creating the community of Mansfield.”
All Together Now! is in the development stage and more details of this exciting project will be confirmed next year.
It is being produced for the council by Dr Anna Ball, a freelance creative producer who has extensive experience of migration arts and community wellbeing projects. She is a driving force behind the HEAL Collective, which delivers powerful arts projects working with those navigating the asylum system in the UK.
Under the council’s strategy framework, Mansfield: Towards 2030, it is a key priority to give communities a voice and to value the diversity of communities. The project also aligns with the council’s objectives as an Arts Council England funded National Portfolio Organisation (NPO).
All Together Now! will include:
Museum exhibition
A new temporary exhibition at Mansfield Museum, and led by the museum’s artist-in-residence, Ismail Khokon, will be launched during Refugee Week.
This community-driven exhibition will ask: Is there more to Mansfield’s history than meets the eye? Whose history do we see when we look into the past? And who gets to make history, anyway?
It will aim to encourage local people to respond creatively to artefacts from the museum’s archives, offering their own written, spoken, visual or material responses. Workshops will help participants to produce photo montages for the display.
Mansfield Carnival Community Table
As part of Mansfield Carnival’s celebration of Refugee Week, visitors will be able enjoy a vibrant outdoor community culinary experience offering a delicious array of global food.
With picnic benches set up for relaxed communal dining, the event will feature dishes from around the world.
The Community Table will invite people to come together, share meals, and connect with others in the spirit of unity and cultural appreciation. It promises to be a feast for the senses as well as a celebration of Mansfield’s diverse communities.
Public performances
The project is expected to feature a series of public performances including drama, an immersive art installation, music and a comedy show with comedians from refugee and migrant backgrounds.