TYPE OF WORK
Theatre for development (including forum theatre) and arts for social change (via cross-artform awareness).

TARGET GROUPS
Disadvantaged children, youth connected to race-based violence in UK urban multi-ethnic settings, giving voice to refugee victims of torture, London.

GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT
UK, North Africa and Middle East, South Asia

COMPANY POLICY
The company is dedicated to the research and practice of interculturalism to promote attitudinal change, especially in areas where tension exists between different communities.  By giving a voice, through the arts, to those who have had no opportunity to express themselves, Pan believes it can promote new thinking and new alternatives for the future.

Pan has considerable experience of training professionals in development theatre techniques.  In the UK, India and the Palestine territories it has adapted its training to suit local needs and conditions.  Pan believes in empowering local individuals to continue the work after training and mentoring.

SCALE OF PROJECTS
Number of practitioners: 5-18
Number of participants: 50-53,000
Preparation time: Varies
Contact time: Varies

PERMANENT STAFF
John Martin, Artistic Director
Amanda Evans, Arts Against Race Violence Co-ordinator
Mita Banerjee, Youth and Refugee Project Director
Susannah Gorgeous, General Manager
Mojisola Adebayo, Associate Artist (Vidya trainer)

The Vidya Project (India, 2001-03)
Aims:  To change attitudes which block the potential for female children living in slums, thereby increasing literacy, numeracy, career development, decreasing child labour, malnutrition and domestic abuse.  Pan trained 16 slum dwellers in Ahmedabad to be a developmental theatre company which performs in target slum areas. The plays (50% forum, 50% ‘role model’) are written from their own experience and performed from a mobile stage unit.  They are followed by workshops, in which local people’s experiences are explored.  Many of these then become small plays which are subsequently performed in the streets and courtyards of the slums.  To date more than 53,000 people have participated as audience and workshop participants.  Partners are local NGOs and a local arts company.  An evaluation team is in place from local universities and is tracked by a British university team.

Arts Against Race Violence (UK, 1998-ongoing)
Aims:  To show young people in urban areas of high racial tension and violence that there are alternative ways of understanding ‘other’ groups and cultures and that their deprivation need not lead to rivalry and hatred.  Pan works with local groups to enable young people from different communities to express themselves on such issues.  The project can provide skills workshops in role play, street dance, DJing, MCing, rap, song-writing, and video-making, depending on the medium the young people choose.

Parallel to the skills training, the participants are encouraged to question local conditions, and their own futures.  By looking at worst case and best case scenarios for their futures the project looks at ways of moving from one to the other.  All projects reach completion with a performance or sharing of work with peers and the community, and subsequent discussions.  Videos have been shown internationally.  Pan strives for continuity in this work, so that young people are engaged for a number of years.

Both projects listed in Case Studies will continue in the future.  The Vidya slum project is planned to extend into other Indian cities.

There are plans with a Palestinian arts group to work with refugee camps in the West Bank.

John Martin
Pan-Centre for Intercultural Arts
The City Lit, Stukeley Street
London WC2B 5LJ

T +44 (0)20 7427 0000

E post@pan-arts.net
W www.pan-arts.net

“Courageously experimental…vivid music…magnificent performance.”
Times Literary Supplement

“The children were totally inspired by this project. A literacy teacher noted an improvement in their writing. It gave children a new perspective...”
Penny Seymour, Teacher, Osamni Primary School, on Silkwalk (UK, 2003)

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