In A New Light is an international online performance project, a collaboration between artists and children in Scotland, Bangladesh and Singapore who face barriers accessing the arts. Young people from each country worked together with a team of artists to explore the collective voice of children and young people in relation to the current ecological crisis. Young people from St Ninian's R.C. Primary School (Edinburgh, Scotland), Beyond Social Services (Singapore) and Gidree Bawlee Foundation of Arts (Balia, Bangladesh) will take part.
Three experienced artists – Gudrun Soley Sigurdardottir, Kamruzzaman Shadhin, and Renee Chua have delivered the project whilst also responding to the young people’s ideas and the process itself.
Connecting children and artists across borders was key to this project; celebrating diverse stories, cultures and experiences through contemporary performance. The groups met online between September to May 2021 and engaged in a variety of tasks that encouraged creativity, reflection and collaboration. This project culiminated in the creation of a performance film using original text, movement and song, with young people and artists working collaboratively across the three countries.
This cross-cultural collaboration culminates in a short film; capturing original movement, text, song and reflections from the young people and artists working collaboratively across the three countries. The film captures the creative process which was both reflective and responsive, allowing for collective and individual responses to the themes of the project. The young people's thoughts, ideas and experiences are at the core of this project and their performance will centre around their emotional connection to the ecological crisis rather than a didactic presentation.
Watch the In A New Light film here:
This film has been made Gudrun Soley Sigurdardottir (Lead Artist - Scotland and Film Director), Renee Chua (Lead Artist – Singapore) and Kamruzzaman Shadhin (Bangladesh), with filming by Conor Reilly (Scotland), Wan Man and Ler Jiyuan (Singapore) and Salma Jamal Moushum (Bangladesh). The film was edited by Conor Reilly (Scotland) and Sound Design is by Gudrun Soley Sigurdardottir (Scotland). The text is written by children in all three countries.
Thank you to the children and staff at St Ninian's R.C. Primary School (Scotland), the youth group at Gidree Bawlee Foundation of Arts (Bangladesh) and the children and staff at Beyond Social Services (Singapore).
In A New Light is a partnership between The Artground (Singapore), Gidree Bawlee Foundation of Arts (Bangladesh) and Imaginate (Scotland). The project has been developed as part of the Singapore International Foundation’s Arts for Good Projects.
