Celebrating Languages in schools and communities
Universities for Nottingham partnerships
ChalleNGe are really excited to be working with both Universities in Nottingham to find new ways to celebrate languages and language heritages with schools, communities and our arts partners.
Find resources and be inspired by some existing language projects created by our University partners, Natalie Braber and Nicola McLelland.
Nottingham Voices (download the Nottingham Voice app)
World of Languages (play games and tackle quizzies to discover the hidden treasures of languages)
Celebrating Notts Languages (listen and explore what language means to people who call Nottinghamshire home)
What we hope to do
We are delighted to be part of the Universities for Nottingham Co(l)laboratory programme, supporting a PHD researcher, Jack Benjamin, in developing city-wide research and strategy development around celebrating languages as intangible cultural heritage. We look forward to connecting Jack to schools, communities and our arts partners - strengthening the ways we can come together as a city to celebrate our language heritages - dialects and accents, old words, new words and multi-lingualism - within local festivals, events and Nottingham's cultural and education calendar.
Small grants programme 2024
Working with NTU, we are pleased to have awarded 8 small grants for partnership projects for schools, community groups and arts organisations to devise and co-deliver 'Celebrating languages heritages' projects in 2024.
Funding has been awarded to:
- Archway Learning Trust, NAE and the Ukrainian Cultural Centre
- Beatfeet and Forest Fields Primary School
- Nottingham Contemporary and NEST
- Nottingham Playhouse and Refugee Roots
- Windmill Community Gardens
- One Vision Partnership / Bulwell Arts Festival
- Diversify Education and Communities
- Nottingham Poetry Festival
Celebrating Languages Projects
Archway Learning Trust, New Art Exchange & Ukrainian Cultural Centre
Archway Learning Trust, New Art Exchange & Ukrainian Cultural Centre
Archway worked with renowned musician and singer, Freddie Kofi from New Art Exchange and Iryna Muha from the Ukrainian Cultural Centre to support the process of learning songs by music teachers and students. In doing so they aimed to provide teachers with material and CPD to help decolonise their curriculum.
BeatFeet & Forest Fields Primary School
Archway Learning Trust, New Art Exchange & Ukrainian Cultural Centre
Project Donkiloo Laa is a development on a previous project where children from The Gambia and The UK shared their favourite childhood songs with each other. Songs in Mandinka, Wolof, Jola, Fula and English have been taught through insightful music-making and singing workshops, including hand drums and the kora.
Nottingham Contemporary & Nottingham Education Sanctuary Team
As part of their Max Literacy project, Nottingham Contemporary provided a city-wide creative programme with young refugees and asylum seekers, visiting sites across the city and helping them express their written and verbal responses both in their home languages and English with the help of associate writer, Peter Rumney, working closely with NEST (Nottingham Education Sanctuary Team).
Nottingham Playhouse and Refugee Roots
Bulwell Arts Festival (One Vision Partnership), Joy Rice and Dee Kalakoti
Nottingham Playhouse have been building on their collaborative project with Refugee Roots, where the Playhouse’s Conversation Café meets the Refugee Roots’ Art Session. These weekly sessions combine language skills and social elements with creativity in the forms of theatre, puppetry and crafts.
Windmill Community Gardens, Refugee Roots, Open Arms & City of Sanctuary
Bulwell Arts Festival (One Vision Partnership), Joy Rice and Dee Kalakoti
Bulwell Arts Festival (One Vision Partnership), Joy Rice and Dee Kalakoti
Windmill Community Gardens has created a garden of words which describe the crops grown at the centre. This is a celebration of the many languages spoken in Nottingham. Artwork and posters have been created to display the results in an impactful way, and will be digitised so that community gardens everywhere can welcome those with English as a second language.
Bulwell Arts Festival (One Vision Partnership), Joy Rice and Dee Kalakoti
Bulwell Arts Festival (One Vision Partnership), Joy Rice and Dee Kalakoti
Bulwell Arts Festival (One Vision Partnership), Joy Rice and Dee Kalakoti
Bulwell Arts Festival (hosted by OVP) ran workshops in writing poetry and film leading to the creation of a short film themed around celebrating women’s contributions to their community. The women, living in Bulwell, speak different languages and are from various cultural backgrounds, and together share their experiences of female strength and positivity. Producer: Nicola Curzon, Poetry Workshops: Joy Rice, Video Producer: Dee Kalakoti.
Nottingham Poetry Festival & Cultural Vibrations
Nottingham Poetry Festival & Cultural Vibrations
Nottingham Poetry Festival & Cultural Vibrations
As part of this year’s Nottingham Poetry Festival, Cultural Vibrations organised workshops exploring the languages and dialects of the Caribbean and African communities. Through Dub poetry and afrobeats, they focused on how these languages and dialects have affected culture, identity and slang in the UK.
Diversify Education and Communities CIC
Nottingham Poetry Festival & Cultural Vibrations
Nottingham Poetry Festival & Cultural Vibrations
Beechdale Community Centre held a series of events including a Cultural Exchange Fair with stalls, music performances, food from around the world and creative activities celebrating cultural diversity.
VIDEO CASE STUDIES
Nottingham Poetry Festival & Cultural Vibrations
VIDEO CASE STUDIES
ChalleNGe has had the pleasure of working with video producer, Dee Kalakoti, to create video case studies (scroll below) of the Celebrating Languages projects in 2024, as part of the NTU small grants programme.
Capturing the impact of each project and giving you a chance to see them in action!