Dear Friends, Associates and Supporters,
Welcome to the second termly Collage Voices newsletter! We thought it was time we shouted a little louder about all we do, so that you can see how your support enables us to deliver our programming to the children and young people, families, emerging artists and
communities we serve.The Summer Term of Collage Voices’ 7th year was a huge success – here are the highlights!
APRIL
The Summer term kicked off with the delicious tastes and powerful performances still on our minds from the Awesome International Food Festival 2025 organised by the 2024-2025 Collage Voices Youth Board. Well done to the AIFF organising committee you smashed it and put on a joyous and fun-filled event!
MAY
Our eco project Schools Go Green is underway across four Haringey schools where we are working with Let's Go Zero to deliver an eco-audit to each school and providing a full report with suggested actions, capital budget to fund their choices, and the formation of Eco Counsels made of young
people to meet with the local council. This process will be filmed and turned into short films which document and celebrate the initiative! This project will run until December.
We started a new partnership with Mencap, where we bring supported interns into our midweek core team and were very proud of Alyssa who spent the summer term with us developing her skills and teaching us all a thing or two. We are excited to continue this partnership in the next academic year.
JUNE
In June we celebrated Windrush Day and marked the end of our Windrush Wonder Art project with an exhibition in Karamel (available to view until September!) Come and have a look at the stunning and thought-provoking work by school children and professional artists sitting side by side and explore the celebration of the immense contributions the Windrush generation have made and continue to make to British society.
As the reputation of our emerging artists programme grows, we are getting opportunities for them to perform and in our favourite way, unusual theatre in unusual spaces. Never was this more true than in June when we did two performances for the London Festival of Architecture, one at Alexandra Gate where we placed solo artists across the development delivering monologues, songs and spoken word, and then a piece on the roof of Wood Green Mall where a large cast delivered bespoke responses to Walt Whitman's 'A passage to India'.
JULY
We rounded off the incredible 7th year 2024/2025 with the 5th annual Open Voices sharing and drama showcase, this year complemented by a singing showcase in Karamel which was a huge success! We are so proud of everyone who performed and contributed to the end of year extravaganza.
We held a summer school, Summer Stories, in partnership with Jacksons Lane, as soon as we hit the holidays. A week of circus and songwriting was enjoyed by all.
July also saw the exciting Jack Petchey Awards ceremony. Big congratulations to our Jack Petchey award winners Elina, Alliyah, Gregorio, Jayden, Kaitleen and Roisin. Jayden and Kaitleen brought the house down with a solo and duet – WELL DONE! We were also very proud to see Rocio, our Programmes Administrator winning the Outstanding Leader Award.
IN SUPPORT OF COLLAGE VOICES
Professional productions continue to come in and run nights in support of Collage Voices. We are thankful to REVOLUTION Ché Walker’s immutable event which offered a night of stars from stage and screen, \
One of our emerging artists who was also a junior doctor during the pandemic had an idea of turning her experience into a show. With support from us and a whole lot of hard work from her a new show called Schmedic (sh*t medic) was born. It was a powerhouse of a show and keep an eye out for it in the near future.
PLAY ON a scratch night of new theatre organised by Long Nights Productions.
British Much? which showcased new writing exploring the central question ‘what does Britishness mean to you?’ organised by Reminded Productions.
We thrive due to the continuing support of such nights and love the fact that working professionals see the value of what we do to the point where they come and support.
On that note, we are always looking to support our programmes with some kind of financial stability which is not easy in this crazy world. Please have a look at our standing order programme and if you could help or know anyone who may be interested then please pass onto them. It is very easy to sign up and takes just a few moments, learn more here: www.collagevoices.co.uk/donateÂ
Big congratulations to our parent company Collage Arts who celebrated their 40th Birthday this summer!
We are immensely proud to see students moving on – best wishes to those going to the University of Manchester, Fourth Monkey, and The Julliard School, New York.
Collage Voices is back on Saturday 20th September, spread the word!
As always, thank you for your support, creativity and for being a part of the Collage Voices community. See you soon!
