GEMArts

lotus blossom with words GEM ARTS underneath

Tell us about your organisation (history, aims, vision):

GemArts is an award-winning arts organisation based in Gateshead, and a recognised leader in the South Asian and diversity arts sector. GemArts creates and programmes high quality concerts, events, festivals, workshops, and commissions with regional, national, and international artists across all art forms. GemArts is part of a unique charity, Gateshead Visible Ethnic Minorities Support Group, one of limited number of voluntary Black Asian and Minority Ethnic led organisations based in Gateshead.

 

Who do you serve? How do they access services?

We have been working in Gateshead for over 30 years and have a successful track record of working with and for Black Asian and Ethnic Minority communities, Asylum Seeker, Refugee, and wider communities to ensure equality of opportunity and access to services. GemArts believes that arts enrich the lives of individuals and communities through celebrating our shared cultural diversity – Raising aspirations, building stronger communities, and breaking down barriers. GemArts' mission is to increase equality of opportunity for everyone to engage with culturally diverse arts - as artists, producers, participants, and audiences.
 

People can access us or our programmes by contacting us directly, through referrals or by attending our public events.

 

What are you current projects or services?


Cultural Threads, our Arts, Health and Wellbeing programme, is still ongoing and continues to engage and work with communities across Gateshead and Newcastle. Because of the amazing impact from Cultural Threads programme, we have also been able to partner and work with NHS and Northern England Clinical Network to identify and support Black Asian and Minority Ethnic and wider frontline staff from across the whole sector, who are battling COVID-19 and have faced burnout, trauma, fatigue and bereavement. We continue to work with them through this programme and also refer them onwards for professional help and support, in hopes to improve their mental, physical and social wellbeing.

We also have our massive Hyem programme which works with professional artists and participants engaging in culturally relevant arts activities to explore diverse narratives of Belonging, Community, Resilience, Kindness, their Hopes for the Future and Home. This has concluded with our first COVID-compliant Arts Exhibition. We worked with over 680 adults and children.

Also with lockdown, an unprecedent change in learning and social life, not being able to attend school and meet freely with friends has had a huge impact on the young people we work with. Our exemplar East by North East youth music programme has continued to engage young people living in challenging circumstances. Delivering socially distanced and weekly on-line sessions we support young people’s musical, personal and social development. We offered creative packs to key workers' children over the pandemic and created culturally diverse digital arts content which was distributed to 44 schools across Gateshead, Newcastle and Durham, engaging thousands of children, and young people.

We have also been working with Public Health and Gateshead Council to recruit and deliver COVID Champion training to individuals and groups living, studying, or working in Gateshead. This is important as it allows us to provide concise information from the Government to the public and relay back how it affects their daily lives. Through this work we have also been able to create a COVID testing workshop, which targets people living in emergency housing, rented or bought houses, allowing them to have direct answers to their questions and concerns. Also this increases the rate of testing and provides a more accurate data set of COVID cases in the region, as only 4.7% of our population is currently said to be doing regular testing.

Moving forward, we are continuing our CLLD Changing Perspectives programme, which is mainly focused on empowering our amazing women in Gateshead. We are aware of the impact of the pandemic on people's access to work, employment, and funding, causing insecurity. We also note that women from Minority Ethnic communities can also be the main carers within their families and are generally unpaid. This programme enables us to work with 60 women in building their confidence, and rebuilding and acquiring new skills and knowledge as they plan to re-enter employment.

 

Have you adapted your service during the pandemic? 

Yes, from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, GemArts responded by continuing to meet the needs of minority ethnic communities in Gateshead by using our Community Focused Support process, expanding GemArts' Arts Health and Wellbeing programme, and collaborating with Gateshead Council and Public Health.

By doing this, GemArts continues to work with Gateshead Council and Public Health to create culturally appropriate and relevant resources and information, including translated materials in several languages, to recruit more champions from Minority Ethnic communities. We realised that the experiences and expertise of people from these communities needed to be highlighted, so a smaller group of Gateshead COVID Champions from Minority Ethnic communities was created. From our discussions, we realised that some of the myths encountered by people from the communities were culturally relevant, and based on historical experiences of racism and discrimination, fear and other barriers and may lead to lower COVID vaccine uptake.

GemArts also sit on several different groups, offering our expertise and knowledge, which enables us to cascade the most current information down, as well as feedback concerns from the community, which have been acted upon immediately by Gateshead Council and Public Health, creating greater trust and strengthening relationships between the local community, social services, Public Health, and the Gateshead Council.

 

What are your three main concerns at the moment?

  1. Increasing accessibility to services for Minority Ethnic communities, as COVID has greatly amplified problems faced by these communities, especially those living in areas of high depravation. Also, we are hoping to increase vaccination uptake from people from Minority Ethnic communities.
  2. Changing the narrative around COVID-19 and Vaccinations - With Black and Asian mothers 10.54 times more likely to have still childbirths, you can image where myths such as the myth that COVID jabs are administered to people from these communities to sterilise or cause infertility continue to hold steadfast.
  3. Supporting organisations and groups to access sources of funding, building long lasting relationships with Public Health and the Council.

 

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