The Romani Cultural and Arts Company is very happy to announce funding from the Welsh Government for a ground-breaking community development project focused on young Roma people in the Newport area. The Romani Cultural and Arts Company is grateful for this financial support and for Diverse Cymru who are the administrators of the funding.
Our project will run from January 2024 through to the end of December 2024 and will see us develop a cultural celebration programme with the Roma Community of Newport, South Wales, focused on celebrating the Roma musical heritage within and beyond the Roma Community of Newport. This will include:
The establishment of a local Roma choir Up-skilling young people in creating and producing new music which can be made available for generations to come
The objectives of the project will be to:
• Create greater community engagement in cultural activities through the medium of music
• Provide improved opportunities for different age-groups from within the Roma Community of Newport, South Wales to get involved in cultural activity
• Improve the self-esteem and agency of the Roma Community of Newport with respect to being confident in accessing cultural activities locally and regionally
There will be weekly community sessions each week during the project at The Riverfront Theatre (Newport) which will bring community members together with an experienced facilitator to develop the project and ensure cultural outcomes and impact. We will team up with Cobra Music (based at River Front) who will facilitate recordings and production for the choir and the Roma young people’s group. As the charity runs many different community programmes, there will be opportunities over and beyond the duration of the project to showcase the work of the community choir and the Roma young people so that the impact is felt even wider than the community group initially involved.
Isaac Blake, Director of the Romani Cultural and Arts Company says: “We are so happy to be able to start more intensive work with the young Roma people of Newport; a way to celebrate their musical heritage and culture and make this public for others to benefit.”