MISSION STATEMENT
Flatlands is a community-based group from Lincoln Green, Leeds 9, which is dedicated to culture, media and the arts.
Everyone has a culture. This includes mores, background, tradition, ethnicity, customs, religion, etc. We believe that everyone has a right to celebrate their cultural identity in their own way. More often than not this is expressed through the arts: dance, music, literature, storytelling, visual arts, theatre, etc. Nowadays, an understanding of computers, emails, the Internet, websites and modern multimedia in general is becoming increasingly important to our lives. One of our main aims is to "upskill" our community in this area.
Our core belief is that art matters. In a world where what can't be measured isn't valued, the Arts matter because they express universal values common to all cultures, because they deal with daily affairs in a transforming way and because they question the way we look at the world. A society without the arts is a society that has stopped conversing with itself, stopped dreaming, stopped thinking, and one that has lost interest in its past and its future.
Aims and Objectives
- To enrich lives by promoting the widest possible access to the arts, as well as cultural activities, facilities and resources.
- To remove existing barriers to participation, providing opportunity and access for the many and not the few, including children and young people, people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities, mental health problems, other hard-to-reach groups and those at risk of social exclusion.
- To give local writers, artists and musicians the opportunity to see their work published/exhibited/recorded.
- To encourage local artists to work as part of a group, thereby giving each other mutual support, encouragement and confidence.
- To provide exit strategies for users, to encourage and enable them to take their interest further, perhaps through continuing education, professional training or self-employment.
- To build bridges between the long-standing local community and those new to the UK. We hope to increase understanding between people from different backgrounds and cultures by expressing universal values through art.
- To find new talent. Allowing artists to showcase their work and have something concrete to put in their portfolio.
- To liase and network with other groups. Flatlands has already developed strong partnerships with other agencies (e.g. Thomas Danby College, Swarthmore Education Centre, BBC Leeds, Education Leeds, Vera Media, People in Action, East Leeds Health For All, Leeds Young Authors, Leeds Chess Club, the Recycling Seagulls, East Leeds Family Learning Centre, Leeds Ahead and Business in the Community to name but a few) and we continue to see ourselves as part of a large network of organisations and providers.
- To improve the level of commercial awareness and marketing activity in the arts, regionally, nationally and internationally.
- To foster and encourage community enterprise. We see this as an ethical way to empower our community.
- To create a sustainable and self-financing project.
