Our Freedom: Then and Now is a new, UK-wide arts programme exploring what ‘freedom’ means to communities today, marking 80 years since VE/VJ Day.
Led by Future Arts Centres, the project brings together 60 arts centres, libraries, artists and local people to create meaningful events, exhibitions and performances across the country.
Inspired by Freedom Road, a specially commissioned poem by UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, the programme invites communities to reflect on freedom — past, present and future — during a time of political and social change.
The Future Arts Centres team said:
"In a time when headlines seem to focus on division... the idea of freedom can feel both urgent and contested. What does it mean to be free, together?
Through Our Freedom, we are working with arts centres, libraries and local people across the UK to ask those questions – to open spaces where stories can be heard and reflections shared. The arts offer connection, hope and possibility. Culture has a vital role. It can help us imagine different futures. Our Freedom is not about asserting one view... it’s about inviting many. Even in difficult times, the arts can help us imagine beyond what we assume is possible."
Here in the North East, North Tyneside Council is one of the organisations leading on the project at a local level:
North Tyneside Community Hubs and Libraries collected community responses on ‘freedom’ during a series of workshops, led by commissioned artist Amy Langdown. These responses were developed into an art installation, which will be unveiled at River to freedom; a community celebration, on Friday 14 November. The community-led event will include song, poetry and prose.
Led by Future Arts Centres, the programme is delivered in partnership with Libraries Connected and Open Eye Gallery, supported using public funding by UK Government through Arts Council England.
To find out more about Our Freedom: Now and Then and on all of the events taking place in the North East, visit: ourfreedom.org.uk.