Blaze Arts and the Connectors Commissions

To coincide with Black History Month, a national celebration that aims to promote and celebrate Black contributions to British society, we are pleased to launch on Friday 2nd October, two new commissions, as part of the youth led Festival of Hope, that celebrate and demonstrate overlooked, hidden or untold stories of Black contributions to British society from across the North West.

Supported by Blaze, the Connectors, a centralised group of Festival of Hope Young Producers aged 12-25, representing the five hub sites from across the project, commissioned one emerging and one established practitioner to explore heritage and celebrate cultures that are often left out of museums. Through these pieces, Jade Williams and Karl Newsam explore untold and forgotten stories of Black figures of the past from Bolton, Carlisle, Cheshire, Lancashire and Merseyside, weaving between the amazing content created by our Festival of Hope partner museums’ young producer teams.

festivalofhope.co.uk/commissions