impact Report 2023-2024
From coming to the end of our time as Creators in Residence at Arnolfini to working on a cultural strategy for a Northern Devon town, 23-24 has felt like an agency-defining year for Rising.
It’s brought up questions about our role in social change and how we show up for ourselves, our community and our city. It’s also brought up tensions about how Rising balances the need to contribute to conversations about what’s happening globally, while staying hyper-local, focussing on the needs of our community.
Rising Arts Agency’s 2023-2024 Impact Report
Letting the Work Speak for Itself:
The theme for this year’s Impact Report is ‘letting the work speak for itself’. We’re proud of the fact that we’ve been able to build momentum at a time when it is becoming increasingly difficult to work in the sector.
As an agency we’ve been able to stretch and flex in ways that have created new opportunities for our community, but that hasn’t without its challenges. Navigating the world as a young person is hard right now and we’re mindful of the limits to how we can support as an agency. We can only keep pushing for change, challenging the status quo and pushing the boundaries for what we think is possible.
This year has brought a lot of ‘firsts’ for the agency, so for the first time, we want to pass the mic over to our community about how they’ve experienced Rising over the past year through their own creative expressions.
In this slightly different impact report, you’ll be hearing from 5 members of our community: Iman Sultan West, Valentina ‘Paz’ Huxley, Emmanuella Blake Morsi, Tay Aziz Malik and Gabriela ‘Gabz’ Sobeira; about the impact Rising has had on them through their creative responses / practices.
DOWNLOAD OUR IMPACT REPORT
From video, illustration, infographics to textiles - explore the power of Rising’s community and the stories they’re telling about the work we do here.
A still from Rising’s 2023 Community Picnic at Queen’s Square. Taken by Olumide Osinoiki
2023-24: A YEAR OF ‘FIRSTS’:
Alongside the stories from our community about how Rising has impacted them over the past year (or more), here’s some of key highlights of this year:
We got core funding (for the first time) through Bristol City Council’s Openness fund, £11k a year for 3 years.
We welcomed 19 new community members, and had an induction week to welcome them to Rising (a first)
We won an award from our research with KCL in power and partnerships (a first)
We wrote a cultural strategy for Bideford (a first)
We fed into the 20 year Bristol Harbour placeshaping strategy (a first)
We launched a new website
We piloted the Rising fund - offering 6 artists £750 to do something new in their practice. (a first)
If you like the work we do, please consider joining the Rising Alliance and supporting us through a one-off or regular donation. So that we can have more firsts.
