Skarmarbrinksvagen 3
12135 Stockholm
Sweden
- Arts
- Democracy and community development
Stiftelsen Tamasi Foundation (STF) was established in 2012 in Sweden to promote the role of arts & culture as central to a meaningful process of democracy & social change in the Arab region. STF works through partnerships and collaborations with national/local partners. We have 11 members in four focus countries: Egypt, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Jordan and Lebanon. Our output includes: Performances, productions, space rehabilitation projects as well as community development projects. STF supports one of the most comprehensive capacity building programs in the region. The program includes trainings, internships, one to one mentorships, residencies and fellowships. In addition, STF provides financial support to local community based artists and organisations through grants. STF has a board of 4 members from Sweden, Tunisia & Syria. It comprises 11 national members (5 in Egypt, 3 in OPT, 1 in Jordan & 2 in Lebanon). STF relies grants; Sida has been its main donor. We also received support from EED. Our per annum budget for the last strategy period (2016-2019) has been USD 900,000
STF's mission is to provide spaces & opportunities for civil society & communities to experience freedom of expression through the arts and culture focusing specifically on the performing arts.
Our main objectives are: Empowerment of local communities especially the marginalised through providing & increasing access to the performing arts. Increase the capacity of the performing arts sector as a main civil society actor in the focus countries; increase the financial and economic viability of the performing arts sector through increased capacity, resources and supporting entrepreneurship in the arts; increase the strength of regional bodies working in the performing arts through supporting regional collaboration projects and platforms.
1. Increase access to public space and community engagement through the arts: On average pa, we reach 110,000 audiences in diverse communities through 550 artistic performances. We also manage 7 annual regional festivals across the four countries. We run and manage 9 artistic spaces that also act was community hubs.
https://www.facebook.com/dcafegypt/
2. Engaging the new generations in the arts: We collaborate with local schools reaching an average of 70,000 children per annum. We also provide workshops targeted at children to increase their interest in the arts.
https://www.facebook.com/TamasiCollective/videos/2090628974508829/
3. Capacity building for the performing arts sector: We provide on average 1100 local artists with training opportunities in the form of training workshops, residencies, fellowship and on the job training opportunities. We also provide trainings on fundraising, project design & management as well as entrepreneurship in the arts.
https://www.facebook.com/TamasiCollective/videos/1553651554790045/
https://www.facebook.com/TamasiCollective/videos/487978055406968/
4. Capacity building of local organisations: We provide on going capacity building programs to local organisations to effectively engage with local communities through the arts and culture.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=279333662772633
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=386311692185390
STF works on the international, regional and national level. We have strong national and regional networks. Through our membership in the Anna Lindh foundation, we look forward to acting as a networking and facilitating platform for the Network in our countries. In the past few years, we have also seen an increased interest in and appreciation of the role the arts and culture can play in the area of socio-economic and political development in the Arabic speaking Middle East. We also look forward to partnerships and collaborations with sectors across the wider civil society and not only the arts and culture sector. We look forward to sharing our experience and models of work and developing multi-sectoral/disciplinary programs.
1. We find a lot of intersections between Anna Lindh's vision and our theory of change. We believe in equitable, free and just societies in the Arabic speaking Middle East region. Democracy is a central component to this. We also believe that democracy does not start and end in the ballot boxes. For democracy to be meaningful and lead to sustainable change, changes must be made at the level of consciousness and awareness raising of the communities as well as at the level of policies. Our interventions, therefore, are in line with the concepts behind Anna Lindh's objectives of empowering young voices; influencing policies and policy makers and thereby creating a movement based on a new consciousness and legal and structural frameworks.
2. By joining the Anna Lindh networks, we will be able to collaborate with a wider network of partners. Engaging with the wider civil society has been a central component of our strategy since 2016. Our figures speak for themselves with an average of 200 collaborations with civil society organisations in the four focus countries.
3. The current funding situation and the challenges posed globally since the 2008 financial crisis, compounded exponentially by the recent COVID-19 situation means that as civil society sectors, we need to maximise our resources. the best way to do so is through collaborative projects where we can share our knowledge and human capital in innovative, more impactful ways.
4. Related to point 3, being part of the network will also increase our own capacities, exposure and opportunities to learn from others, therefore increasing prospects for our own sustainability.