Streetwise Opera
giving homeless people a voice

NEWS

Streetwise Opera has been shortlisted for the Charity Awards 2008. www.charityawards.co.uk

Congratulations and thanks to Andrew Missingham who ran the London Marathon in aid of Streetwise Opera... See his report under Fundraising Events and it's not too late to sponsor him www.justgiving.com/
missingham

Founder Matt Peacock has been featured in the Inedpendent on Sunday's 'Happy List' www.independent.co.uk
/news/uk/this-britain/the
-ios-happy-list--the
-100-816335.html
and in Gordon Brown's book Britain's Everyday Heroes. Matt has also been nominated for Wise List 2008 sponsored by Saga. Vote for him here:
http://www.saga.co.uk/
homeandlifestyle/people/
news/wise-list-vote-2008.asp 

Streetwise's 2007 production Critical Mass by Orlando Gough and Emma Bernard with The Shout was called 'By far the best new opera of 2007' by BBC Radio 3 Hear and Now

Streetwise's work is praised in two major research reports - New Philanthropy Capital's Striking a Chord and Homeless Link's Positive activities for people experiencing deep exclusion and homelessness (see The Results page)

Read Simon Fanshawe's article about Streetwise Opera in The Guardian on 19.9.07
http://society.guardian
.co.uk/societyguardian/
story/0,,2171722,00.html

 

donate to Streetwise Opera

'Streetwise Opera is one of the most innovative charities of this decade... finding imaginative and innovative ways to challenge public assumptions about homelessness and homeless people, and to turn stigma into education and celebration' -
Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP (from 'Britain's Everyday Heroes')

When an MP in the 1990s was quoted as saying that the homeless were the people you step over when you come out of the opera house, the residents at the Passage nightshelter in Westminster saw this as an opportunity to turn the tables – if they were in a professional opera production themselves, that would help change the public’s perception of them. They were fed up with the public having negative or incorrect assumptions about them. They wanted to be given the chance show off the best of themselves; to be involved in something they could be proud of where they could stand on stage and say ‘we did this’.

Time Flows, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London Aug 2004. (Photo: Suzanne Jansen)

In just five years Streetwise has grown into a national charity with bases across the country and in Boston, USA working with 600 people who have experienced homelessness per year. We work in parallel with homeless agencies with a vision that arts interventions can and should be an integral part of the overall support of people who have experienced homelessness.

We do this by running two programmes: a Workshop Programme ('Streetwise Live') involving regular, singing/acting sessions in homeless centres of all musical styles, performances, theatre trips, and work placements in arts organisation; and annual Opera Productions which give our performers the chance to star alongside some of the top professionals in the field. These programmes enable us to concentrate both on process and product, giving participants the chance to experiment and participate freely each week of the year in a safe, inclusive environment - but also perform in high-quality shows where there are high-expectations, no compromise, no patronising, bringing out the best of performers and allowing them to show their friends and families, the public and themselves what they can achieve.

'Performing in the show has shown me that if I can achieve this with Streetwise, I can achieve anything else'
- Streetwise Performer

'Streetwise Opera teases, surprises, takes risks and tackles the unexpected... it lures you where you haven't been before and sends you home enriched'
- The Independent