Counterpoints Arts is delighted to be hosting the 2022 Pop Culture and Social Change Retreat, bringing together a curated group of 50 change-making entertainment producers, artists, cultural innovators, activists and philanthropists at Dartington Hall, Devon (UK) from 12-14 October.
Produced as part of Counterpoints’ PopChange Initiative, this year’s programme is being presented in partnership with Comic Relief, with support from Unbound Philanthropy, Open Society Foundations and Dartington Trust.
The Pop Culture and Social Change Retreat 2022 will focus on migration and displacement narratives in TV and film, including intersections with comedy and gaming. Over two and a half days, we will present projects and initiatives that drive social change and disrupt power structures through the creation and amplification of game-changing cultural content. The overall aim of the retreat is to facilitate and inspire cross-sector exchanges, generating ideas and collaborations that would lead to long-term narrative power for Black, POC, migrant and refugee communities.
Programme
The programme will feature inspiring work by a range of creatives and cultural producers from across TV, film and entertainment. There will be a focus on sharing and connecting through short inspirations and provocations, workshops, organised walks, public events, shared meals and plenty of informal networking. Highlights will include the launch of the latest groundbreaking research on immigrant narratives in television presented by Define American and the Norman Lear Center.
A public programme of events will be featured alongside the retreat, presented in partnership with Dartington Trust, including:
- No Direction Home stand-up comedy night, 12th October, 8pm
- Artists’ Scratch Showcase curated by AWATE, 13th October, 8pm (South West-based artists are invited to apply here by 2nd October to be a paid, featured artist)
- Film Screening (to be announced), 13th October 8pm
Context
Since the first Counterpoints Pop Culture & Social Change Retreat in 2018 and publication of the Unbound Philanthropy-supported report ‘How pop culture has the potential to catalyse social change in the UK’ (by Alice Sachrajda with Esme Peach), more creative teams in the UK are collaborating, producing and supporting narrative change initiatives. Recent examples of entertainment content focusing on lived experience of migration and displacement include Channel 4’s We Are Lady Parts and Home, highlighting the power of comedy to drive social change. Or Netflix’s His House where refugee experiences are navigated through the genre of horror.
The 2022 retreat will draw inspiration from recent pop culture case studies, and the shared knowledge and experience of a fast growing network of creative practitioners and change-makers.
Background
Since 2018, Counterpoints Arts’ PopChange initiative has hosted three retreats and numerous networking events exploring pop culture and how it can be harnessed to drive social change.
In 2018 we invited 50 artists, producers, activists and philanthropists to explore the value of pop culture together, with inspiration from special guest Bridgit Antoinette Evans of Pop Culture Collab in the US. Our youth-focused retreat in 2019 brought a network of young changemakers together with hip hop artists, music producers and game designers from across the UK. And in 2021, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, we hosted a 3-day virtual retreat in partnership with OKRE, diving deeper into impactful storytelling through TV/film, stand-up comedy and video games.
Inspired by and alongside the publication of critical research around the potential of pop culture for social change in the UK, the PopChange Salon Series has continued to highlight powerful examples of narrative change from the US and the UK. We’ve heard from people like Rashad Robinson (Color of Change), Marcus Ryder (Lenny Henry Centre For Media Diversity), Anu Henriques (Rocks film), Nana Bempah (Pocc), Evan Narcisse (Marvel Comics), Hassan Akkad (C4’s Home & BAFTA-winning Exodus), among many others. The 2022 Retreat will be the 4th in our series with a special focus on the TV/film industry.
About the organisers & supporters
Counterpoints Arts is a leading national organisation in the field of arts, migration and cultural change. PopChange (Pop Culture & Social Change) is its pioneering initiative exploring how the power of pop culture can be harnessed for social change in order to shift the way we talk, think and feel about migration and displacement in the UK. Together with a network of cultural innovators, creators, producers, funders and activists, we are championing new ideas and cross-sector collaborations.
Comic Relief raises money to support people living incredibly tough lives in the UK and around the world. Through humour and stories of hope, we have shown that people can make a massive difference. Comic Relief believes that those who are closest to the issues have the best solutions, and so works with organisations and people with direct experience of these challenges. We fund hundreds of amazing organisations who support the most vulnerable people and communities in society.
Dartington Trust, founded in 1925, is a thriving visitor destination and charity supporting learning in arts, ecology and social justice, set on a beautiful 1,200 estate in the South Devon countryside. Throughout our history we have drawn leading artists and thinkers including Bernard Leach, composer Igor Stravinsky, cellist Jacqueline du Pre, musician Ravi Shankar, playwright Bernard Shaw and environmental activist Vandana Shiva.
Open Society Foundations, founded by George Soros, are the world’s largest private funder of independent groups working for justice, democratic governance, and human rights. We provide thousands of grants every year through a network of national and regional foundations and offices, funding a vast array of projects—many of them now shaped by the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unbound Philanthropy is a private grantmaking foundation that works to ensure that migrants and refugees are treated with respect and engage with their new communities. We support pragmatic, innovative, and responsive approaches to immigration and immigrant integration in the United States and United Kingdom.
