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2023-07-31-accounts

Trustees' Annual Report for the period

Period start date Period end date 01 08 2022 31 07 2023 To

From

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name Intercultural Roots for Public Health

Other names charity is known by n/a Registered charity number (if any) 1179885

Charity's principal address Flat 133, Thanet House

Thanet Street London Postcode WC1H 9QE

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

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20		 Trustee name Office (if any) Dates acted if not for whole
**year **		 Name of person (or body) entitled
to appoint trustee (ifany)
Lynette Hunter Chair Membershipat AGM
Ian Kenvyn Treasurer
Regina Gutiérrez Secretary
Alex Boyd CEO

Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)

Name Dates acted if not for whole year

TAR

March 2012

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Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)
Type of adviser
Name
Address		 Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)
Type of adviser
Name
Address		 Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)
Type of adviser
Name
Address
Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Constitution adopted 14 September 2017

Type of governing document (eg. trust deed, constitution) Charitable Incorporated Organisation How the charity is constituted

Elected by members at AGM Trustee selection methods

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:

SEE APPENDIX BELOW

Section C Objectives and activities

Summary of the objects of the
charity set out in its
governing document		 FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT, TO PROMOTE COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN
HEALTHY RECREATION BY:
PROMOTING PARTICIPATION IN TAI CHI, YOGA, PILATES AND DANCE
 ADVANCING EDUCATION IN THE BENEFITS OF HEALTHY RECREATION
PROMOTING BEST PRACTICE IN THE DELIVERY OF TAI CHI, YOGA,
PILATES AND DANCE.
TO PROMOTE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PUBLIC, THE CONSERVATION,
PROTECTION, AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE PHYSICAL AND NATURAL
ENVIRONMENT, THROUGH THE PROVISION OF OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES,
RESIDENCIES,AND RESEARCH,AND TOPUBLISH THE RESULTS

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Through the year, especially during planning meetings, the trustees have taken into account the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit (ref. ‘public benefit requirement’, The Charities Act, 2011)

SEE APPENDIX BELOW

Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)

Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

SEE APPENDIX BELOW

You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

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March 2012

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Section D Achievements and performance

Summary of the main SEE APPENDIX BELOW achievements of the charity during the year

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Section E Financial review

Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves

At the end of the financial year there was £22,035 in the bank. £5,966 are non-restricted funds and £16,069 are restricted funds and being held in reserve.

In line with our Reserves Policy, during 2022/23 further reserves are being accumulated to ensure the running costs of the organisation can be met up to one year in advance. This allows us to offer events on a ‘donation only’ basis which removes financial barriers to participation and opens access to all.

Details of any funds materially in deficit

No deficits

Further financial review details (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant about:

SEE APPENDIX BELOW

Section F Other optional information

Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s)

Full name(s) Dr Alexander Boyd Position (eg Secretary, Chair, CEO etc) Date 18/12/2023

TAR

March 2012

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Intercultural Roots for Public Health Annual Review 1 August 2022 - 31 July 2023 Prepared by Clare Kenvyn

Introduction

The last 12 months have been transformational for Intercultural Roots in terms of both the development of our portfolio of activities and the scale and international reach and impact of these activities. Overall, we have made great progress in our ambitions to grow Intercultural Roots (IR) in communities and thereby increase public benefit. This growth has been achieved through a combination of factors: our leadership team, the commitment and contributions of our artist/practitioner partners in helping us realise our dreams, and we are also indebted to our trustees and advisors who have given their time and energies to supporting our work. In addition, we are grateful to the Social Enterprise Support Fund (SESF), whose financial support over the past year has enabled us to not only deliver more activities in local communities but afforded us the time and space to secure additional funding streams to support the expansion of our activities and begin to develop our strategic networks.

This review reflects on the 2022-23 year in order to recognise, celebrate, reflect, learn and build from our progress and achievements. We have grown in so many ways – in terms of the number of artists and practitioners we have worked with and supported, the number of ‘arts for health and social change’ events that we have delivered and the number and range of other organisations that we have engaged with. All of this has contributed, through applied arts and culture or embodied practice-as-research, to improving many people’s health, wellbeing and life satisfaction, helping to build inclusive and equitable communities and support the environment.

We have also grown in financial terms – see Chart 1 below. In 2022-2023 we achieved a turnover in excess of £228,000, up from £83,630 in 20212022. Moreover, we have developed our funding model and with this comes greater flexibilities to draw in funding from multiple sources. Together these developments mean we are more financially secure and resilient and have maintained unrestricted funds of £5,966 for contingencies as per our reserves policy. For full financial and further information including our previous Annual Reports please refer to the Charity Commission for England and Wales registration information for Intercultural Roots for Public Health CIO (Registered Charity number: 1179885).

How and where we operate has also been strongly influenced by community and global concerns, and this can be seen in how responding to such issue cuts across our organisation and activities. We continually ask our partners and those whom we connect with the question ‘What Matters to You?’ and reflect the responses in what we do and how we operate. We have, for example, recognised and responded to how the cost of living crisis is, on top of covid and war in Europe and the Middle East, is impacting on the ongoing mental health pandemic. The climate crisis and associated eco-anxiety is also a common thread running through our work and in the past year the Charity Commission has accepted the inclusion of a new environmental charitable objective thus expanding the ways in which our activities create public and planetary benefit.

Image credit: Intercultural Roots 2023 by license

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Our Core Team of Staff and Volunteers

Expertise Brought by Others

There are currently 17 people in our leadership, management and advisory team, up from 10 the previous year. While IR is UK based, it is globally facing, and our collaborative team represents a rich tapestry of intercultural knowledge, experience and perspective from around the world. IR is 64.7% led by people identifying as female or non-binary and 52.9% led by people from minoritised ethnic groups, that term located within a UK perspective. We follow a horizontal, non-hierarchical structure regarding our governance and inclusive approach to community building, providing a foundation for the verticality of the projects that are seeded and nurtured to grow from this radically caring and collaborative ‘home’.

We are indebted to the Directors and Trustees, Advisors and Friends of IR who have supported our growth and development. Their contributions have been many and varied, both strategic and tactical either offering ideas, critical perspective and introductions. Hands on support has also been invaluable and has mainly consisted of supported the resourcing of funding, including reading and editing applications to directly being involved as a partner or lead partner. Friends of IR have provided feedback on concepts and beta versions of new ideas and products i.e. initial project page design and copy, contract checking and spreadsheet analysis. Just a few examples of the invaluable voluntary support provided includes:

We consider our organic approach analogous with nature, connected to the living soil, fungi, trees... and, as a learning organisation, we implement evaluative feedback loops, that allow us to action plan for continual improvement - much like the cycles of the seasons, of water, and of decay and growth.

• Weekly mentoring for the Executive Director

• Recommending funders, drafting applications and sharing experiences of project management and strategies for growth

We are grateful too for the support of a number of individuals who support both the daily and periodic activities of Intercultural Roots. Our volunteers have fulfilled a number of roles that have contributed to our activities and progress, including: Voluntary Outreach, Promotion, Graphic Design, Business Support & Mentoring, Editing Funding Applications and Network Co-Facilitation.

• Being a critical friend and mentor, bringing ideas & introductions, and the voluntary co-facilitation of a residency in Wales

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• Meetings in Davis, California with introductions to eco-somatic PhD students leading to ideas re acting and arts in nature

• Supporting strategic and evaluative approaches, travelling to Yorkshire from Norfolk for several meetings

• Providing a social justice, equality, inclusion, diversity and decolonial perspective, and support for a research funding application

• Supporting the development of concepts of embodied research and video documentation

• Providing expertise on community development including from minoritised ethnic and working-class perspectives to resolving issues such as gang culture, knife crime, domestic violence in South London

• Travelling from Washington DC to London for discussions around equalities and indigenous research, provided expertise on ritual and ceremony as research, and unique international perspectives on redressing issues relating to racial inequality and injustice.

In addition, we have received paid-for consultancy support from individuals in relation to specific tasks. This includes consultancy to support the analysis and development of our digital landscape, including the writing of a proposal for new ‘digital ecologies’ and ICT support for the implementation of the resulting project that includes new features on our website and new automations. Additional support for IR promotion, administration, finance and communication tasks has been necessary during 2022-2023.

Image Pages 1 & 3 - Health & WELLth Festival ‘To Be With’ Nov 2022 Image credit: Parissa Hosseinpour

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Human-Nature Connect ‘Butoh in Nature with Vangeline’, Reeth, July 2023
Image credit: Intercultural Roots
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Marketing and Promotion

The uniqueness and novelty of Intercultural Roots’ ethos and activities means that we have needed to apply focus and careful thought to raising awareness of our activities. During the course of the year, we have utilised a range of intermediaries and systems (see Figure 1) to achieve this end, with the figures in Table 1 below showing results for digital promotion over time since we started in 2018. In the last year alone, we have gained newsletter subscribers up from 2,000 in July 2022 to some 2,400 by May 2023, and this is despite a cleanup to remove subscribers not engaging. Our Instagram Followers reached 3,008 by May 2023, up from 1,535 in November 2022. Google Analytics corroborates that increase through our website traffic which has more than doubled in the last year: in the period August 2021 to July 2022 our website received 58,000 views and 37,000 first users, whereas in the period June 2022 to May there were 111,000 views and 69,000 first users (32 seconds engagement time on average). In addition, compared to the preceding 12 months paid search increased 158.9% thanks to nonprofit grants from both Google and Microsoft, Organic search increased 1,837%, Referral increased 3,353%. Visits to What’s On page increase 771%. Youtube and Vimeo views decreased this year due to video files being shared directly to social media channels rather than via Youtube and Vimeo links that require click through. As more emphasis is placed on video as a key media format for disseminating embodied practice-as-research, and in deploying our new EcoGPX™ project, we expect video views to increase.

Figure 1: IR Marketing and Promotion Tools 2022-2023

Google AdWords - $10K per month nonprofit grant received.

Microsoft Advertising - $3K nonprofit grant per month until April 2023 then became $1K per month

The above both rely on Google Analytics built into our website www.interculturalroots.org

Facebook page, groups, paid ads - Meta’s pixel tag built into our website

Instagram posts, reels, stories ‘X’ formerly Twitter

LinkedIn - developed a new Group for IR with Microsoft nonprofit support YouTube channel

Vimeo channel

Email servers X 5 reaching over 5,000 scholarly subscribers across theatre, drama, dance, performance, embodiment research

MailChimp for IR newsletter emails

Basecamp – free license thanks to Basecamp for Education (two new community projects developed - ‘Growing Intercultural Roots in Communities + Human-Nature Connect / International Eco-Embodied Network)

Many third party websites including IFTR, PSi, RSA, ACE, Arts for Health London, Prescribe.org, ArtsAdmin.co.uk etc

Outreach Activities

We are continually striving to raise awareness and engagement in IR’s activities, and outreach is an important part of our strategy. Again, with nature in mind, spirals are a great metaphor for our outreach strategy – both reaching out and drawing in at the same time. Outreach helps us share information about IR with people who might not otherwise get to find out about us, in particular including communities who are often underrepresented or excluded.

In the past year we used a portion of the funding received from the SESF to support outreach activities including developing our marketing and promotion as above, and also the development of our Growing Intercultural Roots in Communities (GIRIC) and Human-Nature Connect (H-NC) networks that commenced in January 2023 and continue to evolve.

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Community-led Embodied Research

In addition to supporting outreach, we also utilised SESF monies to help us widen our engagement with practitioners. We consider our growing community of practitioners, a gateway to engaging participants and enabling our work to impact the wider public.

Due to the reputation as a community-led embodied practice-as-research organisation, that we have established and wish to maintain, our efforts are focused on highly experienced and qualified artists and embodied practitioners, usually qualified to post-graduate level and beyond with specialist training and qualifications in their particular artistic, cultural or eco-somatic practice discipline. Many are practitioner-researchers or independent professionals i.e. dancers, musicians, actors, therapists, painters, puppeteers, artivists, facilitators etc. The artists/practitioners we contract with are usually also highly experienced as freelance teachers. Asking practitioners ‘What matters to you?’, the question central to our Health & WELLth umbrella programme, revealed a demand for support for collaboration between practices, digital promotion, how to write funding applications, understanding arts and health connections, and self-care i.e. the health of the practitioner, and these are areas we have begun to address through delivery of the Growing Intercultural Roots in Communities (GIRIC) professional development programme January - June 2023 (Further information is in the following heading ‘Practitioner Partnerships’).

Intercultural Arts Gatherings

We have been able to offer a greater number and range of events than previously, in part this is due to the funding support received through the SESF. We continue to provide a number of online events, this being a legacy from the covid pandemic, but our experience now is that online events facilitate the involvement of a global audience or when participants are not required to be co-located.

70 online events were delivered during 2022-23. We know from feedback that our online events have enabled people with disabilities, chronic illness and injuries, as well as single parents, carers, and people geographically isolated, to attend events they otherwise would not have done, and therefore it is important that we continue with our online activities to ensure inclusive access. We utilise Zoom and this is now integrated into our website where a substantial upgrade was required as part of our digital workstream because of upgrades with Zoom’s software.

65 in-person events, some of which are part-day, others full-day (and sometimes multi-day, including residentials) have been delivered during 20222023. A flagship, event, for IR is its Health and WELLth Festival. In total, 2,181 people participated in our Intercultural Arts Gatherings during 20222023.

‘Ancestor Tree’ Performer Sophie Schultze-Allen ,Imahe credit: Cristina Amate

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Health and WELLth Festival 28 – 30 October 2022, Open House Hackney, London

The 2022 ‘To Be With’ Health & WELLth Festival, served as a fertile ground for UK and international practitioners and researchers from diverse artistic and somatic disciplines to converge and delve into the nuances of ‘being with.’ This second edition, building on ‘Navigating the Unknown’ in 2021, was not just a symposium event but a transformative journey over three days, which participants described as “beautiful, transformative, nourishing, [and] creative,” echoing our intention to foster connection and radical care.

The symposium’s structure allowed for a robust exploration of topics ranging from Art and Activism to Dance and Eco-Somatics. Working groups focused on transformative narratives, ecological art, listening and sounding, embodied storytelling, and the politics of the body, offering a wide lens on contemporary art-making challenges and opportunities for societal progression.

Feedback from participants highlighted the festival’s ability to touch upon significant societal issues and the potential of embodied practice when applied on a larger scale. The event’s impact on well-being and the inspiring nature of the discussions were particularly noted. Attendees felt a shift in perspective, noting, “societal systems...are only ONE system,” recognising the power of alternative systems rooted in pleasure and well-being.

The hybrid plenary session brought together the insights from the working groups, fostering a telematic ‘being with’ that transcended physical boundaries. Participants from various locations, including those connecting digitally, praised the sense of community and the cultivation of a “deep, rich, loving community across seemingly impassable chasms.”

The festival not only provided a space for academic and artistic dialogue but also for personal growth and the forging of new connections. Testimonials spoke of newfound inspiration, a reignited passion for the arts, and the joy of co-creating in a supportive and open-hearted community. Our closing performative-ritual meal provided an experience of ceremony-as-research building on indigenous and ‘originary’ ways led by practitioners from Brazil. In summary, the Health & WELLth Festival was a resounding success, hailed for its engaging content, transformative experiences, and the pleasure it brought to its attendees. It stands as a testament to Intercultural Roots’ commitment to advancing embodied research, with participants eagerly anticipating future collaborations and creations birthed from this symposium.

Health & WELLth Festival ‘To Be With’ Nov 2022 Image credit: Parissa Hosseinpour

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Health & WELLth Festival ‘To Be With’ Nov 2022 Image credit: Parissa Hosseinpour

Activities with Potential Partners

From the outset we knew that realising the ambitions of Intercultural Roots would mean working in partnership with other organisations. We have developed a range of partnership relationships, based on qualities of integrity, respect and mutual benefit. There has been considerable sharing of knowledge and understanding, and in some instances, partnerships have developed sufficiently for project proposals to be co-created.

Our Health & WELLth Festival (see above) included opportunities for critical dialogue on important research questions and a plenary with feedback from academics mentioning the high standards and embodied nature of this community-led research experience.

We are pleased to have developed some successful partnerships within the Higher Education sector. This demonstrates our ability to establish our credentials at an academic institutional level. Academic recognition is important due to the focus we seek to place on research and in particular, community-led work that empowers the practitioner-as-researcher. IR continually emphasises that to understand the appropriateness, impact and benefits of embodied practices, qualitative and in some cases quantitative research (methodologies, analysis and critical evaluation) need to be undertaken.

This research requires training and empowerment of practitioners and the consent of participants, to ensure that everything we do, at a community level, is both practice-as-research and research-as-practice. Often, as mentioned in Metamorphosis below, this work overflows towards performance-as-research when practice, as developed through creative co-labs for example, becomes performance, thus disseminating the creative research process for peer and audience appreciation and feedback, and for public benefit. What makes IR stand out is our focus on applied research through ‘peer reviewed production’. Rather than focussing on academic publication alone, IR produces research-led work in communities through the practitioners and networks it supports. This work is collaboratively ‘peer reviewed’ through now well-established processes of proposal submission and feedback, ethics and safeguarding review, publication, delivery, dissemination and critical review and evaluation. Much of IR’s social enterprise and non-profit trading income is dependent on the quality of these processes thereby assuring high standards. As part of our efforts to progress the research side of our work we promote opportunities for practitioners to access the International Federation for Embodied Research – Embodied Research Working Group (IFTR – ERWG).

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Metamorphosis Performance-as-Research Sep 2022. Image credit: Mariusz Wolny

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IFTR Embodied Research Working Group and Intercultural Roots

IFTR is acknowledged by the international academic community to be the leading global scholarly association in the field. The IFTR Embodied Research Working Group (ERWG) is dedicated to the exploration and promotion of embodied practice as a vital component of academic research methodology within theatre and performance studies. The group aims to provide an international platform to discuss methodological, epistemological and ontological questions arising from embodied research. The ERWG supports individual and collaborative projects that make embodied practice a central part of their research process, challenging traditional distinctions such as theory vs. practice and body vs. mind. It seeks to foreground embodied knowledge and research in the field by creating interdisciplinary and intercultural connections, and by developing new modes of assessment for embodied practices. The group’s activities include sharing research methods, written papers, workshops, demonstrations and using audio-visual media to exchange knowledge.

The ERWG was conceived by Dr. Alex Boyd and cofounded in 2015 by Dr Ben Spatz, Prof. Lynette Hunter, Dr Ian Kenvyn, Peter Lichtenfels and Dr Alex Boyd, and constituted in 2016 after being formally proposed by over 40 IFTR members from more than 26 countries. The ERWG ‘Institutional Frameworks’ work-stream was from where Dr Alex Boyd founded Intercultural Roots for Public Health as a separate legal non-profit entity to IFTR, with the ERWG cofounders included as directors and advisors. Since 2016 IR has shared it’s work with the ERWG at the annual IFTR Conference including at the July 2023 conference that took place in Accra, Ghana. While in Accra, and through crowd-funding, IR supported 50 local Ghanian artists who produced a Human-Nature Connect residency called Eha or ‘broom’ that included messages about appropriate waste disposal and defecation in urban and beach locations. A film of this work by Ghanian director Peter Atsu Adaletey will soon be released.

‘Eha’ Accra, Ghana July 2023. Photo Credit: Intercultural Roots

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Eha’ Accra, Ghana July 2023 with Peter Atsu Adaletey. Photo Credit: Intercultural Roots.

Partnerships with Higher Education Institutions IR partnered with three universities to apply for AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) research fund applications related to:

(i) Indigenous Research (Huddersfield University) – in this case IR provides the international indigenous research partners from North America (First Nations), New Zealand (Māori) and Ghanaian);

(ii) Health Inequalities in the North West of England (Edge Hill University) - where IR is the link between the VCS (Voluntary and Community Sector) partners

(iii) Land Connectedness / Eco-Somatic Network (University of Derby) – IR is currently supporting partnership applications awaiting submission and is providing vocabularies and community led research around land connectedness and eco-somatics.

While neither of these partnership applications for funding are yet to reach fruition there is a momentum building towards IR’s approach to community-led research being recognised and its alignment with the new UK Research and Innovation(UKRI) 2022-2027 strategy entitled Transforming Tomorrow Together.

Additionally, through IR’s work for the World Congress for Traditional Chinese Medicine and Integrated Health in California with Drs. Charlene Ossler and Alex Feng, IR received the “Global Excellence of the Year, 2022” Award from the 22nd World Congress, Akamai University.

In November 2022, through a crowd-funding campaign, Intercultural Roots part-funded and partnered with the Cross Pollination Research Platform who delivered two weeks of professional development activity for 3rd Year World Performance students at East 15 School of Acting (University of Essex).

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Hybrid Taoist Gathering Co-Produced by Intercultural Roots, Oct 2022 Image: Shifu/Dr Alex Feng at Zhi Dao Guan, The Taoist Center – Oakland, California

We have also developed successful partnerships with local community organisations to codevelop and deliver applied-arts projects. This has enabled us to bring creative arts approaches to projects designed to meet local needs. In the example below, we were able to demonstrate how a niche need – in this instance domestic violence – can be addressed through theatre as artistic research.

Draper Together at Elephant & Castle in Southwark, London

Subsequently, IR received £20,000 from the Peabody Trust, also via the London Community Foundation, for a similar project that will take place over 2 years in two Westminster housing estate locations at Pimlico and Milbank. Additional outcomes have been that the lead contact at Draper Together has become an IR Advisor, while IR practitioners with an interest in this project have been trained as volunteers to gain shadowing experience. An externally evaluated report produced from this work by Dr Julia Fortier can be found here

External Fundraising

Discussions and application writing support with this community organisation led to a successful £10K partnership funding application to the Elephant & Castle Community Fund for an applied Boal Forum Theatre project to tackle local community issues including domestic violence. The project was delivered by IR artists Drs. Andrea Maciel and Almiro Andrade, with Draper Together providing outreach support.

The SESF funding was important to IR in the past year because it enabled some paid-for time to develop funding applications. Over the course of the past year, a number of funding applications were submitted, and whilst of course not all were successful there has been some notable progress in drawing down external funding. Interestingly, in some cases these funds have also opened doors to other funding streams as described further below.

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Boal Forum Theatre Image. Credit: Draper Together

Grants applications were made to a range of potential funders. In all, IR and close partner organisations submitted seven successful applications: Local Action Fund (England – South East), BA Better World Community Fund, The Aviva Community Fund, Save Our Wild Isles Community Fund, The Big Give Trust – BG Green Match, and one each from the Innovate UK Creative Catalyst and London Community Foundation – Peabody Trust.

Match Funding: The following match funded projects were successfully applied for and received support in 2022-2023 for activities related to our new environmental objective:

More recently, and arising from IR’s developing relationships with HE and from our Ripples and Human-Nature Connect work, and also presenting an emerging focus on the application of technology, a £50K Creative Catalyst research grant for a project called EcoGPX™ has been awarded to IR by Innovate UK, which is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

EcoGPX™

This project called EcoGPX™ which commenced in August 2023, is developing a new app that will allow users to explore an online gallery of media at particular places of interest to interact with or contribute their own content. Beyond entertainment and eco-tourism, the app aims to merge art, nature, heritage and community while promoting environmental awareness and local involvement in local initiatives like reducing pollution and protecting wildlife. The prototype of the app is being developed in Ilkley, Yorkshire – UK and will be launched in January 2024.

IR promoted the projects via numerous channels including Crowdfunder and its own promotional channels and overall achieved donations plus match-funding of £186,814.

Innovative Approach to Crowd Funding:

The match funding approach adopted by the BA Better World (see also our 2021-2022 Annual review) and from the above funders, have introduced IR to the potential of crowd-funding as a means of sustainably raising funds. IR has developed innovative crowd-funding models that enable practitioners and the wider public to participate in activities when this might otherwise not be possible. Offering ‘Reward’ incentives encouraging the public to donate has helped create bursaries to subsidise the costs of events being delivered that also contribute towards the objectives of the funder. This mutually beneficial model has, for example, greatly increased participation in the Human-Nature Connect residencies and eco-somatic work (see below) that IR and our partners have co-delivered during 2022-2023.

Innovative Approach to Crowd Funding:

Donors: generously contributed to the match-funded Crowdfunder projects, as mentioned above. In addition, IR benefited from other donations over the course of the year. Totalling £6,570 these donations mostly consist small amounts of £20 or less received during events or through online giving portals such as Donorbox. We are grateful to the £5,715 Gift Aid we received from HMRC on donations made by UK taxpayers. IR has now built its own Stripe based donation facility into its website that can be accessed via IR website.

Practitioner Partnerships

One of our goals for this year was to expand our network of artist and practitioner partners, and this was the basis of our application to SESF. In our application we expected to support 50 artists and practitioners to propose new online and in-person courses. We created an Open Call to offer peer-topeer support and development across our Practice, Pedagogy and Projects model to international artists and practitioners. This Open Call attracted widespread interest - beyond our expectations - leading, in the end, to us receiving and accepting over 270 applicants! To support this influx of new partners we built two new Basecamp projects and thus the creation of two new networks: ‘Growing Intercultural Roots in Communities’ (GIRIC) (which currently has 193 applicants) and ‘Human-Nature Connect / International Eco-Embodied Network’ (IE-EN) (currently over 165 applicants).

We’re grateful to Basecamp for providing IR with an educational user license. This asynchronous online platform and app has enabled us to provide regular structured development sessions, delivered online via Zoom, as well as being able to offer resource access and community forum. In the case of GIRIC the Zoom sessions took place weekly between January and June 2023, and monthly for the H-NC / IE-EN network. High numbers of people have attended the live sessions, whilst others have watched the recorded videos. In addition, there have been many 1:1 mentoring and coaching sessions. Arising from these sessions we have received proposals not only for courses but also suggestions for project proposals i.e. partnership proposals to submit applications for collaborative funding to meet community needs - much like that with the example of Draper Together mentioned above.

International Projects

Many of the practitioners have also proposed residencies and Rewards related to match-funded projects including international projects that IR has supported during 2022-2023 in Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Colombia as well as Italy, USA and Canada.

In establishing the GIRIC network we identified that practitioners desired opportunities for network building; this influenced the online peer-to-peer support structure that GIRIC employs through the support of the Basecamp tool. To help meet the demand, a Google Sheet that includes the details of the over 150 artists who successfully applied to GIRIC can be accessed by all the GIRIC community. From the peer-to-peer interactions between practitioners, numerous new collaborations have emerged. For example, a Deep Listening® and Feldenkrais programme was created by Jon Petter and Prof Thomas Kampe with two new series of intensive weekend workshops, that were fully attended, delivered at Goldsmiths University. The facilitators shared their process of collaboration at one of the weekly Zoom meetings we held for GIRIC practitioners.

Deep Listening® and Feldenkrais. Credit: Jon Petter and Thomas Kampe

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COYAC Cameroon Folk Dance Image credit: Bobo Leennox

Practice (Embodied Knowledge)

Metamorphosis

Our practitioner partnerships, supported by GIRIC, provide opportunities to develop creative practice-as-research, collaborations between practices and also performance sharing.

This project, funded by The National Lottery Community Fund as ‘Roots to Better health’, was initiated in 2022 and consisted of a monthly thematically curated series of creative labs, collaborative paired-guest public workshops and public performance sharings in Hackney. It ended 30 October 2022 with the Health & WELLth Festival.

Metamorphosis by Intercultural Roots

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Artists: Vinicius, Lizzy and Jonas at Metamorphosis Performance Sharing Sep 2022. Image credit: Mariusz Wolny

Pedagogy (Traditional Knowledge)

The Practitioner Partnership agreements provide opportunities for artists and somatic practitioners to propose, co-develop (with IR), promote and deliver (with IR’s support) in-person and online courses.

Workshops and Courses Delivered

During 2022-2023 IR has supported the development, publication, promotion (see What’s On), ticketing, delivery and administration of the following in-person and online Practitioner Partnership workshops and courses:

In-person:

Hybrid

Online:

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UKRI Creative Catalyst Award

The Innovate UK Creative Catalyst Award project called EcoGPX™ has recently received (in August 2023) £50K funding. The development of this project was led by IR, with the original idea having been proposed by a new GIRIC artist, Dr Stuart Mellor. The first co-developed application to fund the project to VocTech was unsuccessful while the second, to UKRI, succeeded.

Projects (Community-Led Research)

Income Earning Opportunities for Freelancers

There is still much work to do to encourage and empower the independent artists and practitioners in our community to propose through Project Partnerships, ideas for co-developed work that responds to locally identified needs. Moreover, the time and effort that goes into developing funded community-led projects and funding applications cannot be underestimated. There have been several instances where IR has supported practitioners to develop projects and apply for funds, yet did not in the end come to fruition, and although there have been two cases where funding applications have been submitted these have thus far been unsuccessful.

Throughout Covid and until the present day many opportunities for artists and practitioners to earn have been reduced. IR has developed an equitable non-profit approach that addresses this issue with multiple benefits for practitioners and participants, while also supporting IR’s sustainability. Our Practitioner Partnerships project offers opportunities for freelance artists and practitioners to earn income through teaching online and in-person workshops and courses. This also generates social enterprise trading income for IR through two models for sharing net income, one of which offers enhanced digital promotion support.

However, there has recently been a first successful Project Partnership funding application, as set out below.

Performers: Dylan Bolles and Will Crawford, Health & WELLth Festival Nov 2022 Image credit: Parissa Hosseinpour

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‘The door of no return’, Elmina – St. George’s Castle, Volta, Ghana July 2023. Image credit: Intercultural Roots

At a time when many artists and practitioners are forced to ‘pay to play’ or ‘pay to perform’ by the for profit and non-profit arts industry IR has has insisted on a more equitable approach. We have an ethic of always paying artists we commission, whether it’s a share of net income or, through funds, grants or donations we resource, offering a basic fixed fee plus a percentage of net income. Our Health & WELLth Festival in October 2022 (see above) exemplified this. It was designed as a series of thematic working group symposia, each made up of practitioners paid to present their embodied practice-as-research to participants culminating in a hybrid international plenary event and performative-ritual meal. Funds were raised through a match-funded Crowdfunder campaign with fully funded tickets offered to participants through an Open Call for applications. Again, this calls into question the status quo of many academic conferences were researchers pay to join membership bodies and then pay to register to present their research, an exploitative mechanism we feel, especially for independent practitioner-scholars.

Human-Nature Connect - International Eco-Embodied Network

Human-Nature Connect (H-NC) is emerging as an important eco-arts response to the climate crisis and increasing eco-anxiety. In 2020 during covid lockdowns, IR partnered with the Third Sector Renewables charity to deliver a series of online creative co-labs called ‘Small Steps in Tackling Eco-Anxiety’ that invited artists to bring their practice into the outdoors and embody nature. Resultant performances were shared with peers through video documentation. This work inspired hundreds of Google Earth pinned 1-minute ‘Ripples’ videos (Oct – Dec 2020) from artists across 6 continents that responded to the question ‘What matters to you?’ that, along with the Metamorphosis project (2022), emphasised ‘we are nature’.

Alongside Third Sector Renewables and with additional match-funding from BA Better World, and with many influences, our first Human-Nature Connect eco-arts residency was developed and took place in Ingleton in November 2022.

New Programmes of Activity

The development of two new Basecamp supported community networks and a third, currently in consultation stage as Transforming Broken Wings (working title, see below), was not an intended outcome of the initial SESF project concept but organically evolved as we realised the massive need from practitioners responding to IR for this support and its resultant growth. As a listening organisation that aims to be as equitable, diverse and inclusive as possible we feel it is imperative to try and respond to and support the needs of all members of our community. Arising from discussions within these evolving networks has been new programmes of activity:

Human-Nature Connect Ingleton 4th – 6th November 2022

This 2-night pilot residency, supported by outdoors specialists from Move2Change CIC invited 30 artists to share their practice ‘with and within’ the limestone landscape and caves of the Yorkshire Dales National Park in the UK. Drs. Alex Boyd and Andrea Maciel offered a light and sensitive facilitation through their own practice, providing a loose container for the work that incorporated Ilya Noé and Lynette Hunter’s concept of ‘gifting’ i.e. being present and being-with, giving and receiving both at the same time, without expectation.

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The resultant contained yet open, or ‘non-empty’ space provides a pedagogy for collaborative, creative and responsive practice-as-research to emerge. An example of this was the creation of the ‘sphagnum dance’ that emerged apparently spontaneously within group contact improvisation, expanding and contracting on the final morning as a result of learning the day before that sphagnum moss can hold more than 20 times its dry body weight in water. A closing ceremony that included gifting over 30 tree saplings to local land-owning elders, pre-grown from seed in readiness by one of the participants, concluded the residency with a short film later published with Amaia Mugica and Bruno Rocha. In evaluating this pilot H-NC project, much positive feedback and testimonials were received including:

“A beautiful challenge to allow nature to invite us to go beyond our potentialities”, “A beautiful way of experience our non-binary condition of being”, “How powerful was to sense the miracle behind nature shaping our experience”, “This guided encounter with nature challenge me and woke up myself to unknown inner resources”.

“Looking back at the weekend, there were so many meetings for me: meeting fellow artists, facilitators and guides, meeting the group, meeting the lodge, meeting the landscape and nature. There was something extraordinary beyond my previous experiences. I enjoyed getting to know the history of each person even from tiny encounters and also the grand Yorkshire Dales land. There is always something hidden beneath the surfaces. The formation of land and water circulation took my imagination into vast time and space. Behind my mind, I remember I struggled with the cold and wet weather. But now the memory of discomfort seems to be fading out and the wonder and vastness of nature and how each of us gathered there from all over the world and various walks of life stay strongly in my heart. I am very grateful for the fact that I took part in this extraordinary gathering, and sending massive gratitude to the organisers and fellow artists.” - Katsura

“A truly transformative experience.

It shifted my perceptions of the role of art in society and consequently how I can function as a theatre maker within the world.

This is genuine embodied knowledge. Feeling very grateful to everyone there. Thank you for creating this space.

& thank you to the shiny eyed Yorkshire sheep.” - Helen

“This weekend was truly a beautiful experience and I feel very privileged to be part of it and meet so many interesting and amazing people. I had some incredible experiences and found a lot of stillness when I would usually dance, that was a new experience for me, the landscape was enough for me this time, and I really needed the time to just be in the landscape. I was very nervous about going to the caves and in the end it was all fine, confronting my fears, this time, was easier than I thought, and I also wonder if was also was because I was feeling comfortable in the group, with new and old friends.” - Manuela

Human-Nature Connect, Eco-Somatic Projects and Grant Management

Funds resourced through donations and match-funding during 2022-2023 enabled IR to organise a series of 7 Human-Nature Connect residencies, and 11 eco-somatic partner projects and grant manage 8 climate action projects for the Third Sector Renewables charity.

Human-Nature Connect Ingleton Nov 2022. Image credit: WhatsApp Group

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Intercultural Roots’ Human-Nature Connect Residencies:

For further information and to watch published films from the residencies please visit https:// www.interculturalroots.org/project/human-nature-connect

Intercultural Roots’ Eco-Somatic Residency Projects:

Dartmoor National Park, 19 - 21 May 2023

Kisii, Kenya, May 2023

North West Cameroon, May 2023

Tintagel, Cornwall, 4 - 7 July 2023

Accra, Ghana, 21 - 23 July 2023

Human-Nature Connect Ingleton Nov 2022. Image credit: Rob Gale, Move2Change CIC

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• Bottomless Well Vermont, USA, August 2023

Third Sector Renewables Partnership (Grant Management):

Staines, Surrey, 27/28 May, 3 June 2023

Central London, 12 – 17 June, 8 – 9 July 2023

UK, 28 June - 3 July 2023

• Upstream I Fyny’r Afon

Abercych, Pembrokeshire, Wales, 10 - 14 July 2023

Clanabogan Park, Omagh, Northern Ireland, July 2023

Reeth, Swaledale, Yorkshire, 13 - 16 July 2023

• ‘Inner Space’

Mexica City, Mexica, 14 – 17 September 2023

We look forward to reporting on the evaluation of this work during 2023-24.

Image credit: Anna Dako

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‘Transforming Broken Wings’ (Working Title)

A new network for artists with disabilities, chronic illness and disabilities.

As explained further below, IR aims to be fully inclusive of all people and responsive to their needs. The application form for GIRIC - Growing Intercultural Roots in Communities asked people to identify any ‘psycho-physical, neuro-diversity, medical and any other individual needs’ with 25% (38 out of 152) applicants in May 2023 self-identifying such needs. When identifying the physically challenging activity requirements of people registering for our Human-Nature Connect eco-art residencies we responded to requests from people with disabilities, chronic illnesses and injuries who contacted us regarding inclusion. After several meetings with this group and our outdoor health & safety partner Move2Change and then with people with a lived experience of these challenges who applied to GIRIC, we are now together developing a new network specifically for practitioners with disabilities, chronic illnesses and injuries. The (working title) name of the network, proposed by one of the initiating GIRIC practitioners living with Multiple Sclerosis, is Transforming Broken Wings. Facilitated by people with a lived experience, with IR support they have developed a detailed consultation survey that has already received 68 responses.

Supporting Mental Health and Tackling Social Trauma

The covid pandemic and the challenges it brought, the climate crisis, cost of living crisis, wars in Europe and the Middle East, and arguably social media, exacerbate a pre-existing eco-anxiety and mental health pandemic that IR was already responding to in 2019. However, 4 years later we are now experiencing a social trauma that is collective as well as individual – see the Handbook of Climate Psychology. As Creative Health research makes ever more clear, the benefits of arts and health, including the impact of IR’s work, has the potential to benefit communities of both practitioners and participants, proportionate to the scale and quality and, importantly, the locational and demographic targeting of delivery.

In September 2022, IR’s Executive Director met with Andy Haldane, the former Chief Economist at the Bank of England (1989 - 2021) and now Chief Executive at The RSA - the royal society for the encouragement of arts, manufactures and commerce since 2021, to discuss IR’s work in relation to Levelling Up. Andy, who was Head of the cross party Levelling Up Taskforce considers health and wellbeing as key drivers of life satisfaction and productivity yet considers that the benefits of arts and culture on health and wellbeing and ‘place making’ are largely misunderstood. He suggests that their case needs to be made stronger through building the evidence base, to enable funding for the arts and humanities at all levels.

IR’s Submission to the ‘Creative Health Review’ by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing (APPGAHW)

In May 2023 IR commissioned an external evaluation of its work related to the APPGAHW Creative Health Review that will publish its report on 6th December 2023. IR’s Submission articulates its dedication to enhancing ecological public health and societal well-being through ‘arts for health and social change’ practices. It highlights the organisation’s growth, its collaborative approach with artists and researchers, and the successful delivery of creative health sessions to a wide audience. The document details IR’s response to contemporary issues such as mental health, eco-anxiety, and health inequalities by implementing innovative applied-arts and eco-health projects that foster engagement, transformation and wellbeing. It also emphasises the importance of education and professional development in the arts for health sector, showcasing the organisation’s role in cultivating diverse communities of practice that contribute positively to individual and communal health.

Since 2018 when IR was first registered it has advocated for a wider, more indigenous definition of health, that we are now calling ecological public health or ‘eco-health’. As the various working groups at the 2022 ‘To Be With’ Health & WELLth symposium discussed, and is becoming ever clearer through the EcoGPX™ project, this includes the building of collaborative communities that are connected to environment, social justice and equity and have the local agency and empowerment to make and influence decisions as per “nothing about us without us”.

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Butoh in Nature, Ridiculous House, Devon. Image credit: Daniel and Zoe

“It was definitely cathartic having permission to deliberately bring about emotions like rage, sadness, joy etc. I think it feels liberating to embody them, amplify them, play with them. I think probably there is scope in social justice movements/ charities to destigmatise certain emotions in people who have experienced trauma” Imogen

Inclusivity is at the Heart of What We Do

IR aims to be inclusive of all people. We seek to realise this ambition in various ways. For example, on account of the cost of living crisis we offer participants a sliding scale of affordable fees for non-funded courses that range from General Admission, Concessionary, Bursary (for people from low income countries) and Drop-In. In essence and again in line with a social enterprise community model, those who can afford are supporting those who can’t. When funding allows, for example through our match-crowdfunded Human-Nature Connect residencies, we innovatively offer Part Funded or Fully Funded Bursary places to participants who otherwise couldn’t afford. We deliberately use those terms rather than ‘free’ which might undervalue the work and also maintains dignity in communications.

Our positive and decolonial action has extended during the year as we have promoted our Growing Intercultural Roots in Communities project to people who speak English as a second language in countries on the African continent and this, as well as word of mouth, has enabled inclusion and funding of practitioners and their artist communities in Burkino Faso, Kenya, Cameroon and Ghana and also in Colombia on the South American continent. In the past year we have recruited two new Advisors to our Board of who, from a UK perspective, are from a Black minoritised ethnic background. Our organisation is led mainly by people from the global majority and as an international and intercultural community we want IR to be an inclusive, hospitable and safe space for all including indigenous people and people of colour. This ethic extends into our organisational practices and policies related to diversity, equity and inclusion, anti-harassment and bullying, safeguarding and health & safety.

Many of our practitioners and leadership self identify as LGBTQIA+ and we promote many of our activities as open to all and friendly to non-normative communities.

The application form for Growing Intercultural Roots in Communities (GIRIC) asked people to identify any ‘psycho-physical, neuro-diversity, medical and any other individual needs’ with 25% (38 out of 152) applicants self identifying such needs.

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Andrea Maciel, IR Artistic Director, at Human-Nature Connect. Ambleside June 2023. Image credit: Joy M

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The application form for Growing Intercultural Roots in Communities (GIRIC) asked people to identify any ‘psycho-physical, neuro-diversity, medical and any other individual needs’ with 25% (38 out of 152) applicants self identifying such needs.

What People Say

At the end of the day, it’s about what the people who are part of Intercultural Roots and/or take part in the activities that we organise, think and feel about what we do that matters and this validates our work. We have asked everyone who has been part of our journey over the past year for their feedback.

Intercultural Roots Evaluation Survey 2022-23

In July 2023 we received 36 responses to our comprehensive and anonymous online questionnaire requesting feedback about people’s experience with our work. To understand the context of the responses we asked questions about respondent’s background and interaction with IR and found:

• 12 (33.3%) had previously been involved in delivery as a practitioner for IR

• all were within the age range 25 to 74 years with 10 (27.8%) in the range 45 – 49 years

• 16 (44.4%) identified as LGBTIQ+ or preferred not to say, with 24 (66.7%) having a lived experience of LGBTQIA+ (for example via a family member, close friend or colleague)

• 18 (50%) identified as being from the global majority ie indigenous/native, person of colour with 5 (13.9%) preferring not to say

• 19 (53%) identified as disabled, having a chronic illness, or as injured

Detailed responses to the survey can be found in Appendix 1 with a summary of responses found below:

Evaluation Survey 2022 Quantitative Response Summary

While the number of responses was low relative to the number of participants in IR’s activities throughout the year, we feel that responses demonstrate that involvement with IR’s activities help people feel (in order of magnitude):

Qualitative responses to the question ‘What do you feel-think Intercultural Roots does well?’ elicited the following responses:

‘It creates the sense of a common ground, and that I am valuable for having a place on it amongst others.‘

‘Involve the community that comes forward and meet them to grow’

‘Environmental related arts retreats and match funding advice, listening and responding.’

‘Bring together communities for Somatic practices both locally and internationally.’

‘Many things, most key: gather people together to share practice and experience’

‘Built platforms for practitioners to connect with one another, and to opt-into new collaborative possibilities. Held space for in-person dialogue and community-building that felt particularly transformative, unique, and grounded. ‘

‘It cuts all the Layers of misunderstanding and makes things simpler’

‘It is a really supportive space that is beautifully held & full of warmth & connection. I think it creates bridges between artists & allows for a wonderful exchange of insight & practice.’

‘Connect with like-minded and diverse artists / partitioners’

‘Creates a space for artists to exchange online’

‘Uniting international artists. Providing a link between embodiment, creativity, health and the environment. Creating a supportive environment that can be used as a spring board. Fostering international understanding.’

• less isolated (91.6%)

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Human-Nature Connect Ambleside, June 2023. Image credit: Julia Lux

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“Intercultural Roots is a unique place to be creative and share creativity with others, offering and supporting the possibility for greater awareness, caring and change.

Intercultural Roots is generosity. It is expansive. Flexible. A window of opportunity. Present. Presence. Presencing. Intercultural Roots is an experiment in coming together across borders and professional boundaries. Its wish: A more healthy, just and interconnected world. Its promise: To be here when you/we are able to show up. Its action: The magic of connecting people committed to cultural work.” - C. Meranda Flachs-Surmanek “It has offered me the opportunity to connect with many other artistes across the globe, opened me to broader approaches with my artistry, offered financial support to my artistry and I admire their thoughtfulness”

“It is a really supportive space that is beautifully held & full of warmth & connection. I think it creates bridges between artists & allows for a wonderful exchange of insight & practice.” (Anon)

“Intercultural Roots is a unique international community of practitioners. In the short time I’ve been a member I’ve made new connections really relevant to a project I’m working on and had fantastic support for something else I’m developing. It’s a fantastic cross-disciplinary organisation with the potential to give a lot to the fields of creativity, somatics, ecology and health.”

“I received the gift of participating in a full dive into creativity and natural beauty. Through human and non-human connection I found inspiration and energy to re-ignite my flame. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.” Carolina

“Intercultural Roots was to me a time and space where to meet other universes, and feel connected even at thousands of kilometers from others. I’m really thankful.”

“I’m grateful for the essential work Intercultural Roots are doing to enable creatives like us to share and develop our work in a sustainable way. I’m very excited about how we can continue to deepen our collaboration.” Dan, Divine Ridiculous

“Intercultural Roots is a space and platform which is supporting arts and artist holistically. It caters to all the possible challenges from financial support to outreach of the arts to various spaces and cultures, making it more accessible. Intercultural Roots is also helping in bringing forward the physiological and psychological benefits of pursuing arts as a healing practice!”

Human-Nature Connect Rhossili, Wales May 2023. Image credit: Julia Testa

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‘Connecting talented and creative people. Organising a structure for a full dive into the natural world for different abilities and fitness levels.’

‘It is inclusive, it values many different practices, people, views, feelings. That means already a lot.’ ‘Allows space for development and growth’ ‘Create space, connect creative practice to academic practises’

‘creates a community feeling of like minded practitioners. provides a safe space for support. sharing of ideas and best practices.‘

‘Networking and funding’ ‘Networking’

‘Providing advice and support in promoting our individual practices and a space to connect with others’

‘Committed support of artists and fostering connection.’

‘Bring diverse communities together’

‘It supports artist community, integrates art and health, promotes outreach or art to larger community.’

‘Finds and supports artists making positive impact, in a kind and grounded way.’

‘Connect practitioners, improve their understanding and involvement in their practice, strengthen the understanding behind values and meaning of embodied and eco-somatic practices’

‘Introduce practices of community-building and eco-connection that are in essence simple but that have complex effects on the self and the group (including non-humans). Ripples. IR curates and nurtured an incredibly supportive sense of belonging.’ ‘They offer deeper support and insight into one’s project and immensely involved in the beginning to finish. More so, they generously open artistes to networks that broadens possibilities.’ ‘Sense of community’

Qualitative responses summary:

IR excels in creating a sense of unity and belonging among diverse groups by facilitating community engagement and fostering environments for the exchange of artistic and somatic practices. Survey respondents highlight the organisation’s strengths in building platforms for practitioners to connect and collaborate, organising retreats that blend art with environmental consciousness, and providing support for artists’ growth. The feedback indicates that IR is particularly valued for its inclusive spaces that encourage empowerment, understanding, and networking among artists, while also connecting creative practices with academic and health-related fields. The organisation’s commitment to supporting artists and promoting intercultural exchange is seen as a cornerstone of its mission, creating ripples of positive impact within and beyond the artistic community.

Constructive feedback:

In regard to the question ‘Do you have any recommendations or suggestions for how Intercultural Roots could improve or serve you better?’, respondents suggest simplifying the Reward booking system [Ed. in regard to crowdfunding] and communication channels for better accessibility, especially for those with disabilities or learning difficulties. The language and terminology used around disability [ed. the word ‘broken’ in the proposed Transforming Broken Wings network] and contributions should be revisited to avoid alienation and to ensure inclusivity. It’s recommended to facilitate self-description for disability and to reconsider the use of terms like “gift” to prevent any sense of obligation [ed. see ‘Gifting’ early in this report]. There’s a call for more diverse representation among facilitators, a balance of structured and free time (without health and safety mediation) in events and clarity around the ‘importance of the exchange and flexibility in holding power’ [ed. points made in response to H-NC Rhossili, Wales]. A further call requests increased understanding across networks of the unique contexts and needs of participants and practitioner particularly those from the Global South i.e. access to cultural events, vacations, salary, health… and to be clearer about what should a person from the Global South could really expect from participating. Suggestions include offering paid opportunities for work and training ‘that incorporates IR’s nature ad soma angle and is without age limits’, peer-to-peer mentoring for mental health practitioners, and assistance with funding applications. Additionally, there is a desire for more in-person or hybrid events, as well as maintaining a robust online presence for those with chronic health conditions. The organisation is encouraged to grow organically while offering individualised support where needed and streamlining donation processes for fundraisers.

Testimonials:

We asked respondents ‘Would you like to leave a testimonial that Intercultural Roots can share publicly?’ with the following responses:

“Intercultural Roots is clearly making a significant impact in the world through its ‘arts for health & social change’ mission that’s benefiting hundreds of artists and practitioners, plus thousands of participants. Thank you all involved, Bert”

“Take a look there so much here on offer”

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Human-Nature Connect Rhossili, Wales May 2023. Image credit: Julia Testa

Human-Nature Connect Rhossili, Wales, UK, by Bruno Rocha

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“Intercultural Roots helped me to deepen and widen my understanding about the value of ecosomatics in our world, creating a healthy environment for practioners to meet through a supportive and inspiring network and activities. I now feel more confident about why I am engaged in this practice and inspired to continue to learn,share and develop it further, to foster deeper connections between humans and the natural world we also are.” Rebecca

“My exposure and connection to Intercultural Roots has exposed me to a broaden creative knowledge and deepened my appreciation for unity in diversity in the arts. More so, their professional development workshops and guidance to project management has been amazing. Funding my project has made me so fulfilled and an inspiration to do more.” Peter Atsu Adaletey, Ghana.

Practitioners and Consultants

We are grateful to all of the following practitioners and consultants (in alphabetical order A-Z by first name) who have voluntarily or contractually contributed to the delivery of Intercultural Roots’ activities during 2022-23:

Aaron Finbloom, Adam Rolleston, Ahmed Soura, Alex Boyd, Alex Lichtenfels, Alexander Perrelet, Alexandre Neves, Almiro Andrade, Alvaro Hernandez, Amaia Mugica, Andrea Maciel, Anita Gonzalez, Ben Spatz, Bernardo Martins, Bobo Leennox, Bruno Lopes, Caleb Isiche, Chalice Richardson, Christoffer Guldberg, Clare Kenvyn, Corrie Hardaker, Daniel Hernandez, Dr. Alex Feng, Dwayne Burgess, Dylan Bolles, Elodie Chiper, Evelyn Aston Rhodes, Fabienne Formosa, Ian Kenvyn, Irene Fiordilino, Jacek Ludwig, Jaka Skapin, Jo Roantree, Joaquim Bezerra, Joe Churchill, John Zibell, Jon Petter, Jonas De Rave, Julia Fortier, Julia Lux, Julia Pond, Julia Testas, Kyara, Liz Tunnicliffe, Lizzy Le Quesne, Lizzy Tan, Lynette Hunter, Manuela Benini, Marije Nie, Martin Sadler, Patrick Campbell, Peter Atsu Adeletey, Peter Lichtenfels, Purnima, Regina Gutierrez, Rob Gale, Rose Kim, Sofia Burnay, Sophie Spiral, Tau Peter Rockford Espiritu, Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal, Teddy Powell, Thomas Kampe, Tiago Gambogi, Vangeline Gand, Victoria Door, Vinicius Torres Machado, Wendy van der Haagen Boyd, Will Crawford.

Human-Nature Connect Rhossili, Wales, UK, by Tiago Gambogi

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Funders

We are grateful to those funders who have supported Intercultural Roots work during 2022-2023

Local Action Fund (England – South East) BA Better World Community Fund The Aviva Community Fund Save Our Wild Isles Community Fund London Community Fund – Peabody Trust The Big Give Trust – Big Give Green Match Third Sector Services

Donors

We are grateful to everyone who has donated to support Intercultural Roots work during 2022-2023. If you would like to donate, please do so here: https://www.interculturalroots.org/ make-a-donation

Supporting Organisations

We are grateful to the following organisations who have supported Intercultural Roots through provid-ing free or subsidised support or through grants:

Apple Business Basecamp Google Nonprofits Microsoft Nonprofits

Leadership Team

Lastly and certainly not least, we thank our leadership team of 2022-23 made up of staff, directors (Intercultural Roots for Public Heath), trustees (In-tercultural Roots for Traditional Embodied Arts), and advisors (in alphabetic order Z..A) :

Wendy van der Haagen-Boyd Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal (Prof) Rose Kim Regina Gutierrez Lynette Hunter (Prof) John Zibell (Dr) Ian Kenvyn (Dr) Elodie Chiper Corrie Hardaker Clare Kenvyn Chalice Richardson Ben Spatz (Dr) Anita Gonzalez (Prof) Andrea Maciel (Dr) Alvaro Hernandez (Dr) Almiro Andrade (Dr) Alex Boyd (Dr)

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Appendix 1 – Detailed Responses to Evaluation Survey (July 2023)

Responses to the following questions invited responses using a scale of 1-5 to strongly disagree to strongly agree:

‘To what extent do you agree that your involvement with Intercultural Roots and its activities has helped you feel...

33 part ofyour local community 36 resp￿$ 15 10 11 130 6.11 9125%) 7119.4%) part of a ¢ommunty of artists and praclitioners 36 respon¥e¥ 20 15 17147.2%) io 10127.8%) o (0%) 318.3%) your mental health has improved 36 responses 14138.9,,. 11 (30.¥%1 6116.vhl 112.8%)

34 your physlcal health has improved 36respDnses 15 16 {44.4%1 10 8122.2%> 5113.9%) more financially secure 36response$ 10 10127.8% 8122.2%) 5113.9%) 1 128%)

35 a better sense of overall wellbeing 36 responses 15 10 11 130.fj%1 10127 8.￿) 9125% 318 30AI 318 3¢1¢1 partlcipaling in arts practices has health benefrts 36 responses 2fj172.2%1 20 10 8122.2%) o (0%) 112.8%) 112.8%} more connected wilh Ihe environment 36 responses 20 15 10 91251.1 112.8%) 5113.9%) 318.3J.I

36

With the same linear scale 1-5 to strongly disagree to strongly agree we received the following responses after asking ‘We would like to know what your involvement with Intercultural Roots has meant to you. To what extent do you agree with the following statements...

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Metamorphosis Performance Sharing Sep 2022. Image credit: Mariusz Wolny

Intercultural Roots for P
Charity Name		 Intercultural Roots for P
Charity Name		 ublic Health ublic Health ublic Health 1
N		 179885
o (if any)		 179885
o (if any)		 CC16a
Receipts and payments accounts
For the period from 01/08/2022
Period start date		 To 31/07/2023
Period end date
Section A Receipts and payments
A1 Receipts Unrestricted funds
to the nearest £
13,717
4,070
5,715
5,326
£ 28,828		 Restricted funds
to the nearest £
2,500
20,000
10,752
84,748
61,104
5,000
10,000
2,710
2,500
199,314		 Endowment funds
to the nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-		 Total funds
to the nearest £
13,717
6,570
5,715
20,000
10,752
84,748
61,104
5,000
10,000
2,710
2,500
5,326
228,141
-
228,141
6,818
3,501
2,002
3,036
3,020
3,211
5,918
27,775
175,424
3,173
520
2,500
2,500
2,710
810
242,918
-
242,918
- 14,777
-
36,812.10		 Last year
to the nearest £
Classes/Workshops/Events/Performances 13,717 -
Donations 4,070 -
HMRC Gift Aid 5,715 -
Crowdfunder - Local Action Fund (England -
South East)
 -
~~Crowdfunder - BA Better World Community~~
Fund
Crowdfunder Donations - The Crowd
Crowdfunder - The Aviva CommunityFund
Crowdfunder - Save Our Wild Isles Community
Fund
Grant - London Community Foundation -
PeabodyTrust		 -
The BigGive Trust - Donations -
The BigGive Trust - BG Green Match
Grant - Third Sector Services 5,326 -
Sub total £ 28,828 -
A2 Asset and investment sales, etc.
Total receipts
A3 Payments
- - - - -
£ 28,828
6,818
3,501
2,002
3,036
3,020
3,211
3,173
520
25,281		 199,314
5,918
27,775
175,424
2,500
2,500
2,710
810
217,637		 -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Artist/Practitioner Fees 6,818 -
Administration, Consultancy & Production
Services		 3,501
Venue/Space Hire 2,002 -
PR, Marketing& Communications 3,036 -
Website & IT/Software 3,020 -
Miscellaneous/Volunteer Expenses/Charges 3,211 -
Project Delivery- National LotteryFund
Project Delivery- BigIssue Invest (SESF) -
Project Delivery- Crowdfunder -
Hardware 3,173
Insurance 520
Grant - Centre for Performance
Project Delivery - The Big Give Trust - BG
Green Match
Project Delivery- The BigGive Trust
Donations
**Sub total ** 25,281 -
A4 Asset and investment purchases, etc.
Total payments
Net of receipts/(payments)
A5 Transfers between funds
A6 Cash funds last year end
Cash funds this year end
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
- - - - -
25,281
3,547
-
2,419.67		 217,637
- 18,323
-
34,392.43		 -
-
-
-
-
3,547 - 18,323 - - 14,777 -
- - - - -
2,419.67 34,392.43 - 36,812.10 -
5,966.17 16,068.96 - 22,035.13 -
1 28/11/2023
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities a t the end of the period
Categories
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all
the trustees
B5 Liabilities
B3 Investment assets
B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use
B1 Cash funds
B2 Other monetary assets		 Signature
Details
Details
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
Details
Total cash funds
Details
Details
Cash in the Bank		 Unrestricted funds
to nearest £
5,966
-
-
£ 5,966
OK
Unrestricted funds
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
Fund to which asset
belongs
Fund to which asset
belongs
Fund to which
liability relates
Print		 Restricted funds
to nearest £
16,069
-
-
16,069
OK
Restricted funds
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
Cost (optional)
-
-
-
-
-
Cost (optional)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Amount due
(optional)
-
-
-
-
der Boyd
Name		 Endowment funds
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
OK
Endowment funds
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
Current value
(optional)
-
-
-
-
-
Current value
(optional)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
When due (optional)
Date of approval
Dr Alexan der Boyd 28.11.2023

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

28/11/2023

2