Saharawi Artist Fund (SAF) – supporting art from the heart

Through SAF, we help strengthen the ability of the Saharawi refugees to express their voices and visions and earn an income through the arts. We raise funds for art workshops and capacity-building training in the camps and also for projects that preserve Saharawi cultural heritage and promote creative collaborations between Saharawis and artists worldwide.

The fund exists to:

• run workshops in the camps to teach Saharawis the skills to produce high quality and original artistic work and to earn an income from creative activities;
• enable outstanding Saharawi talent to further their development through residencies and master classes and participation in international artistic and cultural platforms;
• provide bursaries for aspiring Saharawi artists in the camps to pursue their creative ideas;
• promote and showcase Saharawi arts.

SAF relies heavily on donations, money earned from our events and sales of Sandblast merchandise.  So coming to our events or buying from our shop also really helps.

In 2010

This year we hope to raise £85,000 for our Studio-Live project to empower Saharawis to present their culture on a global stage through music (click here to learn more). The project offers the Saharawis the opportunity to gain the skills and means to run a professional recording studio and stage high quality music concerts in the camps.

We have raised over £20,000 so far thanks to the tremendous efforts of the participants in the 2010 Running the Sahara event. With your support you can help us meet our goal or simply help us finance ongoing workshops in theatre, dance and music.

This is what your donation could do:

£100  buys 12 music stands
£200 buys a sound card for pro-tool sound recording training
£250  buys 3 professional mics
£300 pays for one training station for studio sound engineering
£500  pays for materials needed to insulate and sound proof mobile recording studio or pays the fees to run a one week workshop
£900 pays for a 16 channel mixing board
£2500  pays for one-month sound engineering training

If you would like to donate to the Saharawi Artist Fund directly, visit our Just Giving Fundraising page at www.justgiving.com/sandblastarts.

Thank you for your donation!