Stellar Quines, a Fife-based theatre company focused on gender justice, has been participating in an exchange with MPower, a film making organisation working with girls and young women from migrant backgrounds in Berlin. Through the support of the first round of Cultural Bridge funding, we were able to partake in two in-person exchanges; a visit to Scotland in June 2024 and a visit to Berlin in October 2024. These exchanges gave each organisation the chance to learn more about the other’s work and communities in situ. The support from Cultural Bridge meant that we were able to take the time to find the similarities and differences in our practices- and from this exchange an idea for a collaboration emerged. In this first stage of the project, a variety of roles from each organisation participated in the exchange including staff, young leaders (MPoweristas) and young participants (the Young Quines). Both Stellar Quines and MPower were interested in the exchange being across the whole organisations, believing in sharing and transferring power through learning.
During our initial exchange we found that both organisations are keen to embed young participants throughout their work and are interested in working collaboratively on participatory projects. From the two shared areas of interest, the next stage of the artistic exchange was developed.
In the second year of our exchange, we focused on sharing artistic practice. Our project Shifting Skies, supported by the Cultural Bridge stage two funding brought together young women of colour from Scotland and Germany to co-create an artistic output. The project was led by Glasgow based Egyptian playwright Sara Shaarawi, Berlin-based Egyptian poet Mariam Rasheed and Iranian director Nafis Fathollahzadeh. The group of participants spent a week together in Glasgow at the Glasgow Women’s Library and a week together in Berlin. The outcome of this exchange was a short film, exploring themes of home, belonging and womanhood. This project allowed participants to come together, develop their creativity and discover their individual voices.
During the second year of our exchange, we continued to build connections and share practice across our staff team and with our younger participants. A Particular highlight was when the Young Quines (aged 12-17) took part in a one-day filmmaking workshops led by the MPoweristas, where they created short films in response to MPoweristas own moving and powerful films. In a short amount of the Young Quines created films on their phones which explore themes of home, identity and belonging. It was inspiring to see them respond so enthusiastically to MPowers’ artistic practice and develop their individual creative voices.
Cultural Bridge has been an interesting and invigorating process of exchange. One of the most useful learnings for Stellar Quines has been to observe the integrated and organic way in which former participants take up leadership roles within MPower. The MPoweristas play an integral part in the running of the MPower, facilitating homework clubs and residentials, representing MPower at film festivals and events as well as having a voice the future direction of the organisation. Working and learning from the MPoweristas has inspired Stellar Quines to look at how the Young Quines and other engagement strands can be more embedded within the organisation. In particular, it has led us to develop a new programme for young participants who are aging out of Young Quines: Constellations. This programme will hopefully emulate the MPowerista’s role in MPower, however within the context of a touring theatre company. We are in the early days of developing this strand of our work but so far the Constellations have represented Stellar Quines in talks about our work, designed an artist access pack for freelance artists working with the Young Quines, undertaken artistic work placements on theatre productions and are currently planning a community BBQ event as part of our yearlong engagement project, The Nova Project. MPower have been essential is the development of this programme, advising and guiding us.
As many international opportunities across the UK disappeared in the wake of Brexit, it has become more important to us as an organisation to continue to engage and exchange with international partners. We believe that borders shouldn’t create a barrier to learning and sharing of artistic practice and that we have much to learn from each other. Working long term with international partners, means that we can ensure that our work as a feminist arts organisation is in line with other boundary pushing organisations abroad. Specifically for Stellar Quines and MPower exchange, we feel it’s important to bring our two participant groups together: young women, trans and non-binary participants from post-industrial small towns on the east coast of Scotland with young female refugees living in Berlin. These two groups who would never normally meet, can learn so much from each other, challenge each other and grow together artistically. We look forward to continuing and developing our artistic exchange with MPower for many years to come.