A group of Brazilian artists, representatives of charities, leaders of the Movement of Homeless People and officials including the Deputy Mayor of Rio are in Manchester and London this week from 19 to 24 April to spend time with some of the leading arts and homelessness projects in the UK.

The trip is a legacy of ‘With One Voice‘, a performance event organised by UK homeless charity Streetwise Opera that we supported where 300 performers who had experienced homelessness took over the Royal Opera House for a performance event at the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. The event is set to be repeated in Rio in 2016, led by this Brazilian delegation.

The delegation have visited the Booth Centre in Manchester to see the fantastic daily programmes of activity at the centre and to meet policy makers from Manchester City Council and other projects at an arts and homeless seminar on 20 April.

In London, the delegation are spending time with leading UK homeless charities: Café Art; Cardboard Citizens; Choir With No Name; Crisis Skylight; Open Cinema and Streetwise Opera.

The Greater London Authority are hosting an event today at London’s Living Room, City Hall with presentations from the Deputy Mayor of Rio, Adilson Pires, and the Deputy Mayor of Housing, London, Richard Blakeway. There will also be discussions and provocations with homeless people being in direct dialogue with politicians and officials from Brazil and UK. The event will also feature performances and presentations of creative projects. The event will seek to demonstrate that there are measurable impacts of arts for homeless people through increased wellbeing and social inclusion.

The Brazilian delegation will bring a number of works of art created by homeless people including sculptures of homeless people from a São Paulo project called ‘I Exist’. This project saw homeless people create sculptures of themselves which were distributed around the city, each with a biography of the real person attached – it became a powerful way of creating a dialogue about homelessness and the project has since been taken to New York. The ‘I Exist’ sculpture will be displayed in a prominent public building during the exchange and will also be displayed at City Hall this afternoon.

We are delighted to have supported this exchange as we build on our efforts to support an international arts and homelessness network aimed at benefitting both the arts and social sectors.