About us
Heartstone is a UK-based non-profit arts, cultural and educational organisation founded in 1990 following the publication of our book ‘The Heartstone Odyssey’ from which we take our name.
At the time, Dr John Siraj-Blatchford wrote:
‘The story describes a world in which there exists a powerful and well co-ordinated anti-racism movement – much more powerful, that is, than many a young victim of racism is likely to be aware of today. This is something that we are still striving for but the vision, in the meantime, will provide a source of strength and encouragement to many of our children.’
Heartstone came into existence to bring this vision to life, through the power of the imagination, using the characters and story as told in ‘The Heartstone Odyssey’ to inspire and lead to change – in perceptions, attitudes and behaviour, to see people as not that different from yourself, to see a common humanity. The story, however, is not just about a single issue – it is multi-faceted and intricately connected, and over the years, Heartstone has built up other stories through photodocumentary and its historical resource of engravings to reflect this.
Our aims are to:
-build understanding, contact, communication and empathy across different nationalities, cultures, races, faiths and backgrounds, reducing isolation and recognising the commonality of human experience;
-challenge racism, xenophobia and intolerance in its different forms;
-help our audiences to see stories from different perspectives;
-raise environmental consciousness and promote the need to work co-operatively across national and other boundaries to achieve real change;
-promote literacy in its own right, as the shared foundation for exploring ‘The Heartstone Odyssey’ and as the most universal pathway for understanding the lives, histories, needs and experiences of others.
Our work
We achieve our aims through story – literature, photodocumentary, history – which we present through exhibition events, publication, dance-drama performances, installations and online for as wide an audience as we are able to reach cutting across all age-groups. Our projects follow these events and reach children and young people in the most impressionable and formative years, where longterm change can be achieved. The stories are used to generate discussion, debate and inspire new creation.
We hope our stories will help cast a new light on what may be seen as the familiar, in the process challenging commonly held perceptions, stereotypes and beliefs.
Exhibition events and performances
Heartstone exhibition events and performances have taken place in some of the most prestigious locations across the UK and Europe, including London’s Southbank Centre, Edinburgh’s City Arts Centre, Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music, Birmingham University Great Hall (below), the House of Commons, the European Parliament in Brussels and many others. Two examples are described below.
The ‘Festival of Flight’ exhibition event at Duxford Air Museum (below) was presented under Concorde and undertaken in partnership with the RAF and Royal Navy, who had provided special access to work with air bases across the UK. The event also included another of Heartstone’s partners, the Tuskegee Airmen of America, who fought intense racial prejudice to win their right to fly as fast jet pilots during the Second World War.
The dance-drama performance at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, below, was led by Sitakumari together with dancers from Heartstone’s company ‘Moving Lives Dance Theatre’, which has come together through the support of Liverpool Hope University. The supporting cast for this show was drawn from local schools. It was an innovative concept using the photographs which had inspired the dance-drama hung above the dancers, allowing interaction between the dance, the images and creative lighting.
The Heartstone Odyssey
‘The Heartstone Odyssey’, was our first story, a magical fictional tale for children, but with a deeper thread making it as appealing to many adults as well. It is a captivating story in its own right, first orally told by the author on a three-day train journey from Mumbai to Chennai in the 1980’s. It also challenges prejudice and intolerance, raises environmental issues and unusually, has a strong Asian heroine at its heart, who does not give up in the face of adversity. Chandra has been recognised by UN Women as an empowering fictional role model for girls and young women worldwide. Book 1 is in circulation to be followed by Books 2 and 3 of the trilogy.
Photojournalism
Over the years, the work of Heartstone has expanded to cover real-life stories drawn from across the globe using photojournalism as the foundation for its communication of experience, a medium which has proved ideal in terms of its ability to cross language and many cultural barriers as well as appealing to all age groups.
Nick Sidle, Heartstone’s associated photographer, has built a substantial photo library comprising stories on both social and environmental subjects, many produced with special access from a range of global partners, who value his approach of not manipulating or staging photographs but capturing a ‘moment of time’ that really happened.
The image above is from his assignment with Carnival del Pueblo for the photodocumentary ‘Chandra’s London’ and the one below of a Great White Shark in the Southern Ocean for his photodocumentary ‘Without Frontiers’.
You can see examples of his images, albums and collections by clicking on the images at the bottom of this page, which will take you to his Flickr site.
Photographs above and below: ©Nick Sidle/Heartstone – all rights reserved
History
Heartstone has also worked extensively in exploring historical stories related to its contemporary themes, often bringing a different non-Eurocentric perspective to history particularly from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, covering the period of the Industrial Revolution, European colonial expansion, slavery, and in Scotland, the Land Clearances. This is also the period of ‘The Heartstone Odyssey’ which stretches from 1795 into the current time.
An Extensive Story Resource
Heartstone has access to the photolibrary of photographer, Nick Sidle through his association with the organisation. His collection of photostories, historical engravings, documents and maps now comprises over two million images. Together with the book, ‘The Heartstone Odyssey’, this brings Heartstone a unique resource addressing the issues of prejudice, intolerance and the need for environmental awareness, as the precursor for real action, from a number of different angles.
Overview
On this website, you will see:
-examples of some of the main exhibition events, performances and installations that have taken shape over the years;
-some of the photodocumentaries which have been undertaken by Nick Sidle as the photographic input for Heartstone’s work;
-how Heartstone stories are used in Story Circle and Business in a Box Network (BIABN) projects to reach children and young people and the training we provide for professionals working with them – teachers, librarians, police officers, youth and community workers and others.
You can also find out more about ‘The Heartstone Odyssey’ and how to order your own copy of the book which started everything….
To quote Sitakumari, Director of Heartstone:
‘Heartstone is about changing perceptions, about recognising similarities instead of differences, about seeing people instead of prejudices. We tell stories that people may not have heard and will leave you seeing the world in a new way, forever…’
Heartstone has no political or religious affiliation and has been funded by a wide range of sponsors and official sources including the Scottish Government, the Big Lottery Fund, the Home Office, the Department for Education, the Gulbenkian Foundation, the Esmee Fairbairn Charitable Trust, Northern Rock Foundation and corporate sponsors such as Jaguar, Ford and Rolls Royce.