The
Crossway Foundation: The Story So Far
The Crossway Foundation was founded by a group of British artists and teachers following a one-year expedition to the Middle East in 2003.
Stephen Stapleton (Director of the British Museum’s Middle East Artists-in-Schools Programme), Adam Williamson (Artist in Residence at The Prince’s Foundation), Jamie Buchanan-Dunlop (Head of Citizenship at an East London comprehensive) and Martin Orton (Director of a BAFTA award winning social enterprise based in East London) initiated an education programme (originally called The Offscreen Education Programme) to support UK teachers and students wishing to explore the culture of the Middle East in the classroom.
This initial scheme proved to be hugely popular with schools across the UK and generated particularly positive responses from communities in East London.
Inspired by this success, the
directors decided to set up a new charity called The Crossway Foundation through which to deliver a much expanded and
diversified range of educational and artistic programmes focussed on
encouraging creative collaboration across international borders.
Crossway is now supported by a wide range of high profile organisations and private companies and is a well established, reputable organisation, based in the East End of London and working across Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Over the last three years Crossway’s work with young people has generated three award-winning websites, 150 workshops and resources for over 1,000 schools to directly influence the lives of over 25,000 young people and reach an estimated wider audience of over 2,000,000.
Crossway currently delivers four
core programmes:
1: International Student Expeditions
2: Educational
Resources & Events 3: Schools
& Museums Workshops
4: International Artists Programme
I. Student Expeditions:
To date, Crossway has led expeditions for students from the UK, Oman, UAE, Lebanon and Bahrain. According to official Google statistics, over 30,000 people followed the expeditions online and many more through extensive media coverage, including the BBC and over 50 publications in the UK, Europe and the Middle East.
In 2010, Crossway will be leading expeditions between the UK and Pakistan, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar, changing the lives of over 30 students and teachers.
II.
Educational
Resources:
Crossway has engaged
an estimated 40,000 students
in the classroom via the use of 400 resource packs, 1000 CD ROMs and 3 award
winning websites which have collectively received over 1 million hits.
Crossways innovative approach to engaging students in the classroom has led to partnerships with HSBC, BBC, Channel 4, the Home Office, Mayor of London and educational Ministries across the Middle East.
III. Schools and Museums Workshops:
Crossway has delivered over 100 schools and 30 museums workshops across the UK, giving thousands of students the opportunity to work with and learn from practicing artists and curators.
Crossways has delivered workshops to over 5000 students and teachers in partnership with the British Museum, V & A, City Hall, University of London, Google, Adobe, Royal Geographical Society and the British Council.
International Artist Programme:
Crossway’s first exhibition, “Edge of Arabia”, at the University of London’s Brunei Gallery received over 12,000 visitors, and extensive publicity in the UK and abroad. In summer 2009, Crossway took the exhibition to the 53rd Venice Biennale and has been invited to present it in Berlin, Miami, Paris and New York.