Online Event

Upgrade Yourself: Process | How Skateboarding can Build, Benefit and Connect Community

FREE
Thu 12 Aug 2021
13.00 - 14.00
Online

To round-up our current Upgrade Yourself: Process series, and drawing inspiration from our free exhibition No Comply, Skate Culture and Community at Somerset House, we are streaming live to Paris to meet Sandy Alibo, Founder & Director of Surf Ghana, who support skateboarders, and surfers in Ghana, as well as Edinburgh to meet Founder and Executive Director of SkatePal, Charlie Davis.

In this session, we are reaching out to our peers nationally, and internationally to learn about what their organisations are doing to develop creative networks and collaborators which empower and inspire skateboarding culture. 

We will hear Sandy & Charlie’s individual career journeys, where they started out, and how, by building on community, resilience, and societal change, each of them focuses their work and values across the world to spark imagination.

Both Surf Ghana and SkatePal support young people’s creativity and collaboration, health & wellbeing, connecting communities and opportunities together. SkatePal is a non-profit organisation supporting communities throughout Palestine, promoting the social, health and wellbeing benefits of skateboarding to enhance the lives of local youth.  Surf Ghana is a voice of diversity which pushes a narrative of freedom and self-expression creating a counterculture platform for youth. The collective also works to improve physical and mental health.

Surf Ghana.jpg

Surf Ghana
Surf Ghana


This event has been co-produced by Kocha Obasi from our Future Producers programme, who will be hosting the talk. Send in your questions via our live social platforms for a chance to have them answered directly by Sandy & Charlie.

 

WATCH

About Charlie Davis - Founder & Executive Director of Skatepal

As a lifelong skater, Charlie first visited Palestine in 2006, volunteering as an English and Music teacher, but quickly realised the kids were far more interested in skating! After several years of teaching and travelling in Palestine and in the Middle East, and after studying an MA in Arabic at Edinburgh University, he went on to establish SkatePal in 2013. Charlie is currently based in Edinburgh. 

Website
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook

About Sandy Alibo - Founder and Director of Surf Ghana

Sandy has 7+ years’ experience as Sponsorship Manager (Orange France Sports Departement). Business Developer for Konbini Africa Skilled in Development of strategic partnerships, Sports Event management, digital marketing, PR activation and business development. As well as being an extreme sports, travel, photography and hip-hop lover, Sandy founded the Surf Ghana collective in 2016 to empower the youth through board sports. Sandy is currently based in Accra and leads the Freedom Project: the first sustainable skatepark in Ghana:“I believe that Sports can participate in the personal and professional fulfilment of the young Africans”.

Website
Sandy Alibo Instagram 
Surf Ghana Instagram 

Upgrade Yourself: Process

We bring participants together in small groups to meet innovative creative industry thinkers and doers (either individuals, collectives, or organisations). We encourage everyone in the room to contribute to the session, allowing for deeper engagement, which could be conversational, bitesize prototyping and/or creative play, alongside a Somerset House Producer.

Led by members of the Somerset House creative community and external partners, these digital sessions primarily aimed at people aged 18-25 are for those looking for access routes into the Creative Industries and the Cultural Sector.

Skatepal logo
Gurf Ghana Logo