Northfield Arts Forum launches fundraising campaign to cater for their community

A local arts collective in Northfield is raising money to build a new, accessible space for the communities they work with.

Northfield Arts Forum, also known as NAF, is a grassroots arts organisation that have been providing community arts activities to the areas of Northfield, Kings Norton, Weoley Castle and Longbridge for over eight years.

One of their key events is NAFCaf, a ‘pay as you feel’ dinner with art installations and performances from local talent.

Run by volunteers, Northfield Arts Forum create a friendly, welcoming space in which members of the local community can enjoy home cooked food, table service and entertainment at little or no cost, depending on what the can afford.

They also run similar cafes in Weoley Castle and Hawkesley with between 50-120 people attending each one.

They are now raising money to continue and expand their work. The money that’s raised through the Crowdfunder will be spent on developing a creative space for artists, in which artists of any ability can network, learn from more experienced artists and develop their skills alongside other members of the community.

The space will also provide a welcome venue for people of all ages and backgrounds to engage socially and get involved with events and activities. NAF are also keen to keep developing the community garden, with plans for that to grow over the next year.

According to organisers at NAF:

“We want to provide spaces for local artists to make work, for up and coming artists to be trained by experienced artists sharing their wisdom, to be passed on and shared throughout the local community, no matter how young or old, for everyone who wants to join in.

“We want to bring people of all ages together, to combat loneliness, to help each other thrive, to use our existing spaces to grow our community of local artists, and to find and make new spaces to make in.”

As it stands today, they are just over halfway to their target of £20,000; with Birmingham City Council supporting the project by contributing £5,000.

To learn more and support the project, head to their crowdfunding page.