Debora Minà
  • about
  • community projects
  • performance
  • teaching/research
  • collaborations
I have been working as an artist facilitator in participatory and socially engaged practice with a variety of community groups, for theatres, institutions, museums, NGO's and charitable organisations for the past 15 years.
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​This is a selection of projects, more details can be found here.

Refugees Youth Arts Project Director

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Since 2011 I have been working for Pan Intercultural Arts. Pan is a London based arts charity dedicated to the exploration of cultural diversity through the arts and how such work can inspire and implement social change. Pan work with refugees, asylum seekers, survivors of human trafficking and young people who are marginalised and at risk of social exclusion. We use performance, dance, music and film to increase participants' confidence, reduce their isolation and imagine new futures for themselves. Since 2014 I am the Project Director of Future, a weekly group for unaccompanied minors asylum seekers and refugees funded by BBC Children in Need.  


For Pan I have also devised and delivered:
- Projects with female survivors of human trafficking part of the Amies projects

- A project with young mothers on the Right to be Yourself for Bloomsbury Festival 2012

- Training for facilitators, peer mentors and volunteers
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- Assisted Theatre for Development training for the British Council Sri Lanka to NGO workers from Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

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13 MOONS - A creative approach to end period shame

​Feedback Theatre, Irise International, Plan Uk

13 Moons is a creative journey to celebrate the menstrual cycle and to empower women by breaking down menstrual stigma, creating a safe space where their voices can be heard and providing access to the information they need about their own bodies. We worked with Year 7 girls in a London school using applied theatre tools to dismantle stigma and create resources for menstrual education.

This is a Feedback Theatre project delivered in partnership with Irise International, in collaboration with Canaan Project and supported by Plan International UK. 
​The worksheets have been created by artist Jenny Leonard in collaboration with participants.
Thanks to Vanessa Ravira and her work on the menstrual cycle for being a constant inspiration and support. 

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Action/Reflection Events on Arts and Refugees 
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Goldsmiths College, Theatre and Performance Department

A series of events that provided space for reflections, contributions, dialogues and workshops oganised and convened with Sue Mayo, Mita Pujara and Sharon Kanolik.
​Supported by the Migration Research Network. 

​2016 - 
When Words Fail
2017 - Welcome is a Radical Act
2019 - That's not my name




Make/Shift: Contemplations from Calais

As part of this series of events,  with Mita Pujara we created an installation featuring the contemplations (art work, objects, soundscapes, spoken word, film) of 18 volunteers that went to work in the unofficial refugee camp in Calais known as the Jungle. This work was subsequently displayed at the Horniman Museum and used as a starting point for audiences to engage with the theme of displacement, and at the Jungle Symposium at the University of Leicester.
Make/Shift contributors: Afrikan Boy, Mojisola Adebayo, Melanie Anouf, Rachael Bailey, Kate Beales, Kiran Chahal, Victoria Conran, Dizraeli, Lily Einhorn, Victoria Hill, Gursen Houssein, Sharon Kanolik, Lynn Maree, John Martin, Katie Miller, Debora Minà, Mita Pujara, Kavi Pujara, Kirstin Shirling.

We also produced a video called My Radical Act of Welcome: a collection of acts of welcome towards  refugees from across the UK, with the aim of counteracting the hate speech that is so prominent on the news and social media. 


​What do you Sea? Curating BOAT 195.
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Horniman Museum, Pan Intercultural Arts, Refugee Youth.

Inspired by the new display of Anthropology of the Horniman Museum that features a portion of Boat 195 rescued between Lybia and Italy, a group of young people from different backgrounds came together to think about the Mediterranean and what it means to different people. They created poems and delivered a workshop engaging museum audiences during Crossing Borders Event 2018.
Listen to the soundscape they created.

Boat 195: A creative exploration of the Mediterranean history of migration by a group of young Londoners from refugee backgrounds  - A case study of the project published by ICOM RUSSIA  is available here.


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  • about
  • community projects
  • performance
  • teaching/research
  • collaborations