Campaign for Empathy for North Cambridge

Empathy artist Enni-Kukka Tuomala is our Open House Artist in Residence for North Cambridge, 2020/21.

Enni is working with local community groups and individuals developing the Campaign for Empathy for North Cambridge – the world’s first community-centred campaign to promote empathy as a way to foster a sense of community and connection in a time of physical distancing and social isolation.

By creating activities, conversations and moments of connection that culminate in empathy artworks, Enni is hoping to bring people together to explore the following questions:

What does the empathy mean to us individually and as a community? What’s the role it should play in our shared environment?

Where and when does empathy already live in the local community, and where is it needed? 

How can we better understand each other’s experiences and perspectives?

Can we feel connected without any physical contact? 

Could “social distancing” actually bring us closer? 

Who do we want to be when the doors open again?

Find out what Enni-Kukka Tuomala has been up to during the first six months of the Campaign For Empathy in our new film.

There are lots of ways to get involved and join the Campaign for Empathy for North Cambridge.

• Download the Campaign for Empathy Activity Kit I. The first kit is aimed at families and primary school age children. The second Campaign for Empathy Activity Kit II is aimed at adults and also available for you to download.
• Try our Campaign for Empathy Menu for Conversation to check in on friends, family and neighbours from a safe distance, or use it as a tool for self-reflection. You can even share your responses with us in a letter.
• Listen to the Campaign for Empathy: A Message – audio artwork. Hear messages of hope during the Covid-19 pandemic from pupils and teachers of the Grove Primary School in Kings Hedges. The messages were broadcast from a special billboard bicycle on Saturday 13th June 2020, to mark the day which would have been the date of the annual Arbury Carnival. The bike travelled around the usual Carnival procession route and beyond to spread the messages of encouragement all around North Cambridge.
• Follow our #campaignforempathy hashtag on Twitter and Instagram for more ideas and to join the conversation.

There will be lots more activity to come over the year. Keep in touch by joining our mailing list, following #campaignforempathy or checking back here for news about taking part in free workshops and creative activities with individuals and community groups in North Cambridge.

Join Enni-Kukka Tuomala and the #campaignforempathy and help to make North Cambridge the most empathetic community in the UK!

‘We are experiencing an unprecedented moment of fear and social isolation when it’s more important than ever that we not only look after ourselves, but each other. We need to create new ways to connect, come together and feel a sense of community and hope. I am excited to bring the Campaign for Empathy to Cambridge and look forward to working closely with the team at Kettle’s Yard and the local North Cambridge community to use empathy as a powerful tool to bring us together at a time when we need it more than ever.’

– Enni-Kukka Tuomala

Enni-Kukka Tuomala Open House Artist in Residence 2020/21

Open House is a long-term creative programme, a partnership between Kettle’s Yard and communities in North Cambridge. Each year an ‘Artist in Residence’ is selected by people who live and work in North Cambridge to deliver a programme of arts activities.

We are delighted to welcome artist Enni-Kukka Tuomala as our Open House Artist in Residence from now until March 2021. As part of her residency, she will be running the Campaign for Empathy with communities in North Cambridge.

Enni-Kukka Tuomala is a Finnish Empathy Artist and Designer based in London. Her vision is to transform empathy from an individual feeling to a collective power across age, gender, race and culture to tackle some of the biggest global challenges facing us today. To do this she launched a series of artworks, experiments, communications, games and tools to channel the radical impact of issue-based empathy to create positive social change.

 “I am very excited that Enni-Kukka will be working with us all in North Cambridge. At challenging times, like the one we are currently experiencing, empathy in our community is more important than ever.”

– Alan Soer, Manager of Arbury Community Centre