A brief history...
SafetyCurtain is an international charity helping people outside of the UK only - our small grants mostly assisting those living in war zones, very extreme poverty or life-threatening political conflict.
Creativity, humanity and community all inform the grant giving at SafetyCurtain. We are an apolitical charity helping struggling actors and creative practitioners in peril beyond the UK internationally in more than 20 countries across the globe.
Founded in 1999, the charity was established by the actor Hugh Manning, also a former Equity president and chair of the International Committee for Artists’ Freedom (ICAF).
Formerly the International Performers’ Aid Trust, others moving the charity forward included Harold Pinter, Julie Christie and, for many years, Alan Rickman.
Many of our beneficiaries live in countries that are scarred by poverty or devastating ongoing conflict. These individuals actively seek to address issues that have a direct impact on their day-to-day lives and reinforce a sense of belonging through their creative practice, be it dance, film, theatre, live performance or music.
Historically those we have helped have included a Chilean company working with children from favelas, a music therapy centre for traumatised victims of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a community home and performance space in Argentina for retired performers, a Kenyan community company working in the slums of Nairobi and essential medicines for several members of a Nigerian dance company that enlightens its audiences on civic issues.
"Our organisation enables performers around the world to eat, access medicine and have somewhere safe to live. Some of the groups have now become self-sufficient."
"Others are in situations that mean - whether for social, political or economic reasons - they will need our aid for the foreseeable future. Please help us help them. "
The late Alan Rickman, former President