Chantal Hales

Chantal Hales is a "Citizen of the World". She spent her childhood in teenage years travelling with her parents, attending international schools and developing a passion for Arts in all its forms. She spent the last 15 years living and working in Western Europe. Her passion for Arts and Theatre has led to her collaboration with other artists to establish Dunia Yetu, an art organization dedicated to creating, producing and performing creative work, and developing drama-based activities in schools. During this period Chantal also collaborated with other artistic institutions to explore new genres: She worked with Hybrid Consulting contributing to "fragment", a project which explored boundaries, cultural clash, edges and 'us' and 'them' and told stories about how cultures and people connect with each other across intersecting lines. As part of this project, Chantal wrote and performed of a piece called 'Us and Them: What Am I?'. Also, during the Yuri Leiderman's Geopoetics/Birmingham Pattern summer exhibition at the IKON Gallery, Chantal worked closely with a group of musicians from China, India, Middle East, Israel, UK and Greece, improvising singing to a variety of sounds and rythms. Chantal took part in a number of other events around the West Midlands, including the Arts Festival and recently worked closely with the Midlands Arts Theatre. Outside of the artistic arena, Chantal works for the University of Birmingham as a research fellow.