This Christmas, help us launch a season of joyful celebration of our Artist-Patron Handel’s ‘Hallelujah Chorus’. Our new major exhibition ‘A Grand Chorus: The Power of Music’ forms the springboard for us to share its social and emotive dynamism, from early fundraising performances to now.
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From Handel’s time to today, care-experience has been steeped in stigma. To raise funds for the Foundling Hospital, from 1749 Handel began holding annual benefit concerts featuring works including Messiah, of which the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ forms a part. Each year 10,000 young people leave the care system and, as in Handel’s day, the stigma of growing up in care continues to seriously impact a young person’s life chances and ability to achieve their own sense of positive life purpose.
As the only cultural institution in the UK celebrating care-experienced people and carers, we continue Handel’s great legacy of raising awareness and funds to reduce the stigma felt by care-experienced young people. As the birthplace of creative philanthropy – with a centuries-long tradition of Artist-Patrons like Handel supporting children in care – the Foundling is helping care-experienced young people, mothers, and carers share their stories with visitors, audiences, and change-makers.
