We organize yearly our Summer Academy Erasmus+ programme, which focuse on social change. In 2023, the 2-week training programme invited professionals of social and educational fields coming from different countries from all over Europe and Erasmus+ eligible countries. During the program, the participants could gain an insight into a unique merge of socially engaged art techniques developed by experts throughout years of practicing and teaching within the field of socially engaged arts. Thereby the program provided them the opportunity to learn formal and non-formal artistic methods and put the newly gained knowledge into practice with the help of professional advisers.
In 2023, there was a new focus, Artivism, which helped the participants to process their feelings, thoughts, and experiences related to this. Through the arts – Artivism, it gave them a tool to express themselves and be active, conscious participants in the changes. The program had three main topics as inclusive societies, equality of all genders, environmental protection, and art. The main connecting theme was activism, how people could get involved in art and how art could become a tool for social change.
During the two-week program, the participants could get to know the world of theater that worked in an intimate puppet theater format, which could be performed in especially small spaces, even in living rooms. They learned how to work with artistic tools and help women and young girls who suffered discrimination. They learned how to cooperate with communities and even educational institutions using environmental education theater tools. Besides that, they learned how to initiate intercultural and intersectoral dialogue in society, encouraging the creativity of young people through art education, production of cultural content, and improvement of public policies in the field of culture and youth.
With the support of Visegrad Found, there was a special opportunity for participants from 4 countries – the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and additionally from Serbia – to implement their own Artivism pilot programme alongside the Academy participation. We had an online open day with an Artivism expert, followed by a workshop at the Academy with our V4 partners. From the submitted pilot ideas, we selected the pitch work – 1 from each country –, which was implemented by the participants after the Academy with the mentoring support of the partner organizations and the financial support (up to €1000 to each country) by the Visegrad Fund. The project ended with a conference where the idea implementers presented their work.
With our project, we aimed to tackle the obstacle of involving underprivileged youth in a discourse about their own lives and the topics affecting them, by giving social workers, pedagogues, artists, and other professionals working in the field creative and artistic tools to reach and work with them. We intended to reach the result of more open-minded target groups, social workers with innovative and creative skills involved in the program and beyond, inter-social beneficiaries, and the change for a common creative process for interactive performances. Furthermore, we wanted to enlarge the Social Art Practices network where individuals were not only acting locally but across borders.
The project addressed a major problem of ignored and disregarded groups with the training of workers in the social, educational, and artistic fields. We aimed to educate and work towards an openness of the common mindset and to initiate Europe-wide social activities for the underprivileged.
With our exchange of workers, we supported two target groups at the same time: the participants of the exchange and the groups they worked with in their own fields. Our project broadened the mind of all involved groups coming from different social and educational backgrounds. The participants experienced the differences between different cultures and subcultures and learned from each other.
The project was co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from the International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund was to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.
Additionally, the project was sponsored by the DANUBE SMALL PROJECT FUND, funded by: The Ministry of Science, Research, and Arts Baden-Württemberg, the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs of Austria, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft (ARGE) Donauländer / State of Lower Austria, the Provincial Government of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina within the Republic of Serbia, the City of Regensburg, the Danube Office Ulm / Neu-Ulm, and the Volksbank Ulm-Biberach.
Partners:
Asociación Raíces de Coriander (ES)
Art Transparent (PL)
Dafa Puppet Theatre (CZ)
Creative Industry Košice (SK)
Kulturanova (RS)
Companhia Teatro de Gato Escaldado (PT)
Gallery:
