At the end of May, we became part of the Visegrad project Training for Artistic Activism – Artivism in the region. The goal of the project is to support the participation of creative artists in civic initiatives and activism in the post-socialist area. The project focuses on youth leadership activism, especially in the area of three main topics:
In the summer, a two-week Academy focused on social change will take place. The educational program involves experts from social and educational fields from various countries from all over Europe.
As part of the program, participants will learn about various formal and non-formal artistic methods and put the newly gained knowledge into practice with the help of professional advisers.
Academy will be focused on Artivism, which helps the participants to process their feelings, thoughts and experiences related to this. Through the arts – Artivism, it gives them a tool to express themselves and be active, conscious participants in the changes. The program has three main topic as inclusive societies, equality of all genders, environmental protection and art. The main connecting theme is activism, how people can get involved in art and how art can become a tool for social change.
During the two-week program the participants can get to know the world of theater that works in an intimate puppet theater format, which can be performed in especially small spaces, even in living rooms. How to work with artistic tools and help women and young girls who suffer discrimination. How to cooperate with communities and even educational institutions using environmental education theater tools. Besides that, how to initiates 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, will participants from 5 countries – the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Serbia, implement their own Artivism pilot programme. From the submitted pilot ideas, the pitch work will be selected – 1 from each country, which will be implemented by the participants after the Academy with the mentoring support of the partner organisations and the finacial support (up to €1000 to each country) by the Visegrad Fund. The project will end with a conference where the idea implementers will present their work.
With our project we aim 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.
The project addresses a major problem of ignored and disregarded groups with the training of workers in the social, educational and artistic fields. We aim to educate and work towards an openness of the common mindset and to initiate Europe-wide social activities for the underprivileged.
Our project broadens the mind of all involved groups coming from different social and educational backgrounds. The participants experience the differences between different cultures and subcultures and learn from each other.
Pro Progressione (HU)
Art Transparent (PL)
Dafa Puppet Theatre (CZ)
Creative Industry Košice (SK)
Kulturanova (RS)
The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.
