Whichever indicator of civic engagement we use (from abstention rates to involvement in clubs and associations we notice a reluctance of youngster to participate (see Eurobarometer 375, Idea 2014, OECD 2014). A reluctance that seems to be accentuated by more difficult economic conditions and lower education levels. Furthermore, because we find more of these young people in the more disadvantaged segments of society (eg. amongst NEETS) indirectly they will be more likely to disengage, to stay out. Our exploratory interviews showed, that for many this ‘staying out’ is a consequence of a perception of being discriminated, of being neglected by those in power.At the same time our exploratory interviews showed that young people (whether or not living in difficult situations) are usually quite ready to identify issues they are concerned about, however they do not always seek a deeper understanding of the issues and can remain with fairly superficial explanations. A sense of disappointment often prevents further discussion and tackling of these problems. We offer to develop a set of methodologies based on peer learning, new technologies and artivist practices.Target groups addressed:- young people between 18-30, living in multicultural areas of our cities, reflecting the local cultural / social diversity- youth workers, educators, social workers, interested in learning new methodologies. - artists and activists, interested in social problems affecting the young people, wishing to engage with young people's non formal education.- decision makers at local, regional levels, associations and institutions involved in youth empowerment, youth representation ObjectivesThe artivism project wishes to contribute to young people’s empowerment, stronger social participation and active citizenship, implying a deeper understanding of key issues and better skills to discuss and present their opinions and to engage in dialogue.We also wish to contribute to high quality youth work, equipping youth workers with skills and techniques to use the arts as a means for expression of political and social opinions, and ultimately as a vehicle of social transformation. To achieve these objectives Artivism will develop and test a set of pedagogical methods:1. Peer learning workshops to identify key social and political problems relevant for them, invite experts to elaborate and discuss these issues and construct together an “Ideas Bank for Social transformation” for sharing their ideas. The application of Ideas bank is a very flexible online media with easy access, allowing collaboration across boarders. It is an attractive contemporary tool that can used in parallel to the peer learning workshops and discussions with the experts as ideas get more and more defined.2. Construction of an “artivism archive” to record and collect experiences of artists that have used the arts to raise awareness and trigger engagement about social and political problems (up to the present there is no such publicly available compilation)3. “Initiation to artivism” workshops involving young people and artists to learn about artivist approaches, make interviews with artivists and try out different techniques that artivists have used to address key issues4. Artivism campaigns where youth and artists collaborate together to create artivist campaigns about the issues they have identified for local communities, stakeholders and a wider audience first locally then in an international artivism festival.Art is a powerful tool to grab direct attention and point to critical problems affecting our societies. Artivists traditionally have been able to give voice and visibility to oppressed communities in creative ways, which act both on our understanding and our feelings. Our interviews tell about a strong sense of disappointment concerning political life, often resulting in resignation. Our contention is that artivism can offer attractive creative ways of engagement which can help to overcome this sense of resignation5. Packaging all the pedagogical materials and experiences into a training for youth workers and Open Education Resources to ensure the long term exploitation The four partners to the Artivism project represent different geographic areas of Europe, different types of institutions (2 unveristies and 2 NGOs) different disciplines (journalism, art therapy, culture, intercultural education) and share the joint commitment to show that Arts can create a dialogical democratic space for bridging the divisions of society into those who can take part and those who don't, it can overcome these differences and the mistrust and create communities of creative dialogue.
CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND Whichever indicator of civic engagement we use (from abstention rates to involvement in clubs and associations we notice a reluctance of youngster to participate (see Eurobarometer 375, Idea 2014, OECD 2014). A reluctance that seems to be accentuated by more difficult economic conditions and lower education levels. Furthermore, because we find more of these young people in the more disadvantaged segments of society (eg. amongst NEETS) indirectly they will be more likely to disengage, to stay out. Our exploratory interviews showed, that for many this ‘staying out’ is a consequence of a perception of being discriminated, of being neglected by those in power. At the same time our exploratory interviews showed that young people (whether or not living in difficult situations) are usually quite ready to identify issues they are concerned about, however they do not always seek a deeper understanding of the issues and can remain with fairly superficial explanations. A sense of disappointment often prevents further discussion and tackling of these problems. We offer to develop a set of methodologies based on peer learning, new technologies and artivist practices. PARTICIPATING PEOPLE AND ORGANISATIONS. The four partners to the Artivism project represent different geographic areas of Europe, different types of institutions (2 unveristies Nottingham Trent University (UK) and Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain) and 2 NGOs: Artemisszio Foundation (Budapest) élan interculturel (Paris). We represent different disciplines (journalism, art therapy, culture, intercultural education) and share the joint commitment to show that Arts can create a dialogical democratic space for bridging the divisions of society into those who can take part and those who don't, it can overcome these differences and the mistrust and create communities of creative dialogue. In the four cities we worked with very diverse groups of young people, addressing subject matters relevant in the specific context chosen by the participants. We also involved youth workers, educators, and social workers, interested in learning new methodologies as well as artists and activists, interested in social problems affecting the young people, wishing to engage with young people's non formal education. MAIN ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS 1. We started our work by exploring and testing strategies to identify the subjects that matter for young people: issues that make them angry or that they wish to change. With the participation of 68 youth we have carried out urban walks (tested in Nottingham) Urban walks with interviews and photographs collected digitally connected with ideas marathon (tested in Madrid) adopting the Abecadarium to explore ideas concerning a social context (tested in Paris) City Games (tested in Budapest). 2. We created the “artivism archive” with more than 50 selected artivist practices, of which 50 have been translated to all languages, and made the archive accessible at artivism.online 3. Development of “Initiation to artivism” workshops involving young people and artists to learn about artivist approaches. In our four cities we have included 130 young people and 23 artists in our 38 workshops. We have altogether created initiation workshops with 19 different art forms (poster, collage, photography, theatre, serigraphy, business card, sculpture, circus, vogue, slam, afro-consciousness, collaborative cinema, architecture etc. please see full list of workshops in annex) Young people could engage easily in the workshops which were organized in a practical easy access way. They perceived the collaboration with the artists as valorizing and could get initiated to basic techniques. 4. Artivist campaigns: We created a range of artivism campaigns where youth and artists collaborated together to raise awareness and inspire reflection and change about the issues they have identified for local communities, stakeholders and a wider audience. In total we ran 12 campaign events (collaborative film screening, interactive parcours, urban walks, asphalt fresco, exhibition in public space, festival etc ) created 11 different campaign products involving about 130 young people. 5. Finally, we packaged all the pedagogical materials and experiences into a training for youth workers that we tested also in an international context in a 5 days training in Budapest. 6. We have collected and shared all our experiences and products on artivism.online, created Open Education Resources and an Artivist manual to ensure the long term exploitation, which is now also available on artivism.online. In accompaniment of the intellectual outputs we have carried out dissemination activities all through the project, reaching more than 600.000 people in great part thanks to the Hungarian artivist team which who managed to attract great attention with their campaigns preceeding the 2018 parliamentary elections.