Today in Europe cultural diversity is often seen as a threat, and it creates polarization and frustration in the societies. Young people can easely be influenced, especially through the main stream media and social media channels. Not moving outside of their comfort zone, maintaining groups of friends fro socio-cultural environments similar to their own contributes to maintaining distance and ignorance of the others. The rigidification of cultural and social faultlines is a phenomenon that should be dealt with, especially when we talk about the young generations. Art has the potential of engaging young people in collaboration which helps them transcend such divisions though entering a creative space. To build on this potential the "Real path/imaginary path: art mediation for social dialogue" project proposes to adapt, test and asses a method of art mediation to tackle the feeling of threat, identity insecurity and the fear of the other, whose sign we can witness on all sides, on members of dominant society and of minority groups. The project will take place in Hungary, France, Germany and Belgium. The main objectives of the 16month-long project are: -to engage young people in artistic creation, where they would co-construct art works in collaboration with artists and other young people, try themselves in different tasks and roles around the artistic process, make use of their existing skills. -to test, assess and promote the methodology of art mediation adapted to work with heterogenous groups in a creative and inclusive way to develop their transversal skills, such as social and collaborative skills, self confidence, self expressions. - to create a virtual art gallery to promote forms of socio-art (collaborative creation with artists and non professionals) and invite young people to create a commercialsiation plan for the gallery, thereby developing entrepreneurial skills. -to contribute to the debate on the assessment and potential of art mediation interventions with the results of a video-based impact analysis of the workshops We will work with a heterogeneous groups of young people (aged 18-30) that represents the local social cultural diversity: men, women, members of different social and cultural groups, natives and migrants should be represented. The young people will be with or without any previous engagement with art practices. Our methodology is based on three pedagogical pillars: a) intercultural approach: taking into account dimensions of cultural / social diversity in creating the workshops and materials and making them a source of learning, b)non-formal pedagogy: considering participants active learners and offering learning space where they can mobilise their experiences in collaborative ways, c) art mediation: offering an immersion in artistic creation focusing on a creation of an art work with the support of artists, and not on the development of a specific technique. We will use different art forms such as video, photography, circus and theatre. The proposed activities include a joint staff training on the art mediation methodology called „Real path/imaginary path”; 10-day-long workshops for young people in each country; an in-depth interaction analysis of the method; the deveopment of a virtual gallery to share the art works of young people with the general public; local multiplier events and a main international event in Berlin. The expected results and impact are: - as for the young people: their social and collaborative skills, self confidence, self expression / artistic expression will be developed. They will be empowered to be part of a culturally diverse society, their entrepreneurial skills will be developed, too. - as for the participating organisations and the artists / art mediators / youth workers : they gain a new, innovative methodology of art mediation („Real path/imaginary path”), they will exchange experience. A network will be created, that can be useful for future collaborations. The final methodology and the virtual gallery will be innovations that can be used and adapted for the everyday work of the organisations. - as for the other relevant stakeholders (art mediators, youth workers, policy makers, representatives of art, youth and educational institutions etc) will gain important knowledge about the impact of art mediation. Together with the general public, they will profit from the virtual gallery that shares the art work of young people.
With the project „Real path, imaginary path: art mediation for social dialogue” we aimed to fight against the rigidification of cultural and social faultlines targeting youth and engage them in artistic collaboration. Our main goal during the 17 Month-long project was to adapt, test and asses Werner Moron’s method of art mediation to tackle the feeling of threat, identity insecurity and the fear of the other, whose sign we can witness on all sides, on members of the dominant society and of minority groups. At the very beginning of the project, we organized training in Budapest. The aim of the training was to meet and train a new generation of facilitators and to pass through the method from first hand. IO1 focused on the adaptation and testing of a methodology of art mediation developed by Werner Moron involving new partners and new forms of art. During 4, 60 hours of artistic workshops, we worked together with 46 young people in Belgium, Germany, France, and Hungary. In collaboration with local artists, we applied the method to the techniques of photography, collage, fanzine, movements, video and sound editing. See the picturebooks of the workshops: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1S_5DX89RV0oMrMLU1Q16Fq5OzxVMqEJi and we created a "step by step" guidebook to the method of Werner Moron targeting facilitators who aim to work in the field of art-mediation: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TGc46sk8sw8qiUZsMrs3etSEK4USi8B8. Under IO2 we used video-based assessment to understand the potential, strengths, and weaknesses of the Real Path method. We recorded and analyzed the workshops (based on units of interactions, coded according to the steps of Werner Moron's method). Our aim with the analysis was to capture and identify the moments of transformations when the learning process - with special focus on he hardly measurable factors as social skills, motivation, creativity- happens, and to make the impact of an artistic activity more visible and measurable. The method provides with important feedback on the work of the facilitators and art-mediators and contributes to the debate on the transformations that art mediation triggers. Regarding the means of assessment, read more in the Guide for assessment https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BQy5R2MQ9SawFUjlkzbqBXAff6A_12aW. About the detailed analysis of the method in the document Adaptation of the method: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1y8VXX3LBuuykSauqjBhpwXE3y2tVilQf While working on IO3 we created a unique platform, where the products of the art workshops are shared with the public, with the professional audience and possibly, in a later stage with buyers. https://trajet-reel.com/ During the project: - We provided training for 9 facilitators, we worked together with 10 artists and external observers Indirectly we involved our colleagues (administrative staff, volunteers, interns) and we reached at least 300 people during the multiplier events and more than 2000 people through our media surfaces. - We engaged 46 young people (we involved youth with a migrant background, youth with geographical, social and economic obstacles, NEET youth and young people from the majority of the society) in artistic creation during the 4, 60 hours workshops. Based on their feedback (Read more in the Annex of the "Adaptation of the method", they gained new soft-, and professional skills and experienced a fulfilling process as a part of a group. Through the workshop process, we developed participants transversal skills, such as social and collaborative skills, self-confidence, self-expression. - We trained facilitators, who are able to apply the method and we collaborated with local artists. With their contribution, we applied the method in new artforms. - Based on the video-assessment, we identified the elements of the method which are easy to adapt and elements of the method that requires a lot of sensitivity and leaves flexibility to the facilitator. - We worked with intercultural and heterogeneous groups and we engaged participants for further cooperations. e - We created a virtual art gallery to promote forms of socio-art (collaborative creation with artists and non-professionals) and invited young people to collaborate in the design of the commercialization plan for the gallery, thereby developing entrepreneurial skills. Regarding the longer-term benefits of the project, the partnership keeps working on the content development of the virtual gallery. We see the gallery as a platform and starting point of new collaborations.