The COVID pandemic has brought about dramatic changes. The restrictions in social events and activities have created a need for alternative ways of “doing things” accelerating the use of new technologies in everyday activities. This new situation brought many changes to the arts and creativity sectors who were among those mostly affected. Additionally education, has been affected by the pandemic, as educators have been asked to rapidly adjust their whole educational methodology utilizing exclusively digital means and tools, while at the same time students had to learn through this new way. This was even more difficult for students with fewer opportunities who did not have the means (laptop/tablet etc.) to attend these online lessons. As it is well known the acquisition of skills, knowledge and understanding in digital literacy and arts have beneficial effects on children’s education and on their social integration. Additionally, existing studies note, that the arts provide immigrants a creative space for exploration and expression of identities, for challenging discrimination and social exclusion. Having in mind the above, the Arts4All project, will combine creative arts learning with distant learning, to promote social inclusion and integration, through an innovative mobile application. At the same time educators, art teachers, youth trainers will be trained on the application and the produced educational material so they will use them in their activities utilizing new technologies and innovative practices and methodologies in the educational process. The Arts4All project will adopt an integrated art pedagogical approach to enhancing the use of arts for social inclusion, using digital means. The main target groups of the project will be at least 60 young people, especially with migrant background and/or with fewer opportunities, educators, youth workers, organizations and individuals in the field of migration, social inclusion and the arts and the public. The project’s objectives are to examine needs and best practices in the partner countries on using arts as a tool for inclusion while developing synergies between organizations focused on social inclusion and organizations in the culture and creative sector of the partner countries to develop new tools and methodologies in the education of arts. It also aims to provide a digital tool for learning through entertainment and to promote social inclusion on which the interested parties will be trained. Finally, it aims to promote the effectiveness and importance of arts to support the recovery of the cultural and creative sectors while promoting the idea of social cohesion. The Arts4All project will present the following results: • Arts4All Handbook: Report on needs and good practices • Arts4All Curriculum and Manual useful for educators, youth workers and other stakeholders related with adolescents, especially adolescents with fewer opportunities and/ migration background. • Arts4All Methodological Guide information regarding the project, the use of the arts as a tool for social inclusion and social integration, the methods used, and the expected results. The Methodological Guide will also include the Manual on the use of the Arts4All Curriculum and App. • Arts4All Mobile Application • Arts4All trainings targeting educators, youth workers, artists, and teachers. • Arts4All Open Badges • Project’ s website which will be developed to present the project aims and objectives and to provide easy access to the tools and resources have been developed • Project’s visual identity such as logo, banner, posters. • Project’s social media pages: Instagram/ Facebook • A dedicated YouTube channel • 1000 Project leaflets including the project overview, objectives, partners, and funding agency • 3 Press Releases at milestones of the project and 4 Newsletters, translated in all partners’ languages distributed to 20000 contacts around Europe. Those will also be disseminated through project’s website and social media pages. • 3 face to face transnational meetings • 1 transnational conference Arts4all will further promote the transnational cooperation on social inclusion practices, while at the same time it will enhance the skills of children from migrant background and/or fewer opportunities at the area of arts and creativity and provide a new methodology for the teaching of arts, based on digital tools to educators, teachers and youth workers around Europe. It is also expected to have a long-term impact on all the participants, target groups and the general public as it will promote the common values of equality, respect of diversity and cooperation to the European society. At the same time the project will promote the arts, culture, and creativity as an important part of our society and everyday life, as a way to empower the artists and people in the cultural and creative sectors who are currently facing big challenges.
• Examine needs and best practices in the partner countries on using arts as a tool for inclusion • Develop synergies between organizations focused on social inclusion and organizations in the culture and creative sector of the partner countries to develop new tools and methodologies in the education of arts • Provide a digital tool for learning through entertainment and to promote social inclusion • Provide interested parties with a tool and training on innovative methodologies that can be used individually or in the framework of their teaching methodology. • Networking between the organizations involved and interested parties in the participating countries through collaboration and exchange of good practices. • Promote the effectiveness and importance of arts to support the recovery of the cultural and creative sectors. • Promote to the public the idea of social cohesion through the responsible, smart, and systematic utilization of digital resources and tools.
The COVID pandemic brought about dramatic changes across the world. The restrictions in social gatherings, events and activities created a need for alternative ways of “doing things”. This new order of things has accelerated the use of new technologies in everyday activities. For example, physical meetings and events are now – even after the official end of the COVID-19 pandemic- widely replaced with digital meetings and events. This new situation brought many changes to the arts and creativity sectors who were among those mostly affected. At the same time, education, has been affected by the consequences of the pandemic, as educators have been asked to rapidly adjust their whole educational methodology utilizing exclusively digital means and tools, while at the same time students had to learn through this new way. This was even more difficult for students with fewer opportunities who did not have the means (eg PC/laptop/tablet etc.) to attend these online lessons. From what was learnt through the project, this situation has an even greater impact in non pandemic conditions With the possibility of a new outbreak of a global crisis (like the so called Virus X) it is becoming even more imperative to develop new more accessible tools to address educational needs in all sectors, culture and creativity being amongst them. According to Fredriksson et al. (2009), the acquisition of skills, knowledge and understanding in digital literacy and arts have beneficial effects on children’s education and on their social integration. Playful, creative, art activities encourage sharing, learning, and understanding whilst also fostering integration into culture (Cross and Woodruff, 2008). Additionally, existing studies note, that the arts provide immigrants a creative space for exploration and expression of identities, for challenging discrimination and social exclusion and for fostering intercultural dialogue (Netto, 2008). Maintaining a cultural identity of the country of origin can have positive effects on integration, if it is combined with identification with the destination country (Le Polonsky & Arambewela, 2015; Phinney et al., 2001). Having in mind the above, we proposed, have been awarded and successfully implemented a project to combine creative arts learning with distant learning, to promote social inclusion and integration, through an application which can provide an attractive and creative environment. Educators, art teachers, artists, students along with their respective ecosystems, were acquainted to the projects innovative results that targeted the need for vaster, more rapid and more efficient adaptation to the needs of digitalization of knowledge and creativity.