After the severe pandemic of COVID-19, culture needs to adapt to the new reality, and that involves integrating into the digital sphere, changing traditional methods for new ones based on the virtuality of art. It is also a great opportunity to become an effective means for young people at risk of exclusion to undertake and overcome their barriers. Europe is going to change after the pandemic in all areas, and especially in the cultural sphere, and this transformation will be led by young people with their enthusiasm, optimism, their knowledge of new technologies... but also their sense of solidarity. With this project we want to promote a new digital culture, more supportive and committed to those who need it most, but also more accessible both for users and young cultural entrepreneurs themselves, and especially for racialized and migrated youth. This initiative aims to promote a new young, dynamic, and supportive cultural enterprise that facilitates the social and labor inclusion of young persons (both local and migrant). To do this, 6 European entities that work in cultural entrepreneurship, artistic education, and the inclusion of young migrants (FRACTALS and LA COSECHA PRODUCCIÓN AUDIOVISUAL - Spain, FUNDACIÓN EMMANUEL and TERZO MILLENNIO - ITALIA, and EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION and ROES COOPERATIVA - Greece) want to promote the project "VOICE through ART". VOICE through ART is both an innovative methodology that promotes inclusion through cultural, solidary, and youth entrepreneurship, and a virtual space that facilitates and promotes new youth cultural projects that lead to the creation of a new culture adapted to the post-COVID-19 reality through its innovative methodology. The VOICE through ART methodology that will guide the project will generate a new art based on new technologies and youth entrepreneurship, but also inspiration, documentation, and reflection on what concerns them about their community and the strengths it possesses, especially in the society born after COVID-19. It is a collaborative and innovative methodology based on the famous "Photovoice" strategy adapted to the cultural sector, where art is built through critical analysis, reflection on the environment, and the digital avant-garde. The virtual space also called VOICE through ART will feature: - NON-FORMAL EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS AND METHODS FOR YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INCLUSION: a series of non-formal digital educational resources that will constitute the Intellectual Output O1 of the project and will provide young users with the training and skills to be able to undertake and overcome their barriers through videos, documents, workshops, group dynamics, and innovative methods: achieving inclusion through cultural entrepreneurship. These materials will be structured in three areas of knowledge: youth cultural entrepreneurship, inclusive artistic education, and new technologies in digital art. - THE SPACE FOR PEER LEARNING AND NETWORKING: a space for virtual communication and mutual learning between young creators (the tangible result R1) that will allow the creation of collaboration and friendship networks between young users (regardless of their origin or barriers), but also to implement joint entrepreneurship projects through effective networking, benefiting from commonly used digital tools and equipment (smartphone or laptop). - DIGITAL GALLERY: a virtual gallery (the tangible result R2) to upload and disseminate the works of all these artists, which will also be linked to social networks, and with entities and institutions capable of promoting them. Both the innovative methodology proposed and the virtual space derived from it will contribute to building a culture adapted to these post-COVID-19 times, capable not only of building art, but also of promoting the employment and inclusion of creative young persons (both migrants and locals) who, as a result of coronavirus, are in a terrible situation of segregation. To achieve this, it will effectively promote the creation of new cultural projects for young people as a dynamic path to their inclusion and employability. In order to develop and create all these results, multiple national activities with the target groups, along with virtual meetings, 4 transnational meetings (Spain, Greece, Spain, and Italy), and 3 multiplier events (Valencia, Lecce, and Giannitsa) will be carried out over 24 months, generating a great repercussion both in European culture and in creative young persons, especially in those who have had to leave their home to reach strange lands devastated by a pandemic like the one caused by coronavirus.
We created this partnership with the aim of promoting a digital, supportive, and committed culture, more accessible to users and young artists while favoring youth entrepreneurship as a mechanism of inclusion through the production and promotion of art. We have met these objectives by developing a project with a real positive impact, within which we have created the VOICE THROUGH ART (O1) platform and the COURSE hosted on it, managing to reach hundreds of young people in EU partner countries and including them into an artistic community, generating multiple artistic youth projects with an impact on thousands of young people, and thus creating a community that is growing exponentially after its completion. In addition, thanks to the powerful dissemination phase carried out, the support of the collaborating entities, and the 3 Multiplier Events (Spain, Italy, and Greece) held, we have managed to reach another 42 countries. These objectives also match the specific objectives of the Erasmus+ Programme, especially those in the KA2 line of strategic partnerships within the 2019-2027 EU Youth Strategy (connecting the EU with youth, creating inclusive societies and spaces for participation for all).
The cultural and creative sector is one of the economic and employability engines of our societies, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the closure of museums, theatres, libraries, markets, capacity limitations, and other measures that had to be implemented during that time, many cultural workers and artists (especially young people) lost their sources of income. In addition to that, excluded youth, especially migrants, suffered the most from the pandemic (due to the suspension of many social services, the closure of shelters, the cancellation of training and inclusion courses, saturation of medical services, etc.), and were also the age group with the highest risk of suffering from mental illness. For this reason, we decided to focus this project on the need to recover the cultural and creative sector, and stopping the exclusion of these young people who were going through their worst times, benefiting from fact that culture is a living, dynamic, and resilient sector that can be adapted and reconverted to make the leap to the digital world, thus making the art market more accessible to young people (not having high costs for materials or tools, not to access elitist facilities) and promoting their inclusion.