1) To reinforce the capabilities of a transnational partnership that has been developing since 2015, both in terms of human and material resources, as in what concerns activities and results. 2) To enhance the pedagogical and artistic mission of performing arts higher education institutions and professional theatres, by fostering synergies between a more inclusive higher arts education programme and the professional world. 3) To promote new, more porous areas and formats for meeting, debate and creation - international seminars, thought laboratories, creative residencies, colloquia –, structured by the conceptual triad 'school - theatre - city' and guided by the theme of artistic responsibility. These new formats have been conceived and developed by students, teachers, researchers, artists, cultural managers and alumni and have been integrated into the curriculum of current teaching plans. 4) To enhance the international mobility of project participants, namely school staff and students, in order to further develop professional, intercultural and language skills in line with actual professional needs. 5) To promote practices and a conceptual frameworks for the creation of inter-school research projects on accessibility issues.
The concept for the project emerged from a previous collaboration between three theatre schools and three theatres in Portugal and Spain. The objective was to promote artistic residencies with students from the partner schools, resulting in the creation of shows presented in the theaters’ network. Despite the richness and intensity of the collaboration, no research was conducted to explore the initiative’s potential from the perspective of the partnership, the impact of the work on the schools' curricula, the relationship between the programmes and the professional world, or the conditions for its execution. The Nós-Nous project (ARCHE) was developed in response to the initial need for a more structured research context around the school-theatre partnership. This context established a scope of action and timeline guides, with the goal of producing tangible results in a transnational academic and artistic context and it was decided to be developed around the concept of artistic responsibility. [In its initial design, the project would integrate French and German partners, assisted by the École des Écoles network.]