In line with Goal 4 of the 2030 Agenda to promote continuous learning opportunities for all and ensure equal access to all, the project aimed at creating a flexible and adaptable ART BRUT LEARNING WORKSHOP at EU level, with the ambition to systematize an innovative training offer with perspectives also of job opportunities. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES of the project were: • Improve and extend the provision of high-quality learning opportunities tailored to the needs of adults with psychic and social disadvantage, training staff of social and health services about art-based learning and therapeutic activities • Develop skills related to artistic production within the services for patients with mental disabilities, through the experimentation of the "artistic residences" model and promoting their lifelong learning • Promote the social inclusion of psychiatric patients through the development of technical-artistic, social and transversal skills. • Enhance Art Brut and Outsider art, both through individual artists and through collective public art events, with the involvement of the Community to face the issue of "social danger" in an open way and to build and share relationships • Create an EU network of organizations, educators and artists
Paint the change project was started by Phoenix and the Eu partners basing on the local experiences that showed as ART is an effective methodology for learning activities, therapeutic interventions, and opportunities for social inclusion of people with mental disabilities that very often suffered stereotypes and discriminating social behaviours: the effectiveness of unconventional activities, especially those related to free artistic and creative expression as therapy and rehabilitation tools, is a staple in the treatment pathways for the most diverse physical and mental pathologies. The idea of a learning and inclusion pathway based on expression and relationship has allowed great evolutions in the field of art therapy, at international level. The IDEA of "PAINT THE CHANGE" project, therefore, arise from a shared need of the services for users suffering from psychiatric disorders or other mental issues, to implement further on a transnational level, the experience that Phoenix initiated as a pilot test at a local level, enhancing the potential of ART BRUT classrooms, not only therapeutic opportunities but also social inclusion opportunities for the mentally disabled, direct beneficiaries of the project activities.