The project “Art-thinking: Tools for community building and alternative education through Artistic Methodology” is a multidisciplinary effort to offer young people the opportunity to experience various creative tools, experience the strength of self-expression and advocacy by focusing on community building, inclusion, global citizenship, and non-formal education within the frame of artistic exchange. Participants will be able to navigate emotional topics in a group setting, discuss social matters related to culture and identity, and reflect on the shortcomings they’ve been experiencing in their education thus far. In short, the objectives boil down to: - Introduce young people to 'Art Thinking' as a framework and as an alternative approach to traditional educational structures of learning - Experiment with a wide range of techniques in the fields of art and culture, expanding participant’s perspectives and competencies in soft and hard skills - Connect participants to cultural spaces and collectives, promoting the building of networks and communities in the socio-cultural field The primary objective is the introduction of ‘Art-Thinking’ as both a framework to structure thoughts and an approach to educational structures of learning. Youth work, from our experience, relies on diversity in frameworks that fit various groups. ‘Art-thinking’, which consists of viewing everyday experiences as a creative, collaborative process and processing them artistically, can be one of those. By introducing it to a group of interested young people, it can grow to include their lived experiences and ideas to further be shared within other groups. Participants can be involved in a process of leadership to spread the values and frameworks they stand for. Part of this goal is, to loosen the structure of formal education that often cuts apart different disciplines and promotes a frontal way of learning, which stifles many young peoples’ potential. ‘Art-thinking’ does not only show the importance of interdisciplinary approaches, and soft and hard skills, rather, it introduces young people to the idea that alternative approaches to education exist and may aid in supplementing previous as well as future learning experiences. Secondly, we will focus on the objective of enabling experimentation with art techniques, and the expansion of participants’ competencies, soft and hard skills. Based on the framework of interdisciplinary and self-guided learning, important for youth work. This project offers the spaces and resources for participants to explore their existing competencies. In collaborative activities, group work, and daily reflections we aim to enable them to improve their soft skills such as creative, critical and open-minded thinking. Through guided feedback rounds and shared emotional processing, soft skills like empathy and confidence are strengthened. The focus on artistic exploration as a competence further lights the way to practical and technical approaches such as the management of spaces and sociocultural initiatives, community building, collective care, and sustainable teamwork. The final objective focuses on connecting cultural spaces and collectives with participants and each other meaningfully, building a network that can rely on community action to grow further beyond this project’s lifetime. In non-formal youth work, we believe, it is important to equip young people with connections and ways to navigate networks for their future success. In showing them how to engage with different cultural agents, how to propose their ideas, and also how to manage their personal and collective well-being, we provide a foundation for all individuals involved to continue to support this objective. Through continued activity within these networks and enabling creative projects from participants and project organizers alike, a closely knit community can be established.