A wonderful, innovative programme of non-formal learning in six countries, involving youth workers, arts professionals and young people facing adversity including Roma, refugees and survivors of the Grenfell Tower disaster.A series of multilateral conferences, workshops and meetings will formalise policy dialogue, co-operation and networking with arts professionals developing the capacity to work with and include• Young Roma in Transylvania, Romania• Young People affected by the Grenfell Tower Fire in Notting Hill, London, UK• Young refugees in Lampedusa and young offenders in Catania, Southern Italy• Young refugees and people with learning disabilities in Ponary, Lithuania• Young people in rural South India, including Dalit (“untouchable”) tribal people• Prize winning young classical musicians from across the EUThe workshops will allow for training and development, exploring connexions between Breakdance and Classical Music for presentation in 6 large scale youth events:International Digital Dance-offs, Instrumental Duelling, Roasting and Throwdowns live streamed on YouTubea truly powerful, new exciting form of youth arts performance using Digital technology that is both advanced and accessible. Competition winning young classical musicians from all 28 EU nations, who are used to performing in concert to privileged audiences, will work with Hip Hop artists, composers and choreographers in Luxembourg in preparation for work with 20 children/young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in each of the six partner countries. They will be digitally connected for competitive performance battles using Breakdance and/or local street dance and martial arts forms, including Breakdance Battles in LondonJhora Duelling in RomaniaViolin Duelling in LithuaniaTarantella Duelling in Naples and Kalaripayattu Attakalari in South IndiaOpen Educational ResourceThe programme will make YouTube history as the first ever international digital smackdown with live, classical music. As well as YouTube and website documentation, a concrete output will be a handbook in 9 EU languages plus Arabic and Malayalam describing techniques, philosophy and experiences with practical advice on how to start up, run and sustain youth arts projects that do not rely on language. The handbook will have a Clean Ecological Footprint, without consuming resources or producing waste. This innovative new project will inspire young people to get involved with their local communities and find out about other EU and global communities, while celebrating children and minorities’ creativity and rights to inclusion. It will provide a powerful, highly visible celebration of EU values to people in the UK, at this crucial moment while there is still time to reverse the terrible decision of Brexit.
The project provided a programme of informal learning across 6 countries which brought youth workers and arts professionals together with young people experiencing adversity and social exclusion specifically:•Young Roma in Romania•Young people affected by the Grenfell Tower disaster in London•Young refugees in Lampedusa and young offenders in Catalonia•Young refugees and people with learning disabilities in Lithuania•Excluded young people in rural South IndiaThe programme also introduced award winning young classical musicians from all 28 EU nations to hip hop via a workshop programme in Luxembourg. The young musicians visited the participating countries where they led highly successful workshops, participatory music making events and concerts. The project aimed to demonstrate how to run youth arts projects which do not depend on language; how to collaborate with excluded young people using digital technology; and to support early career professional, classical musicians in reaching entirely new audiences. “I’ve done lots of projects with classical music and children but they are usually pretty awful; either the quality of the musicians is low or the music is too serious and the children get bored. This is perfect, the music is great and everyone has fun” (Kiron Atom Tellier, aged 19).