Project
Context
Empowerment through inclusion
At EU level, 7.3 million cultural and creative jobs will be affected from COVID-19 (Culture Action Europe, 2020). This downsizing, will have significantly negative economic and social impact, taking into consideration the role of arts in community’s wellbeing. Thus, artists role should be re-invented, exploiting new opportunities, including digitally mediated forms for content production, and collaboration with citizens in content creation (OECD, 2020). Simultaneously, COVID-19 forces individuals to acquire life skills (flexibility, critical and creative thinking skills (JRC, LifeComp 2020) to become more resilient and creative, as crisis periods proliferate. Based on the above, it is a critical moment to build creative resilience at community level across Europe, by establishing a collaborative scheme between artists/cultural workers currently in limbo and community members promoting life skills development through arts and using creative placemaking as a canvas for pilot testing the acquired skills through an inclusive approach, promoting active citizenship.
Τarget audiences
Think art, make art
Community members, with a focus on adults aged 18-40, women, and representatives of ethnic and cultural minority groups.
Artists / cultural workers in limbo, with a focus on the ones working in the field of visual & performing arts and film making, heavily affected by COVID-19.
Local community centers active in the field of civic participation and social inclusion.
Activities & Results
Promoting active citizenship for all
An interventional framework for promoting life skills development and application through creative placemaking (O1), based on primary (focus groups, online survey) and secondary research.
A life skills curriculum (including trainer’s and trainee’s toolkit) through arts in the context of creative placemaking (O2), following an arts-based, learning-by doing, blended pedagogic approach.
Co-creativity hubs connecting community members and artists / cultural workers for life skills application, boosting creative resilience (O3), including delivery of training and miniartistic collective projects.
Creativity placemaking projects at local level inspired by COVID-19 experiences (O4), based on the acquired life skills of community members, and leading social role of artists.
Policy recommendations on life skills development through arts and the emerging role of artists in community resilience (O5), based on national and a EU policy roundtables.
Impact & long-term Benefits
Change your community through arts and crafts
Tested & assessed intervention framework in 3 EU countries related to the enhancement of life skills of community members through arts, and the emerging roles of artists currently in limbo within communities (200 CSOs, 60 formal and non-formal training providers, 800 professionals in civic engagement reached).
Enhanced life skills of community members acquired through an arts-based curriculum (75 community members trained, 1200 reached).
Enhanced competencies of artists / cultural workers in limbo, undertaking emerging roles in communities (15 trained artists, 300 cultural organisations & 900 artists reached).
An established European working group of trained artists / cultural workers, enriched by communities of practice, who will continue exchanging good practices and lessons learnt (15 artists & 60 community members involved).
