Art projects fostering social inclusion, in partnership with other sectors
In April we will take part in the European Commission’s meeting on art projects aimed at fostering social inclusion, in partnership with other sectors. In preparation to the meeting, we are asked to answer three questions, which you can read below.
As we are eager to bring your views, experiences and concrete examples to the meeting, it would be of great help if you could answer those questions before the 19th of February. Any ideas, thoughts and concerns related to the topic, or comments on the questions themselves are also welcome.
1. Which recent projects in Europe best demonstrate the effectiveness of culture and heritage activities in fostering social inclusion, in partnership with other sectors? (With a particular focus on projects for which evaluations are available).
2. What are the success factors for cultural organizations in delivering culture and heritage projects in healthcare, social care, prisons and deprived communities? What are the obstacles?
3. What (more) can public authorities do to facilitate effective partnership working
with culture and heritage organizations on projects for social inclusion?
Thanks a lot in advance!
Hi Elena,
Just very briefly, this is not my expertise, but there is a research project in Finland, called ArtsEqual. It may answer to your question number 2 or 3. Check the site http://www.artsequal.fi/en/home Under the subtitle Results, there are reports, publications and policy briefs also in English. Hopefully this is of some help to you. Best wishes, Sanna.
Prof. Dr. Maddy Janssens (Faculty of Economics & Business, K.U.Leuven) and Prof. Dr. Chris Steyeart (Research Institute for Organizational Psychology, St.Gallen University Switserland) investigate the ways in which organisations critically and continuously question and renew their position and practices regarding diversity, entrepreneurship and social role in the local neighbourhood. In the last 3 years they have intensively followed our organisation. They formulate the following remarks :
• Which recent projects in Europe best demonstrate the effectiveness of culture and heritage activities in fostering social inclusion, in partnership with other sectors? (With a particular focus on projects for which evaluations are available).
We would propose that projects like Tornar and INVITED initiated in the context of the dance company Ultima Vez are valuable examples. Ultima Vez – imprinting during 30 years the field of modern dance, is increasingly reconnecting its global artistic activity of dance productions with local participation projects where they collaborate with a range of social organizations and schools across generations, ethnicities and language groups. Artistic projects are interconnected with and form the focus of the dance company’s question and quest of how to be valuable in its local impoverished neighborhood beyond its artistic merit. Being located in one of the most controversial neighborhoods of Brussels where societal rifts are very polarized, this organization searches for ways of responding to the challenges of diversity, discrimination and inequality by developing a participatory infrastructure.
• What are the success factors for cultural organizations in delivering culture and heritage projects in healthcare, social care, prisons and deprived communities? What are the obstacles?
We propose that successful artistic projects – specifically in the cases of Tornar and INVITED to generate diverse performances – are related to setting up a participatory architecture, an organizational strategy which addresses grand challenges by engaging deeply with and targeting local minority groups. The strategy of participatory architecture offers a structure and rules of engagement that allow diverse and heterogeneous actors to interact constructively over prolonged timespans. The realization of artistic projects is embedded in a long-term trajectory through which relations and collaborations are initiated with intermediary organizations that represent weak societal groups. Relations with these diverse stakeholders are maintained through not only setting up open (one-time) workshops, but by offering series of regular encounters and involving participants to take part in the final artistic productions.
• What (more) can public authorities do to facilitate effective partnership working with culture and heritage organizations on projects for social inclusion?
Such participatory infrastructure forms a requisite step for organizations when aiming to tackling grand challenges such as inequality or discrimination while its success depends on the possibility to maintain this network and to keep its affective dynamics going which needs permanent facilitation. As a long-term endeavor, cultural organisations would need long-term financing to realize such necessary integration projects and to engage social change facilitators.
Prof. Dr. Maddy Janssens (Faculty of Economics & Business, K.U.Leuven) and Prof. Dr. Chris Steyeart (Research Institute for Organizational Psychology, St.Gallen University Switserland) investigate the ways in which organisations critically and continuously question and renew their position and practices regarding diversity, entrepreneurship and social role in the local neighbourhood. In the last 3 years they have intensively followed our organisation. They formulate the following remarks :
• Which recent projects in Europe best demonstrate the effectiveness of culture and heritage activities in fostering social inclusion, in partnership with other sectors? (With a particular focus on projects for which evaluations are available).
We would propose that projects like Tornar and INVITED initiated in the context of the dance company Ultima Vez are valuable examples. Ultima Vez – imprinting during 30 years the field of modern dance, is increasingly reconnecting its global artistic activity of dance productions with local participation projects where they collaborate with a range of social organizations and schools across generations, ethnicities and language groups. Artistic projects are interconnected with and form the focus of the dance company’s question and quest of how to be valuable in its local impoverished neighborhood beyond its artistic merit. Being located in one of the most controversial neighborhoods of Brussels where societal rifts are very polarized, this organization searches for ways of responding to the challenges of diversity, discrimination and inequality by developing a participatory infrastructure.
• What are the success factors for cultural organizations in delivering culture and heritage projects in healthcare, social care, prisons and deprived communities? What are the obstacles?
We propose that successful artistic projects – specifically in the cases of Tornar and INVITED to generate diverse performances – are related to setting up a participatory architecture, an organizational strategy which addresses grand challenges by engaging deeply with and targeting local minority groups. The strategy of participatory architecture offers a structure and rules of engagement that allow diverse and heterogeneous actors to interact constructively over prolonged timespans. The realization of artistic projects is embedded in a long-term trajectory through which relations and collaborations are initiated with intermediary organizations that represent weak societal groups. Relations with these diverse stakeholders are maintained through not only setting up open (one-time) workshops, but by offering series of regular encounters and involving participants to take part in the final artistic productions.
• What (more) can public authorities do to facilitate effective partnership working with culture and heritage organizations on projects for social inclusion?
Such participatory infrastructure forms a requisite step for organizations when aiming to tackling grand challenges such as inequality or discrimination while its success depends on the possibility to maintain this network and to keep its affective dynamics going which needs permanent facilitation. As a long-term endeavor, cultural organisations would need long-term financing to realize such necessary integration projects and to engage social change facilitators.