About participART

participART: art and culture for youth engagement in local communities

4 organizations coming from 3 different European cities, joining their experiences and expertise in order to strengthen local communities by artistic participation. This is Erasmus+ KA2 strategic partnership exchange of good practices project.

The project was born as a response to covid-19 pandemic which has changed dramatically youth work, non-formal education and work of art and cultural organizations. Artists and youth workers were looking for new ways to continue their work in these new conditions and tools to use in their work with young people and local communities.

Four organizations came together to create this 16-month long KA2 project «participART: art and culture for youth engagement in local communities», a good practice exchange project in order to strengthen local communities in urban areas. Project is taking place from September, 2021 – December, 2022. These organizations have a large experience working with local communities from different perspectives: Stranaidea (Italy) and La Candela Teatro y Comunidad (Spain) – working with theater methods, Kalnciema quarter (Latvia) – art and revitalization of neighbourhoods and the Splora foundation (Spain) – participation.

The main AIM of the project is to create synergy between Art, Theater and Urban community development that strengthens local communities by empowering local organizations, young people and supporting their role as change makers in their societies.

Objectives

to share methods and tools of community work through art, culture and participation, develop and adapt them to other communities and target groups.
to create opportunities for organizations and professionals to develop themselves as supporters of young people and their local communities.
to design and facilitate 3 Learning Mobilities in order to equip and empower the professionals involved with competencies and skills to exchange and innovate their practices with new methods, tools and approaches.

Main pillars

During the project, the team is going to work with 3 main pillars:

NEIGHBOURHOOD as the main focus area because these are places that bring together people of different cultures, generations, socio-economic backgrounds, places where people actually live and that gives an opportunity to reach them.

This is the reason why 3 different urban areas are chosen for this project: Riga – having large experience with bottom-up urbanism neighborhood revitalization projects, Valladolid – with some strong neighborhood communities, Torino – industrial and one of the most multicultural EU cities. These cities are very diverse and at the same time – complementary to each other.
PARTICIPATION in order to enhance young people to become active and positive change makers in their local communities.
CULTURE AND ART that actively engages the local community.

Target audience

The main target group of the project are youth workers, artists, cultural and community workers. To support reaching the aim of this project, the partnership will implement 3 international learning mobilities, 4 rounds of local activities and 2 transnational meeting for the project coordinators.

Learning mobilities

Following learning mobilities will be organized:

Study visit in Latvia “THE NEIGHBOURHOOD – LINKING PEOPLE THROUGH CULTURAL ACTION”.
Seminar in Italy “THE ART- LINKING SOULS THROUGH ARTISTIC PARTICIPATION”.
Implementation seminar in Spain “THE COMMUNITY WITHIN THE ART”.

As a result of the project a website will be created– participart.eu – where all gathered materials during the project: photos, videos, stories, activities, creative initiatives, city profiles will be located and available for all involved and interested people.