We kindly invite artists, teachers and social workers to take part in an international project, called “EXCEPT”.
Exchange of Community-engaged Performing Art Practices (EXCEPT) is a 2-year long Europe-wide program with six countries directly involved (Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Serbia and Hungary), co-financed by European Union. All partners of EXCEPT - Utca-SzAK (H) Associatione Stefanoperocco (F), Theather Octopus (D), Pontre Tra Culture (I), Studio Skit (Pl), Kulturanova (Srb) - are professionals in social artistic activities, convinced that art practice is an exceptionally effective way of community building.
Background
There are many intellectuals with a strong motivation to contribute to a healthier, more equal and motivated society, with the urge to start this kind of work “just in the opposite corner” of society: the world of slums, extremely poor villages, prisons, refugee camps, urban minority groups, not even mentioning exotic places like continental Africa or the warworn Middle East, are more and more intriguing challenges for the artist of today.
This is great since the latent capacity of the knowledge of our social group is a sort of general human expertise - communication, group work, the knowledge of learning and development - essential for the people in need. But how to start? How to involve the target groups? What are the possible dangers in an encounter with an isolated group of people? How to avoid undesirable side effects? How to prepare for these encounters from inside, with tools and strategy, and from the terribly important view of artistic experiences - since only a creatively active artist is able to contaminate with the joy of creation. And finally, how to maintain the development of those successfully contaminated?
The partners of the program have accumulated decent experience through dealing with these difficulties and our aim is to share and develop this current knowledge.
Activities
Our Summer Academy will provide a two-week-long scholar framework involving outstanding professional trainers from various fields such as applied theatre, clown-technic or social work. The program is completed with another week of work experience with underprivileged children. The envisaged themes are ranging from social psychology to follow-up and supervision models, through testing different examples of art application, leaping over the realm of social welfare studies and social anthropology and including joint training/stage experience. The 1-week long practical section directly follows the 2 weeks long theoretic study. The Art Camps will take place in Hungary, Poland and Serbia, where the trainees can encounter the real difficulties of fieldwork while assisting the leaders.
Dates
July 7 - 20 – Summer Academy in Szakácsi, Hungary
July 23 – 30 – Art Camp (Poland, Serbia, Hungary)
Participants
We are looking for artists, teachers, social workers and volunteers from all over Europe - who may come with or without explicit experiences from the announced fields. What is essential is the candidate’s urge for broadening her/his knowledge in Applied Performing Art Practices. We may welcome up to 42 trainees.
For 30 trainees all the costs (including traveling and daily allowances) shall be covered, and for 12 additional participants, there is the possibility for co-financing (some fees will have to be paid, but the courses will be free of charge also for them).
The Selection
The following materials should be included in your application:
• Curriculum Vitae: Length of one page. Please include all relevant contact information and personal website, if available.
• Letter of intent: Length of max. one page.
The applications should be sent no later than 21/04/2014 to the following e-mail address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The list of selected applicants will be announced by the 30th of April.
Let’s meet on the 7of July in Szakácsi!
