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What sort of impact can a cultural education have on the behaviour of members of the public? Taking this question as a basis, a Grundtvig partnership has been established between the French, the Turks and the Poles. The purpose: to exchange their cultural practices - in particular their theatrical ones - that are performed within the social and civic sector. They all learnt a great deal from one another...
Since 2002, the leaders of the socio-cultural centres of the Bas-Rhi have been organising communal training activities and are working on cultural projects together in underprivileged population areas. In 2006, on the strength of this experience, six centres joined forces for a Grundtvig European project entitled “The development of cultural and artistic activities in the service of the active members of the community”. They then developed a European partnership with two associations: the Creative Drama Association of Istanbul, in Turkey, and the Association for Creative Initiatives in Legnica, in Poland.
In the course of meetings between the European partners involved in this programme, their thoughts were mainly focussed on the relationship that developed between the people (the public with problems in France and women’s groups in Poland and in Turkey), the artistic contributor (musician, visual artist, actor) and the organiser (social or charity worker).
The Polish association has set up a number of networks of social and cultural structures and has organised discussion groups for women who have difficulty in integrating into society. In Turkey, the project’s enormous impact has resulted in a number of unexpected meetings. An alternative theatre and a group of amateurs thus got together and combined to offer artistic expression workshops to a predominantly female public. Much more easily touched by poverty as a consequence of being less well qualified and being alone with their children, women constitute an ideal public target for this type of activity which calls for expressiveness and communication.
In France, participants from five different socio-cultural centres joined the History of Reflections project, which is based on four subjects: theatre and image, public space, photography, home theatre and circus arts, to form a collective cultural structure. The website provided by the Turkish partners offers to exchange tools, projects, lexicons, and schedules bringing together examples of good European cultural practices.
The meeting in Istanbul between the associations involved in the programme, has made it possible to deepen the relationship between cultural practices and members of the public. “A person who is on stage learns how to speak in public, how to defend an idea, how to gain confidence in himself/herself. In short, it makes that person more capable of being a good member of the public. An underprivileged woman, who is on stage with us ended up by coming to work in our Association's offices and from there she joined an amateur troupe which performed in social centres. A great result for a person who had been, until then, socially marginalised,” declares Anne Gonce proudly, co-head of the project at the Bich’Art social and family Theatre Production Centre in Bischwiller.
“For the majority of those who came to learn from the three countries, it was a case of having their first experience of an intercultural meeting and exchange. All of them felt the richness and major contribution, at a personal level, provided by the French professional organisers and the Turkish and Polish voluntary workers", states the Grundtvig report on the programme, prepared by Patricia Brenner, head of the project at the Federation of Social and Socio-cultural Centres in the Bas-Rhin. Many of the organisers, however, regretted the “lack of time given for theoretical reflection on cultural practices, social integration and the potential to transfer them”. Nevertheless, everyone appreciated having access to new methods of socio-cultural production aimed at social integration. “The Turks contributed much and gave us a great deal, with their extremely integrated artistic and social practices”, notes Anne Gonce. Even if it means continuing the theoretical discussion and summarising the main points on the Internet… In this way a website serves as a database (tools, projects, lexicons) and as a forum for exchanges between European artistic actors. The Poles have created their own site, both at a local and national level.
Today, these associations are partners in other European programmes, such as « Jeunesse » {Youth} or Leonardo da Vinci. This is how one can get a taste for it in Europe.…
Contacts:
Fédération des centres sociaux et socioculturels du Bas-Rhin in Strasbourg – Patricia Brenner, tel. 00 33 3 888 35 72 30
*Centre d’animation social et familial Bisch’Art in Bischwiller : Anne Gonce -
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, tel. 00 33 3 88 63 5
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