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Art for Social Change - Play Against Violence

Country

Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Yugoslavia (former)

Region

Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Programme Summary

The European Cultural Foundation started the Art for Social Change - Play Against Violence Programme in 1997 in partnership with The Red House Centre for Culture and Debate. The programme provides training opportunities to professionals in Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Yugoslavia who are active in the performing arts, music, visual arts, and photography. Other groups addressed include educators, psychologists, and social workers, as well as young victims of violence. The aim is to help professional artists develop projects involving young people who have been confronted with violence in order to revive these victims' self-esteem and confidence. The programme is divided into two components: training and developing of pilot projects.

Communication Strategies

The training component of the programme consists of developing already-existing abilities among professional artists and preparing them to work with young people confronted with violence. Puppet therapy, playback theatre, music and dance therapy, psychodrama of fairy tales and dramas, and theatrical games are part of these training activities. For example, first, one programme uses origami to teach artists to understand the particular problems facing children who have been victimised by violence. Games and improvisation are central to this type of training. Second, "You Are So Beautiful" focuses on girls ages 15 to 18 years old who have suffered sexual violence, juvenile prostitution, or other types of violence. A group diary, photo/video documentary, and theatre performance are the expected outcomes of games organised to help girls build positive attitudes toward social integration and the defense of their own rights. Third, a photodrama/studio photography project involves three houses for youth ages 13 to 18 in Plovdiv. Some of these youth have suffered violence or have seen their families murdered. These young people are trained in the general principles of portrait photography, digital photography, and computer processing of visual art. Psychotherapeutic methods are used in the training seminars.

Pilot projects are fostered through the enabling of financial aid for artists seeking to work with young people through the performing and visual arts, music, or photography. The European Cultural Foundation and Soros Centre for the Arts - Sofia will finance these projects.

Development Issues

Conflict, Youth, Children, Rights.

Contact

Yanina Taneva
The Red House Centre for Culture and Debate
15, Ljuben Karavelov Str.
1000 Sofia
Bulgaria
Tel: +359 2 988 8188
Fax: +359 2 986 4416
ytaneva@redhouse-sofia.org
Red House Centre website

Placed on the Communication Initiative site May 23 2003
Last Updated December 03 2007

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