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Last Friday, the young people of In my art Palermo, took #intreccifotografici (photography braiding) youth-led initiative to the streets. An opportunity to meet and get to know each other through photography.

The place chosen for the first “braiding” was the Bar-Caféetteria “Altrove” in the historic centre of Palermo, a project based on the belief that travelling is a fundamental tool for creating relationships between people and places, and that all people have the right to choose where to live and feel at home anywhere on earth, regardless of any geopolitical borders or place of origin: my land is where I put my feet (Moltivolti).

In fact, #Intreccifotografici proposed to the community to take a photo of a own familiar place and participate in a photographic installation co-building:

Look around, observe the photos you see hanging in the frame. Whenever you want, place your photo and if you feel a link with some other photo(s), use the wire to make this  link visible.

 

Coloured wires, photographs, messages written in pen. These are the elements of the photographic installation. The boys and girls created a cosy place on a street corner, an unusual way of experiencing a bar, says D., which made her want to stay.

For P. it was an opportunity to bring out the creative part of himself, unexpectedly: I felt free to express myself, to be myself. I was able to authorise myself to use the language of art and colours, an experience that is often wrongly judged childish.

It seems that the desire of meeting the other (s) and co-creating “normalised” the creative act in an (in)usual place, a coffee shop, to the point of allowing young people who did not know each other before to interact with confidence. The choice of the photographic shot was often the “excuse” for dialogue, an easy way to start chatting and know each-other , while the installation grew under our eyes.

From the individual to the collective, #intreccifotografici opened the space to reflect on one’s own concept of “familiarity”, gaining new insights or discovering that my Foro Italico is not your Foro Italico (A.). The intention of ‘making community’, combined with the art of photography as a tool, has allowed the participants to create a welcoming place where to discover common ground and bring the richness of own uniqueness to visibility.

In my art Palermo

 

Between October 15th and 21th of 2020 I attended an online training course of the European Project named „In My Art“. This online training was led by two youth trainer of the non-governmental organization ,,Per esempio“ from Palermo in Italy. 14 young people and adults participated from different European countries, such as France, Italy, Greece, U.K., Spain and Germany. Due to the situation of COVID-19 the whole meeting was a virtual based course, which had no effect on the intensity of its’ content-related and personal aspects.
I was kind of excited, because I didn´t know how this form of training would look like. Firstly, it was new for me to interact with people I did not know and secondly it was an art-based training, therefore for me it seemed to be an impossible mission to do this online. We started at 9.30 a.m. on October 15th. I was sitting in my office with my Ipad on my desk, hoping my Internet connection would stay stable and wondering how I would overcome my insecurity in front of people that I didn´t know. A group of different people from Europe were sitting in front of their. The youth trainer started to introduce herself. It started with a little round, where every participant had to introduce herself. Then it continued with the question ,,what is art for us”. Some showed pictures of things they admired, others showed a drawn picture, or a sketch. According to the fact that I love colors and paintings that build a special atmosphere, I spontaneously chose the painting „the open window“ by Henri Matisse, from 1905. In other sequences we got some imagination exercises like describing a picture with only one word. We started to “break the ice” step by step, led by ourselves. Here actually it started to get really interesting for me: Imagination. All the exercises had the purpose to improve our focus on our own creative potential. Then the participants were divided into different little groups to deal with different tasks in a shared environment which was an opportunity for personal exchange. On the third day some participants had the possibility to present something of their own. One started to read her poem, and another showed his song played on a guitar.

For me it was a wonderful experience to get know the others better. Being in a group where everybody gives personal insight of herself, was a very precious and meaningful experience for me. Together we created a safe-space with clear rules and nice behavior, that were unspoken and came from our own. It was wonderful to be in a group where everybody respected and accepted each other. This experience showed me how an intersectional society can be created by single individuals who coexist together by accepting oneself without being directive.
“Arte migrante“ is an activity characterized by its’ purpose to create intersectional societies though art and to improve one´s creative potential. I think this approach is well chosen in the work with young people. I believe that in every one of us you can find an artist who needs to be empowered and wants to rise. Art is the way in which we see the world and we are connected to the world. It determines the way we feel, act, think and communicate. Especially in the time when we are on our way to become adults, an art-based youth work can improve the self-reflection and the will to explore oneself. Everything starts with something small. A little flower seed that starts to grow to become a wonderful flower. So, I see this workshop as a wonderful journey with other people on my way to become a better me.

Five days of Training Course: a description

A brief report about the Training Course

For five days, between the dates 15^th and 21st October 2020, two Youth Workers per each partner organization met in front of a camera to attend the Training Course online. The short-term-joint-staff training event focused on two key moments:

• sharing the results of the Action-Research activity (IO1) and
• learning about Arte Migrante methodology.

Per Esempio Onlus led the event as Hosting Organisation and, with the help of Arte Migrante representatives, prepared the training based on the Arte Migrante methodology.

Each training day has been introduced by an ice-breaking and energizing exercise that created some sort of link among the participants (which, remember, are located in Italy, Spain, Greece, France, Germany, and England) disregarding the physical distance. One last activity before closing the daily session was the debriefing leading to self-reflection that participants conducted into small groups specifically created.

The first training day aimed to getting to know each other and learning more about the project developed within the Erasmus + Programme. Other topics approached were the concept of life-long learning and the key competences within the Youthpass certificate; in this sense, the participants had the opportunity to develop a personal learning plan.

Remarkably, since the very beginning, the cooperation among the team lead to overcome easily any technical problem encountered during the first online training ever realized by the partners.

 During the second training day, the first half of the session has been dedicated to introducing the concept of e-mentoring that is going to support the piloting phase and the implementation of the youth activity. Asociación Caminos was in charge of the presentation and will lead the following e-mentoring meetings too. Definitely, the combination of mentoring and e-mentoring can be considered the most flexible option given the current health situation globally.

Then, each partner organization had the possibility to relate the results obtained from the Action-Research phase. At the end, such results have been analysed and structured in the following visual way using the SWOT Analysis template:

The second half of the day has been dedicated to a brainstorming activity aiming at developing a key idea of what Art is, starting from the personal experience of each participant. In fact, each Youth Worker described the way he or she expresses personal ideas through artistic creations.

This can be considered a sort of introduction to the third day, when the Youth Workers involved had the opportunity to attend an Arte Migrante simulation, hear more about this kind of events and get their doubts or questions clarified.

But what it the methodology that supports Arte Migrante events? Once the frequency has been established (weekly, semimonthly, monthly…), there are three phases that are repeated each time:

1. Games that work as icebreakers
2. Shared meal
3. Artistic expression of the oneself

It is important to stress out that this is a non-judgemental moment of caring and confrontation: people come to be together and find friends inside the community. The Arte Migrante events are intended as a spontaneous meeting and a safe space for sharing, this is why there are not too many fixed rules. At the same time, specifically for logistic purposes, is required to create a coordinating group in charge. During the presentation the founder of the first Arte Migrante event, Tommaso Carturan, gave his speech telling more about how the whole project was developed and why.

After the break, a first chunk of three of the partners organisations presented their own stories of successful projects related to Art and Inclusion. Each presentation triggered a deep discussion about the Good Practices developed within.

The rest of the partner organisations had the opportunity to relate their own experience the next day. The fourth day was also a moment for self-reflection: it has been asked to the participants to describe in which role they see themselves during the development of the Arte Migrante project.

This was the premiss for the last day of the training course, particularly focused on planning the following steps. Participants discussed the management of the piloting phase (this also included setting deadlines and a first meeting for the e-mentoring). It has been very important to outline a first Coordinating Meeting and a first public Arte Migrante Event. That’s how participants confronted their work with some critical points concerning especially the restrictions imposed by covid-19 outbreak and tried to come up with a solution together.

It has been remarked that the non-formal activities should involve young people, whose profile has been outlined during the Action- Research phase, and should touch topics such as:

• Art and Culture
• Artistic expression of the oneself
• Overcoming stereoptypes and prejudices

It’s very important to discuss these topics with the young people involved. During a series of workshops the debate around these themes should be ignited and it’s expected prepare them for the coordination of the event. The desired result is to develop a sense of initiative into these young people.

After the break participants heard the stories of coordinators coming from other Arte Migrante experiences under the section “Inspirational Talks”. This has been another moment of reflection, discussion and solution of doubts.

Finally, before the goodbyes, one last debriefing took place: the Youth Workers took some time to reflect on the 8 key competences of the Youth Pass they acquired or enhanced, in a very peculiar way: first, they assigned one colour to each specific competence and then filled a jar with the sand in the respective colours. Each one of the participants created a unique output as the amount of sand poured in reflected his or her personal assessment.

Have a look!

The article has been written by Chiara Parrucci, participant in the training course from USB. The

Within societies we see art everywhere. It can be pretty much anything as art is subjective and is down to the individuals’ perspective. Understandably, throughout different cultures and religions art is separate; it can be interchangeable for some but fairly separate for others. The ways in which art is different is there are so many forms of it as it is a way of expression that has evolved over time.

So what is art? Art is seen as a process that can deliberately have contrasting elements that appeal to our emotions. It encircles an inclusive scale of human activities that we see in daily lives such as: music, film, literature, and paintings etc. Personally, art – for me – is cinema. Everything about the film industry fits into my definition of art. It is the most advanced piece created as it captures the visual images in a dynamic way. Of course there are other elements that fit into film such as acting, scripture, cinematography and directory. But the whole commodity of it is the most fascinating and intriguing aspect.

Many people have their own definitions of art and that is exactly how it should be. Nobody is the same and that is how art is in a way, because no artwork is truly the same. On this note I feel as though this is why some young people struggle with the question ‘What is art?’ because realistically there is no real answer as everybody’s is going to be different. Furthermore, an issue that we are seeing in our communities is the lack of art facilities or activities. Without a doubt a lot of youth are not as involved in art projects from what I have noticed since growing up. We have the most obvious ways in which they are that could be art classes in school/college, however I feel as though it is difficult to be involved within such activities outside of an educational background. In Expanding Horizons there has been a push to change this and to get younger people involved with their community in expressing themselves.

The ‘In my art’ project is going to give that push to people who struggle with expressing themselves and can help them do it throughout their own form of art. A group of us met up in February regarding the project and we all got to discuss the thinking behind artwork and what it means to us, what skills are necessary and how to encourage others to take part. We came up with questionnaires that we were going to ask members of the public to answer so we could see what the everyday person would have to comment on the project. By doing this it would be easier to understand the multicultural variations within the community of Merseyside.

From researching in this project it has even helped me further my interest in other art forms. Cinema is my top one as I connect to it the most but from hearing other people’s opinions I have taken an interest in Modern Art. As a result I have begun to appreciate more pieces I see, as in March I took a trip to the Tate in Liverpool and was able to feel a certain way towards the paintings and sculptures there. Besides, this is the aim of the project. To open our minds and get a better understanding of art and what it means to us.

Ellie Leacy, 20.