Stronger Peripheries

A Southern Coalition for Enhancing Participation in the Arts.

Collaboration agreement within the framework of a European H2020 project.

Partners: University of Barcelona

CEPEL amount: €30,000

Summary:

STRONGER PERIPHERIES – A Southern Coalition for Enhancing Participation in the Arts (hereinafter referred to as ‘Stronger Peripheries’) is a long-term initiative targeted at strengthening the basis for the arts and culture in Southern European countries, specially focusing on participatory approaches and capacity-building. It relies on a sequence of tandem partnerships for artistic productions, implementing an extensive artistic program involving local populations in an innovative framework – the Nomad Communities. This creative process is strongly intertwined with the second axis of the project: a comprehensive capacity-building program to enhance the skills and competencies of professionals in each participating country. Importantly, it brings together 17 organizations from 10 countries: all identifying to some extent with a loosely defined 'Southern Europe', all committed to fostering local engagement in the arts, and all devoted to overcoming obstacles in their specific contexts by increasing mutual cooperation – coming together under the informal network 'Southern Coalition'.
To reach those goals, the project will commission 13 artists to work within their communities on 'work and happiness', a topic we believe will trigger almost anyone's attention, regardless of their cultural consumption habits or social background. It will provide for significant bonds between artists, audiences, local population and decision-makers through 32 residencies, 13 original performances and 26 Laboratories for Social Transformation, as well as through Nomad Communities – a participation mechanism that extends the benefits of mobility to local audiences and community leaders. It will do all this with a focus on the long term: thus organizing a series of seminars, exchange programs, and deliberative workshops aimed at enhancing the capacity of those who will still be there after the project ends, in order to facilitate subsequent cooperation and multiply local impact. STRONGER PERIPHERIES connects locally-anchored practices in a European framework, overcoming isolation and boosting relevance for participatory models of audience engagement.

Website:Stronger Peripheries