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ABi Kicks Off New European Initiative
URBAN ART IN MODERN EUROPE Europe is becoming more and more culturally diverse, at a continental level resulting from the expansion of the European Union and at a local level resulting from the migration brought about by the global mobility of workers, migrants and asylum seekers. Nonetheless, this cultural diversity remains invisible to the established creative industry. ABi in Partnership with Mira Media from the Netherlands and partners from three other European countries have come together to run a series of summer courses to promote the cultural, education and commercial opportunites in this sectors. Luckily, numerous urban young people are not discouraged by this lack of recognition. They learn their skills on the street and in small community centres where they perform, practice and compete with one another, often using new technology to produce what is termed ‘urban art’. In the process they generate a huge quantity of positive energy and boost their hopes for future opportunities. Unfortunately, most of them never make it on to the mainstream performance circuit and remain unknown to the rest of the population.
R&R INTERNATIONAL NETWORK An increasing number of initiatives empower these urban youths by helping and coaching them to use their singing, dancing and media skills as an economic weapon and a tool for social integration and citizenship. At the European level a number of these initiatives are united in the Roots & Routes International network, with members in already ten EU - member states. These projects turn out to be very successful and are mainly centred around the production of large-scale performances where urban talents work alongside professionals. As a result quite a few of the urban young people, who participated in these projects, want to continue to develop a professional career as an artist or in a related profession. However the present Roots & Routes International projects are too short in time to be able to facilitate this wish. Apart from this, many of these talents do not have the sufficient educational background to enter into an art school or into another vocational training. However even if the talents have the necessary requirements, most of these institutes are not attractive to and suitable for these young people as their curricula are still exclusively based on the western culture and do not have special attention for fusion between the migrant and western cultures and do not have special interest for urban music and dance styles.
R&R SUMMER COURSES In order to facilitate the urban talents in realising their professional career and to support art schools and other educational institutes in diversifying their curriculum, the Leonardo project “Roots Routes Summer courses" was developed. In five countries Roots & Routes partners will develop and execute national summer courses where motivated urban talents, who took part in one of the local projects, will be able to follow training modules in diverse urban music and dance styles, theory and practice of the creative industry and light, sound and media technique. They will also receive individual and band coaching, while special attention will be given to European co-operation and co production. The experiences gained at the summer courses will lead to a proposal of an Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) system, which may be used to gain competence and eligibility to apply for entry into an art school. Talents, who do not succeed in passing the entry auditions or do not want to enter an educational institute, will be coached towards a professional career facilitated by a special R&R agency.
R&R KICK OFF SEMINAR ROTTERDAM On 30 November and 1 December 2006 the Kick Off Seminar for the "Roots & Routes Summer courses" took place in the World Music and Dance Centre (WMDC) in Rotterdam. In this event 45 representatives of all R&R International partners shared their experiences and gave input for the development of the five summer courses. Each country presented the results of their local talent scouting projects and also shared the experiences of already existing follow-up activities and structures in their countries. In several working groups the delegates discussed the methodologies concerning dance, music and media training and also looked at possible professional opportunities for the talents in the labour market. At the end of the 2-day seminar it was decided that all partners would stay involved in the follow up activities of the Roots & Routes Summer courses project. All R&R International partners will be attending the evaluation seminars organised as part of the Leonardo project, while talents from "non - Leonardo" partners will be able to send talents to take part in the summer courses of the other partners. Talents who take part in the summer courses will be invited to perform in festivals of all R&R partners. It was agreed to organize a big urban festival in Rotterdam in October 2007 in which all partners will participate. On Saturday 2 December 2007 the Leonardo partners evaluated the outcomes of the 2 - day seminar and discussed the final planning of the project. It was agreed that the training modules, assessment methods, necessary competencies and the certification criteria will be developed on transnational level and tested in the national summer courses. In order to involve the teachers of the future summer courses in this process it was decided to organise three parallel 2-day workshops in the Polytechnic STADIA in Helsinki with national music, dance and media teachers. The management team of the Leonardo project will be meeting again in London on 1 -2 February 2007 to make the final arrangements for the development of the first round of summer courses. In preparation of this meeting the Dutch partner will carry out a informative survey into existing experiences with APL's in the creative industry in Europe and it will also map similar talent scouting initiatives in Europe.
LEAD PARTNER: Mira Media, Netherlands : http://www.miramedia.nl PROJECT PARTNERS: Roots & Routes Netherlands : http://www.rootnroutes.org JFC, Germany: http://www.jfc.info Association RiF, France: http://www.rif-asso.fr Politechnic STADIA, Finland : http://www.stadia.fi ABI, United Kingdom: http://www.abi.co.uk
