The COVID period affected the youth group very severely, not clinically but socially; many were “left behind” and were those with the strongest frailties. Culture has also suffered a very strong backlash, with major losses of jobs and opportunities. The risk is that culture will become increasingly elitist, making it even more difficult for young people to enjoy it.
According to OECD’s recommendations (Culture shock: COVID-19 and the cultural and creative sectors) the most interesting developments may come from cross-sectoral projects, between the educational and artistic-cultural spheres.
So we asked ourselves what were the most inclusive artistic approaches, educational strategies to leave no one behind, and thus develop a stronger and more resilient dimension of youth empowerment and participation. We found an answer in participatory art.
The objectives that accompanied the implementation of the project are thus multiple:
– to disseminate the participatory approach among European youth and cultural organizations as a replicable and flexible good practice in different contexts,
– to promote the professional and personal development of youth workers in intercultural and marginal contexts through the use of participatory arts,
– to raise awareness among artists and cultural organizations about the potential of the arts in youth work.
– to empower youth expressing themselves through the arts in an international context,
– to engage youth with fewer opportunities and those with multiple disadvantages and disabilities, in a creative path.
Participatory art is thus intended to become a tool for active citizenship, aimed especially at those young people who do not feel they can make a difference. In this. In this direction, can it also become a language used by young people to look at social reality from another perspective and activate for change?
