What does it mean today to promote social inclusion? It means promoting spaces where you can feel comfortable despite not knowing anyone or the place where you are. It means encouraging the will to participate, collaborate and have fun together, but also the ability to ask for and provide support. How is it possible to do that? The art of creating something together is certainly a great start.
Last month a group of young girls and boys from different cultural backgrounds had the opportunity to meet in an informal space in Palermo and rely on the expert guidance of a talented illustrator to give voice to their creativity.
During the sessions, the creativity of illustration offered the perfect context in which to socialize and exhibit the thousand faces of one’s self, which is the fruit of a special combination of past experiences, present sensations and future expectations. The participants in the first creative workshop of CHIMES project, after the experience of isolation due to the Covid pandemic, have therefore embarked on a path towards the rediscovery of socialization through the creation of artistic products handmade through the use of recyclable materials.
In each session, art has been not only the final goal but also a means to narrate oneself, a useful tool by which it is possible to tell all those aspects of self that you want to share, without often knowing how to do it. The productions of the young participants have been assembled in a “journey in stages” that will soon be made available in an exhibition in Palermo which will be set up in the coming months.
Here is a brief summary of the stages of their creativity path:
- “First memories”: each participants shared the first experience in Palermo, what they saw, how they felt, what sensations they associate with those distant memories, etc.
- “Managing your own space living together with other people”: people live together in a “house”, all together, as in life, but everyone has her/his own space: they choose how many rooms they want to live in and where they want these rooms to be arranged in the house, they decide freely how to organize the space inside and if they want to share it.
- “Me” in my past and in my present: a comparison between what they liked in the past and now, between who they are today compared to who they were yesterday.
- “Palermo through my eyes”: how they see it and how they would like to see it: what they like, what they don’t like, what they see and how they want to represent it.
- “The colors of Ballarò”: the vitality and the multiethnicity of the ancient market provided the young participants with the time to be together by simply colouring a glimpse of the ancient market. This simple activity evoked the historical social function of the market: meeting and exchanging ideas, getting to know others and themselves better.
Keep following the next steps of CHIMES project: do not miss the opportunity to take part in the next creative workshop and future exhibitions and events!
About the project
CHIMES – Competences, Citizenship and Inclusion through Music and Movement Education Solutions is a project co-funded by Erasmus+ Programme, KA2, Partnerships for Creativity.
Partners
- Fundacio Privada Gentis (Spain, coordinator)
- European Partnership Promoting Social Inclusion (Ireland)
- ASSOCIACAO PARA A EDUCACAO DE SEGUNDA OPORTUNIDADE (Portugal)
- CESIE (Italy)
- Ariadne Cultural Foundation (Hungary)
- PHOENIX SOCIAL ENTERPRISE LIMITED (United Kingdom)
- Kleinon SRL (Romania)
For further information
Read more about CHIMES, visit the website www.chimes-project.com and follow us on Facebook.
Contact Alice Schirosa: alice.schirosa@cesie.org.
