Art experiences are an excellent means of promoting the development of essential skills in the personal and professional lives of young people. Why are the arts so important? Because they offer informal learning opportunities, and their results can be applied in a wide variety of contexts and contribute to social inclusion.
Nowadays young people are faced with an increasingly complex reality, and this complexity has been further worsened by the years marked by the pandemic. In addition to the various social and economic difficulties that can be encountered on the growth path, which have a crucial impact on self-esteem and self-confidence, there is the added need to rediscover spaces for sociality and participation in the community life.
Over the past two and a half years, the CHIMES project has responded to these specific needs with a varied offer of non-formal learning experiences, aimed at strengthening skills that are essential for young people to achieve their personal and professional goals. During the implementation in the 6 partner countries, visual and performing arts were the focus of the whole learning path: freedom of expression, cooperation during group activities, creativity and pride for the results of one’s own efforts have enabled the young people involved to challenge themselves and acquire new self-awareness.
The illustration and dance workshops held in Palermo enabled the young participants to acquire hard skills related to the two art forms, as well as soft skills, such as critical and creative thinking, communication skills, respect and tolerance towards diversity, and spirit of initiative. Each of these skills increases their chances of success in the labour market and thus aims to promote their greater inclusion at local level.
In order to further strengthen and improve their skills, a 5-day training course was organised in the city of Porto, Portugal, and attended by participants from all partner countries. The experience was a real success, bringing together not only various art forms, but also different cultures. From this meeting 3 final performances have been created: a video based on the stop-motion technique, a choreography of techniques from dance and martial arts and a body percussion performance.
The very experience of performing on a stage was an important learning opportunity for them, enabling the young people to establish a very strong bond with each other and to face the fear of performing in front of an audience.
3 events were organised during the project, aiming at giving voice to the identities of the young people and to raise awareness in the local and international community on the theme of art as a source of learning and social inclusion:
- 2 local information events open to the public that took place in Palermo in June and December 2022, in the premises of Legambiente and IMS “Regina Margherita”, respectively;
- 1 dissemination event in Spain, Amposta, during which all the results obtained within the project were also presented: a multimedia collection of the workshops carried out in the various countries; a methodological handbook bringing together all the pedagogical practices and methodology used in the field of informal learning so that they can be used by other stakeholders; an analysis of the project’s impact.
Finally, the final meeting of the project was held in Amposta (Spain) to analyse the results obtained during the project and to ensure that each of them can be consulted freely and online by anyone interested in replicating the methodology. These project results will soon be available on the project website.
Keep following us to access the project results or contact Alice Schirosa for more information: alice.schirosa@cesie.org.
About the project
CHIMES – Competences, Citizenship and Inclusion through Music and Movement Education Solutions is a project funded by the program EACEA Erasmus+ Key Action 227 – Partnership 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 https://www.chimes-project.com/ and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Contact Alice Schirosa: alice.schirosa@cesie.org.
