Arts of Freedom Erasmus Project

Project Title

Arts of Freedom

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Inclusion – equity; Social dialogue

Project Summary

Prison art work is a type of work that requires different rules and possibilities in terms of establishing contact, freedom of movement, opening certain topics and thinking carefully on its ethical dimensions, as well as keeping in mind the professional obligation to keep information, that artists might receive or the insights they gain while working in prison space, confidential.

Before they could start any artwork in prison space, artists involved in the project need to go through proper education. Through certain forms of education, artists need to understand that working in a prison space requires not only a different approach to work than the one they are used to, but also a different approach to the people they will encounter while working in that space. The reasons for this belief are found in the experiences of previous projects. Lack of familiarity with the way of working and behaving often causes the artist to be obstinate. That behavior then results in superficiality and inappropriate work. Resistance to learn something or apply something that they have been suggested has led us to think about the need to carry out a project where artists would undergo certain forms of education before working in prison.

Continuing on all the facts, the idea has been developed to produce and publish two educational books (manuals) explaining and displaying different aspects of art work in the prison.

Projects to promote education in prisons, through the search for professional associates, the exchange of knowledge and the dissemination of good practice, have been implemented in the European area for a long time. The reason for the transnational implementation of the project is the fact that both the applicant and the project partners will use the specific knowledge and expertise that each participant brings to the project.

By educating the prison system’s expert staff about this domain of artistic activity, which actually falls into the scientific field of medicine and we can say psychology, we are placing it in the area of one of the important lifelong literacy processes. This type of education is important because in this way the form of acting through the arts is more successfully embedded, on an equal footing with other skills (using art therapies and working with prisoners) in the penal / prison community. For artists, the effect we expect is to increase understanding of the needs of the community in which they perform the artistic interventions and to respond better to the needs of that community. The long-term effect is to increase artist interest in participating in projects related to prison systems.

Following the implementation of the project at the partnership level, the results of the project will be used to: educate artists interested in the subject of painting and aesthetization of prison premises, educate employees in prison systems on the effects of art on behaviour and stay in prison, and educate students during their studies.

All materials produced by the project will be fully available to the public as follows: the books will be uploaded to the ISSU database, where the HDLU places links to catalogs, which are then made available to the public for reading and download.
We plan to update the books over time, in line with the progress of projects in prison systems and the experiences we will gain over time, and we also intend to supplement the books so that they can be applied to hospital facilities.

The long-term plan is to create a catalog of interventions performed so far in short-text brochures, which can then be placed in hospital waiting rooms, so that patients can gain insight into the purpose of artistic initiatives.
Brochures will also be developed for prison interventions and made available to prison systems to provide prisoners with insight and information on intervention projects and results.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 178349 Eur

Project Coordinator

Hrvatsko društvo likovnih umjetnika & Country: HR

Project Partners

• ESZTERHAZY KAROLY EGYETEM
• UNIWERSYTET JAGIELLONSKI
• European Prison Education Association
• Changes&Chances