The art of leverage Erasmus Project

Project Title

The art of leverage

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 : Partnerships for Creativity

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Inclusion – equity; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

In a culture-participatory process we want to work on strengthening and connecting low-literate students.

Our research question is: In what way can creativity contribute to personal development in achieving life goals and basic skills?

Therefore we will focus on participation in its broadest sense. Besides the more classical methods for the transfer of knowledge, we intend to research other – more creative – methods of acquiring language and essential skills or methods that lead to a better embedding of lessons learned.

The substantiation for this demand for creativity was given in the context of the rapidly changing society in which the issues are becoming increasingly complex. The ability to act in a problem-solving way and the the ability to think convergent are becoming essential, and creative skills are offering a considerable contribution to this.
Art is taking a complementary position. Art shows that there are different ways of looking at the world around us and expressing this, which is why it acts as a means of reflection in society. Language and creativity form the basis of personal development, art bridges the (living) environment and the world (of experiences).

Socio-artistic methodology: We use art as a means to learn basic skills and stimulate connection and self-expression. Low-literature students often have no networks, social or cultural. Due to the language barrier It is extremely difficult for them to meet new people. To learn that language, Literacy Houses are strongly committed to language and integration courses. These hardly ever assume a reciprocity aspect. The learning process is one-sided and trainees seldom have the opportunity to develop their personal or elsewhere acquired skills. The low-literate student is central to the project. We approach the student from an integral vision: as a learner and as a person. (Learning) skills, learning styles, background characteristics, roles in society, personal characteristics and motivation play an important role.

We also want to pioneer new educational forms, in a broader context of a participatory and inclusive society. We hope to inspire organizations, agencies, governments and other actors and we want to use the outcome of our project to really remove barriers to focus on underlying competencies. We would like to investigate the possibilities of participation within the context of the arts and thus initiate lasting changes in the relationship between (art) institutions and other sectors.

Activities: We organize activities that develop the students’ creative competences, such as talent development and practice development. We will work in a process-based manner, in various phases. The student is not a spectator, but an active maker. We encourage them to enter into dialogue or even conflict with the artist. In this way we also teach them to communicate in a targeted and sincere way and to express their feelings. Moreover, there is a chance of real cultural participation developing by giving room to different opinions and backgrounds of participants and artists during the creative process. The artist also has the opportunity to broaden his horizons here.

Effect: Participants become more resilient, learn to take their own responsibility in developing their creations. They discover, develop and promote their talents. The artistic process is guided by the artist and the social process by a social counselor in a unique collaboration. CBE wants to explore and refine this methodology in order to intrinsically motivate the students to learn basic skills. The student learns to take ownership of his trajectory and hopefully with that acquired ownership he can also tackle other challenges in his learning process. Both parties explore each other’s space and in this way create a common frame of reference, from which art is created. In this way they become buddies who grow together under the impulse of mutual creativity. Often these students also bring a piece of their own culture into the RUIMTE, so that participation goes in two directions. In this way there is an interaction between artist and student and there is the possibility to invest in underlying skills. These early adopters become our ambassadors and can become buddies themselves at a later stage.

Co-creation: In this context co-creation means an artistic collaboration by artist, social worker and student, who does not act as an audience (observing), but as a participant (participant). With participation in content, form and process. This ensures that the reciprocity aspect is safeguarded and indicates equality. We use the (shared) context as a mediation tool. Our artists, experienced with participatory projects, have been carefully selected to maximize the creative potential of the students. This is done through very open communication. Thus, the participatory process is not only used for an artistic goal, but also for personal development and the setting up of social network

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 239870 Eur

Project Coordinator

Blenders vzw & Country: BE

Project Partners

• vzw deRuimte
• Stichting Nieuwe Veste
• HETGEVOLG
• B+B Beschäftigung und Bildung gGmbH
• Ligo, Centum voor Basiseducatie Kempen