Homelands, places of belonging is a community co-creation project for and by newcomer and refugee artists led by the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation and its partners. The project is implemented in 3 Belgian cities: Antwerp, Brussels and Namur.

 

Meeting people, connecting with people from different countries inspires me and helps me in my creations. It motivates me. I feel free.

Chinara Miamona

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Homelands' artist

Meeting people, connecting with people from different countries inspires me and helps me in my creations. It motivates me. I feel free.

Chinara Miamona

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Homelands' artist

Newcomer/refugee artists collaborate with partners from the socio-cultural sector and engage in a process of artistic co-creation with the local community. A colorful mix of projects will arise with the notion of “HOMELANDS” as a common thread: an artistic search of what it means to feel at home, to belong to a place, a city or a community.

The Homelands project promotes social inclusion by creating a sustainable dialogue between Belgian citizens and newcomers/refugees through one of the most powerful tools of each culture: ART. Throughout the project, the artists and their partners will receive intensive training and advice from the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation’s Artists Ambassadors and experts.

Our mission: to give newcomer/refugee artists the opportunity to take their place as artists in society, to co-create and share their knowledge with the host community and to become the intercultural mediators of tomorrow. The project is aimed at a much wider audience than the artists direclty involved in the project, and reaches out to very diverse groups of society, including newcomers, refugees and young people with a immigrant background. In this way, we hope to foster a sense of empowerment and belonging for these artists and create a tangible benefit for the community. “Homelands, places of belonging” is a long-term project that will be implemented over several editions.

This project helped me to start my journey towards freedom

Ahmad Al Saadi

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Homelands' artist

I strongly believe in the power of co-creation because it is actually creating an authentic dialogue, making you forget what you stand for and discover a shared story. This moment of pure creation and pure forgeting is a beautiful example that we are capable of going towards a society which is tolerant and inclusive. We use arts as an excuse to forget our differences.