UCREATE WEBSITE

The art of creation lies in the gift of perceiving the particular and generalizing it, thus creating the particular again. It is therefore a powerful transforming force and a generator of creative solutions in relation to a given problem. It is the currency of human exchanges, which enables the sharing of states of the soul and conscience, and the discovery of new fields of experience.

Yehudi Menuhin

THE PROJECT


4 European artistic organizations based in Hungary (MUS-E Hungary), Italy (Big Sur), Portugal (HANGAR) and Belgium (International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation) join their forces to launch a training program based on co-creation and dedicated to the inclusion of young artists from cultural minorities and migrant backgrounds.

Through this project, creation is shared! We place co-creation at the centre of this project and we use the arts as a powerful lever for creating social bonds between individuals. Our main objective is to involve local European communities with newcomers around a common artistic project. Sharing experiences, create and achieve something together are the solutions UCREATE is implementing for the social integration of newcomers in Europe. This would set the premises of a feeling of belonging. In each country, one artistic discipline will be in the spotlight: music in Belgium, art education in Hungary, visual arts in Portugal and cinema in Italy! 


4 European countries – 4 artistic disciplines – 1 artistic research

In addition to propose solutions for the inclusion of audiences, UCREATE is a training programme for young artists, a research around co-creation, and an artistic research of the multiple facets of what Europe is today and how we envisage its future in 4 European countries. What is the perception of Europe when you live in Lisbon and you are a young artist from an African Diaspora, what is the emotion perceived by the citizens of Lecce co-creating with young migrants living there for a very short period of time, what is home for the Roma community living in Hungary? These are some of the questions that UCREATE will intend to answer artistically and in co-creation.

OUR OBJECTIVE

UCREATE is an initiative implemented internationally in four European countries aiming at using co-creation as a tool to facilitate the social inclusion of newcomers in European societies. 
 
Co-creation practices differ from participative practices in the sense that they gather several artists (belonging or not to the same discipline) to create a common artistic work, or in the sense that an artist leads with others (not being artists) an artistic project. Participative practices would imply that the participants act within a framework previously defined by the artist without being able to modify it. In contrast, working in co-creation is based on “sharing responsibility for the development of the structure and content of the work in collaboration and direct dialogue with the artist“. (Pablo Helguera, Education for Socially Engaged Art, Jorge Pinto Books, 2011). 
 
Based on this, UCREATE uses the power of co-creation to foster the social inclusion of newcomers and young people at risk of social exclusion in Europe since it relies on intercultural dialogue, exchange and collaboration. In addition, it suggests that each of the participants is involved at every level of the creation process and has to bring his/her input during all the process. Our main objective with UCREATE is to propose a creative alternative path to provide opportunities for newcomers to establish social bonds and facilitate social inclusion around an artistic project co-creatively designed and increasing their participation in European cultural and social life. The process is what matters the most, the collective act of creation and what artists will discover. 
 
Furthermore, by providing a training program given by professional artists UCREATE aims to empower artists and the local communities with whom they live and strenghten their artistic, social and intercultural skills. UCREATE also aims to build capacity in digitalisation, with new delivery channels for creative and cultural content.