Meeting people, connecting with people from different countries inspires me and helps me in my creations. It motivates me. I feel free.
Meeting people, connecting with people from different countries inspires me and helps me in my creations. It motivates me. I feel free.
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.
Selection of refugee and newcomer artists living in Belgium and wishing to develop an artistic professional carreer
The refugee and newcomer artists partner with actors of the local socio-cultural sector during the whole duration of the projects
Both refugee artists and socio-cultural partners receive intensive trainings by experts in co-creation
Refugee artists and their partners begin their co-creative processes with local communities around weekly artistic co-creative workshops
After a series of artistic encounters, we show the results of the co-creative work during public events involving more of the local communities
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.