Purpose
With ConnectUp we will set in place an international cultural initiative for the target group 12+ in order to counteract the process of increasing social and cultural division across Europe. Under the guidance of professional artists, young people of all social classes, cultural backgrounds and abilities will meet, work and share experiences in various theatre processes. Their minds will be encouraged to remain open to other people, cultures and life experiences. The common experience of theatre won’t solve all problems, but there has to be a beginning!
Project description
The University of Agder is the leading organization in the large collaborative project ConnectUp. The project has fourteen partners from the ten countries Hungary, Portugal, Poland, Germany, Norway, Austria, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, Italy, and the Czech Republic.
During the project, 29 professional productions will be developed. The performances will be part of the theaters' repertoire and will be presented at 22 festivals.
Ten theaters with different artistic expertise, nine festivals and two universities, all working with theater for young people, will combine their different competencies in a European "alliance for diversity" and they plan to make major investments in audience development. By having Nelson Mandela's quote "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion ..." as a common starting point, theaters and festivals aim to reach a cross-section of society. In our theater halls, we will mix the already existing middle-class audience with target groups from more marginal parts of society. Under professional guidance, young people from all social classes, from different cultural backgrounds and with different resources will share experiences in theater processes under the theme "The Lives of the Others".
Professionalization is one of the key words for the project, and we will develop and offer an studyprogram in "Theater Communication". Theater educators will accompany all productions and processes with projects involving the audience (workshops + productions where the target group, 12 years and up, are co-creators). In this way, the theaters want to develop into places where young people with different social and cultural backgrounds feel welcome.
The goal of CONNECTUP is to help counteract the social and cultural divides that are being strengthened throughout Europe. In order to achieve this ambition of increased cultural inclusion, we believe it is important to give young people the opportunity to collaborate with people from other national, cultural and social backgrounds. We believe this type of experience is crucial to staying open to other people and other stories. Through experiences of working together, the partners in the project hope that the young people can recognize the potential that a shared responsibility can contribute to in a global society.
ConnectUp is a larger scale cooperation project under the EU Culture Funding Stream Creative Europe for the four-year-period 12/2019 till 11/2023.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.