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“Street art – Tolerance and Inclusion for all”, Siedlce, Polonia 2014

 

„Street art – Tolerance and Inclusion for All” project had only 3 partner NGO’s from Poland, Romania and Turkey, with teams of 10 participants each. The organizing and host NGO was MOK – Miejski Ośrodek Kultury w Siedlcach.

The main objective of this project was to demonstrate that all differences – may they be genter, culture, religion, social status, sexul orientation etc. – can be overtaken through art.

As work and teaching tools, the facilitators used work groups, field visits and workshops to help participants bond and get to know and understand each other, not only personally but also culturally, through finding common grounds. The work teams have been put together in such way that the 3  national teams would have equal representation in each work team, and each team had to come up with their own idea of representing tolerance and social inclusion in art works – paintings, graffiti and collages. Each team had 4 works, big canvases that, at the end of the workshop days, have been exhibited in a vernissage created especially for this project – Street Art Tolerance- https://www.facebook.com/events/312079852306790/. Local media, artists and inhabitants of Siedlce have been invited to the vernissage so the project had a good public exposure.

Another aspect worth mentioning is that throughout the creation process, teams have been guided by professional painters and art teachers who helped participants learn about specific painting techniques and, why not, discover new skills and hidden talents.

The group cohesion has been encouraged through group activities such as game evenings, field visits to local museums and Polish capital city – Warsaw,   also through the already classical Youth Exchange tool, the inter-cultural evening.

As expected in all good projects, the general atmosphere was one of friendship, collaboration and active implication in all the organized activities.

 

Adina Badaluta, team leader