What is it like to have a falafel gap in your life? What is it like to be forced into an engagement by your parents? What is like to be the enemy you used to fight against when you were young? Or, what is like to flee home and be away from your family?
(photo by Nova Faham)
A creative collaboration between the World Culture Museum (Gothenburg) and Rosetta Arts (London) in the framework of the Tandem Europe programme. The motivation for this partnership was to elevate voices from minority groups in Gothenburg and London where both organisations are located. We aimed to show how arts can enhance well-being and facilitate integration.
ADDRESSING SOCIAL GAPS THROUGH VISUAL ARTS
"When you stand and share your story in an empowering way, your story will heal you and somebody else." (Iyanla Vanzant)
Today, local communities in Europe have fewer opportunities to meet individuals from other culturally-diverse communities, since the society is not structured to enable interaction across cultures, disciplines or generations. We believe that arts can facilitate dialogue and integration of newcomers by bridging gaps and improving mutual understanding with the native communities.
Digital storytelling and civil courage workshop in Gothenburg
In April 2018, the World Culture Museum in Gothenburg brought together local community members and newcomers to share stories about gaps in their lives. We aimed at creating a dialogue space for people from different cultural backgrounds to promote active citizenship and address gaps in our daily life.
Kiriaki Christoforidis led a storytelling workshop with the participants who later on filmed their stories about society, gender, generation, and identity gaps.
We had a workshop on civil courage in collaboration with Vardagens Civilkurage. By using role play, we explored how small acts and techniques can create empathy and solidarity with others who can be victims of racism or sexism because they are "different".
Mindful Arts workshops in Gothenburg and Malmö
In March 2018, we organised two lunch seminars on Mindful Arts in collaboration with Tillt (Gothenburg) and STPLN (Malmö). During these workshops, Sanaz Amidi (CEO, Rosetta Arts) demonstrated how we can use visual arts to enhance our well-being and feel more present.
About the Tandem Europe team
Sanaz Amidi is a cultural innovator and social entrepreneur, currently holding the position of Chief Executive of Rosetta Arts in London. She has been trained with degrees from leading art schools in the UK.
Rasha Shaaban is a cultural projects manager and coordinator of the Anna Lindh Foundation network Sweden. Her background is in leading intercultural projects in Europe and MENA region.
More information: rasha.shaaban(at)varldskulturmuseerna.se (Sweden) and sanaz(AT)rosettaarts.org (England).
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This phase of Mind the Gap project is in the framework of Tandem Europe, an initiative developed by European Cultural Foundation and MitOst e.V.. together with Fondazione Cariplo with additional financial support from Robert Bosch Stiftung and Stavros Niarchos Foundation. It is implemented together with 4iS (Aveiro), COMM'ON (Athens) and Ideas Factory (Sofia).
