“MUSIC-Cultural Heritage”, shapes our identities in everyday lives, in every generation and is a tool for social dialogue.
The main aim of our project was to encourage more people to discover and engage with the European cultural heritage and to support the feeling of belonging to a common European community.
The non-profit organisation Elisson gUG-Berlin has organised, by the occasion of celebrating 2018 as the European Year of Heritage, a mobility project, containing a training seminar for youth workers and a youth exchange, focusing on this topic.
The purpose of both activities was to create new synergies between the fields of youth, music and cultural heritage.
The training seminar took place in Greece (Kryoneri-Korinthia), during the period 22-29.7.2019. During this time participants gathered in a balanced way (gender and countries) from Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy, Austria, Slovakia, Czech republic and Hungary and worked together with the common theme. There were 22 participants, 2 trainers and 2 staff members, 26 persons total.
The seminar “MUSIC-Cultural Heritage” targeted the development of skills for youth workers, involving young people with fewer opportunities and helping them to realise artistic projects. It trained youth workers and provided them with artistic competences. This seminar was one of the projects that resulted as a follow-up of 3 previous music workshops, organised on the one hand by our Greek partner organisation Filoxenia in July 2013, July 2014 and on the other hand by the Elisson gUG in July 2016.
This training seminar gave examples, on how to involve young people with different experiences, cultural background and languages and work on cross-artistic performances. How to develop own ideas and support young people to get in contact with music. Music & improvisation offered interesting possibilities for youth workers to develop art projects.
The seminar offered different non-formal education activities, such as: musical performative expression, learning different music techniques connected with the work with young people with less opportunities (Orff Schulwerk, improvisation, boomwhackers method); street actions; concerts; visibility of the project (internet and multimedia); intercultural night; cultural visits; follow-up ideas.
The second activity of our project „MUSIC-Cultural Heritage“ was a Youth Exchange called „Youth 4 music traditions” and organised during the period 21.-28.09.2019 in Bornheim-Walberberg (Germany), for 21 participants from 4 countries Greece, Spain, Slovakia and Germany. The three partner organisations are members of the European Platform Network (http://www.platform-network.com) and European Network of Youth Centre's (http://eycn.org/).
The project's idea was to connect different cultures and social backgrounds through music traditions. The project gave the participants the opportunity to explore the importance of cultural heritage and building-up a European identity through music traditions.
During the exchange young people had the possibility to lift-up stereotypes and prejudices about music from other European cultures. They raised interest about other people, cultures, music, languages, forming our European cultural heritage.
During the activities we used a variety of non-formal learning methods, such as workshops, playing music, learning by doing, ice-breakers, energizers, team building activities, ect.
The result from the exchange „Youth 4 music traditions” was the composition of own music and lyrics created by young people working together from different countries, based on music traditions.
Further results of both activities have being the final events of participants, open for the local community and the video spots of the projects. The potential longer term benefits have being the planning of activities for young people, from the participants' side, back in their countries (events, YE).