Culture, History and Nature Together in Contemporary Art
Our aim in the CHANTICA project is to bring together young people from the rural outlying areas of Europe to celebrate and value their own cultural landscapes through music, drama fashion, applied art and all of the traditional skills and resources of their heritage. The fashion element is selected to especially appeal to young people with an average age of 18 years.
During the project the young people will learn traditional skills, including crafts and art from international and local artists & trainers and they will investigate contemporary uses for those skills. The young people involved in the project are drawn from rural areas in the periphery of Europe; they are disadvantaged by being far from the centers of education and culture. Some have either physical or mental disabilities. CHANTICA will provide an equal opportunity for them to work together towards a common goal.
Each partner brings local partners and works with young people who are disadvantaged, either physically, mentally or geographically. The young people (up to 40 per partner) complete actions in each otherís countries and form multi-national groups/teams.
Each team is supported by trainers and artists from each partner/ partnerís network.† These persons have skills including craftwork, the arts, applied history and interpretation and have the ability to train, teach, mentor and demonstrate.†
After a plenary session in Slovakia to develop the theme, all partners will run an action (at 4 month intervals) and receive 4 young people 1 artist (trainer) and 1 supporting staff from each partner, they will have their own groups of young people and support staff.† Each action will involve a minimum of 40 persons.† Together they will investigate an element of the local cultural landscape, including sites, the local population (often older people), historical costume, music, dance, legends, festivals, superstitions and local traditional skills and materials.† From these investigations, they will create contemporary art, costume and a multi-faceted performance.† The theme will be selected by the young people themselves but will be drawn from that specific locality (the partners/ co-organisers base).† The young people will also learn new cultural and traditional skills, learn some principles of sustainability (Local Agenda 21) and understand how culture and art can be a strong tool for rural development.