Hello,
Another Newspaper picked up the story in today's newspaper.
Transcript below (in Dutch...)
Cultuurcentrum opent Europese deuren voor andersvaliden
LEOPOLDSBURG - Het cultuurcentrum krijgt de volgende twee jaar subsidies voor het Europees project 'Opening Doors'. Leopoldsburg©© is daarmee het eerste Vlaams cultuurcentrum dat een Grundtvig-Leerpartnerschap coördineert. Voor dit project werkt Leopoldsburg©© samen met het St.-James Cavalier Centre for Creativity in Malta en de Headway Theatre Company in Engeland.
'Opening Doors' wil een procesmatige methode ontwikkelen om met andersvaliden rond drama te werken. 'De nadruk wordt vooral gelegd op de persoonlijke evolutie van de deelnemers, minder op het resultaat', zegt projectleider Leen Bouwens. 'Het Britse Headway Theatre Company werkt zo al. Headway's groep Seven Stars is ondertussen uitgegroeid tot een volwaardig theatergezelschap met andersvalide acteurs.'
Eind deze maand vindt een uitwisseling voor de projectwerkers plaats in Malta, waar zij een trainingsseminarie zullen volgen. Na dit seminarie wordt in de drie landen verder gewerkt met de eigen groepen, want ook Leopoldsburg©© en St.-James in Malta hebben ondertussen een eigen dramagroepje voor andersvaliden opgericht. Leopoldsburg©© werkt samen met twee lokale instellingen, vzw 't Brugske en vzw Berkenhof, die zeventien andersvaliden inzetten. Wim Oris van de vormingsorganisatie voor kunst- en cultuureducatie Wisper staat in voor de wekelijkse professionele begeleiding.
Het tweede luik van het project focust op de mobiliteit van de groepen. 'Elk partnerland houdt een klein theaterfestival waarop de groepen uit de andere landen worden uitgenodigd, een unieke kans voor de deelnemers om Europa te verkennen', zegt Leen Bouwens. Het festival in Leopoldsburg vindt plaats rond maart/april 2009. Op het einde van het project publiceren de partnerlanden een online-boekje met daarin hun bevindingen. Na het aflopen van het project in 2009 hoopt Leopoldsburg©© dat het initiatief verder gedragen wordt door de lokale partners, vzw 't Brugske en vzw Berkenhof. (pbvm)
Voor meer informatie: www.grundtvigopeningdoors.blogspot.com
Source: Het Nieuwsblad, zaterdag 22 maart 2008, pg28
Saturday, 22 March 2008
Friday, 21 March 2008
Opening Doors in the press
Well,
Belgium had an exciting day yesterday, hosting a press conference about the project. I must say I kind of rushed through the project (I blame the nerves!) and was wondering if they even had a clue what I was talking about.
But then came the questions and Wim (our coach) answered them brilliantly! We also appreciated the fact that Renilde Reynders from our national agency (vzw Epos) made the effort to come all the way down to Leopoldsburg. She certainly helped to explain the European side of the project!
One paper published an article about the project today, so I guess we can call it a success already. Two other papers will probably pick up the story at a later time too.
In the mean time the Belgian Project workers are getting all excited about the seminar in Malta next week. More about this later!
Picture source: Het Belang van Limburg, Vrijdag 21 maart 2008, pg 47
Thursday, 21 February 2008
Belgium to host press conference
Just to let you all know that Leopoldsburg will be hosting a press conference about the project on March 20th.
More about this later!
More about this later!
Monday, 11 February 2008
Opening doors to aspiring actors with learning disabilities
Article by Louise Ghirlando
published in the Sunday Times of Malta
Sunday 10th February 2008
St. James Cavalier Centre for Creativity has obtained funding from the educational and cultural arm of the European Union, through the lifelong learning programme Grundtvig, for its project entitled ‘Opening Doors: Developing learning disabled people’s participation in the arts across Europe’.
The project is looking to develop a method of theatre practice for actors with learning disabilities. Partnered with St. James Cavalier is a Belgian arts centre, Leopoldsburg, and Headway Theatre Company from the UK. The project has multileveled aims, starting with building its foundations through the exploration and sharing of professional practice in the field. In this respect, the partnership with the UK offers a unique advantage, as Headway’s agenda is specifically that of using the performing arts as a tool for the creative expression of socially marginalized people because of disability or other disadvantages. One of the groups they host is Seven Stars, which is an established theatre group of actors with learning disabilities. Both St. James and Leopoldsburg are looking forward to gaining further insight into the methods of practice as developed by Headway to facilitate an independent process of expression and devising of drama. In the coming March, St. James will be hosting project workers from the three participating countries to a training seminar.
As part of its work, Headway has also established an annual theatre festival for actors with learning disabilities. Following a planning meeting in Brussels, the festival provided this December a perfect launching pad for the project’s work as Maltese and Belgian project workers were invited to Blyth, Northumberland, where Headway are based, in order to observe different performances devised by actors with learning disabilities from the Northern area of England. As part of Headway’s agenda to explore such performative possibilities, the team is looking forward to the possibilities offered by the Opening Doors project to open its doors to the opportunities of travelling with its Seven Stars group to share their performances in other European countries and to participate in the building of theatre exchanges where they will be able to observe and share the performances developed by Malta and Brussels through the project.
In fact, following the March training seminar, the next event programmed is an exchange of performances also to be held in Malta, in the theatre at St. James Cavalier. Thus the first year of the project is set to focus on developing practice, building the theatre groups, and devising performances, whilst the second year of the project will focus on the mobility of the theatre groups’ participants themselves as the actors will tour their newly created works to Malta, England and Belgium.
Alongside this, the project is also set on sharing its practice with a wider audience and intends to publish its working methodologies as developed throughout the duration of the project.
Thus the project, through its sharing of practice, mobility, and dissemination, fulfils the working criteria of the Grundtvig framework. More importantly, it does so through its focus on assisting people from a vulnerable social group and in a marginal social context, improving the quality and increasing the volume of cooperation in adult learning, and improving the quality and accessibility of mobility in adult education and increasing its volume.
To achieve its objectives, the Maltese partner, St. James Cavalier will be next focusing on developing a working group of actors with learning disabilities. With this aim, it will be offering a series of workshops and drama sessions leading to the September performance festival, with the aspiration that the group will eventually become an independent, permanent platform for actors with learning disabilities. The project workers look forward to collaborating with various local NGOs and support agencies for people with learning disabilities.
Adults with learning disabilities (age 18 – 65) interested in participating in Opening Doors should contact Toni Attard, St. James Cavalier EU projects coordinator at euproject@sjcav.org or 21223200.
published in the Sunday Times of Malta
Sunday 10th February 2008
St. James Cavalier Centre for Creativity has obtained funding from the educational and cultural arm of the European Union, through the lifelong learning programme Grundtvig, for its project entitled ‘Opening Doors: Developing learning disabled people’s participation in the arts across Europe’.
The project is looking to develop a method of theatre practice for actors with learning disabilities. Partnered with St. James Cavalier is a Belgian arts centre, Leopoldsburg, and Headway Theatre Company from the UK. The project has multileveled aims, starting with building its foundations through the exploration and sharing of professional practice in the field. In this respect, the partnership with the UK offers a unique advantage, as Headway’s agenda is specifically that of using the performing arts as a tool for the creative expression of socially marginalized people because of disability or other disadvantages. One of the groups they host is Seven Stars, which is an established theatre group of actors with learning disabilities. Both St. James and Leopoldsburg are looking forward to gaining further insight into the methods of practice as developed by Headway to facilitate an independent process of expression and devising of drama. In the coming March, St. James will be hosting project workers from the three participating countries to a training seminar.
As part of its work, Headway has also established an annual theatre festival for actors with learning disabilities. Following a planning meeting in Brussels, the festival provided this December a perfect launching pad for the project’s work as Maltese and Belgian project workers were invited to Blyth, Northumberland, where Headway are based, in order to observe different performances devised by actors with learning disabilities from the Northern area of England. As part of Headway’s agenda to explore such performative possibilities, the team is looking forward to the possibilities offered by the Opening Doors project to open its doors to the opportunities of travelling with its Seven Stars group to share their performances in other European countries and to participate in the building of theatre exchanges where they will be able to observe and share the performances developed by Malta and Brussels through the project.
In fact, following the March training seminar, the next event programmed is an exchange of performances also to be held in Malta, in the theatre at St. James Cavalier. Thus the first year of the project is set to focus on developing practice, building the theatre groups, and devising performances, whilst the second year of the project will focus on the mobility of the theatre groups’ participants themselves as the actors will tour their newly created works to Malta, England and Belgium.
Alongside this, the project is also set on sharing its practice with a wider audience and intends to publish its working methodologies as developed throughout the duration of the project.
Thus the project, through its sharing of practice, mobility, and dissemination, fulfils the working criteria of the Grundtvig framework. More importantly, it does so through its focus on assisting people from a vulnerable social group and in a marginal social context, improving the quality and increasing the volume of cooperation in adult learning, and improving the quality and accessibility of mobility in adult education and increasing its volume.
To achieve its objectives, the Maltese partner, St. James Cavalier will be next focusing on developing a working group of actors with learning disabilities. With this aim, it will be offering a series of workshops and drama sessions leading to the September performance festival, with the aspiration that the group will eventually become an independent, permanent platform for actors with learning disabilities. The project workers look forward to collaborating with various local NGOs and support agencies for people with learning disabilities.
Adults with learning disabilities (age 18 – 65) interested in participating in Opening Doors should contact Toni Attard, St. James Cavalier EU projects coordinator at euproject@sjcav.org or 21223200.
Thursday, 7 February 2008
And we're off!
So, Belgium's finally on route to succes!
Wisper has agreed to let Wim Oris coach our group. We definitely think Wim's the man for the job as he shares our ideas on how the project should develop. He'll start his first session with the group March 13rd. From then on the group will get together once a week.
't Brugske has also fully committed to the project now. They put the question to their learners to see who would be interested in joining the group. Everybody was very positive and in the end nine learners decided to join the project. Educator Tanja is really motivated to come and join our team and help Wim coach the group. Seeing as she works with the learners every day she'll be a valuable support for Wim as she can keep him updated on the daily progress of the individual learners.
Berkenhof - another institution - will also join the project. They have about eight interested learners which would mean we'd have a group of 17 learners all together! Berkenhof still has to decide which educator will join the project to help support Wim with the training.
It's all coming together very nicely as a very interesting project where different institutions will all team up to make it a succes!
We'll keep you posted....
Wisper has agreed to let Wim Oris coach our group. We definitely think Wim's the man for the job as he shares our ideas on how the project should develop. He'll start his first session with the group March 13rd. From then on the group will get together once a week.
't Brugske has also fully committed to the project now. They put the question to their learners to see who would be interested in joining the group. Everybody was very positive and in the end nine learners decided to join the project. Educator Tanja is really motivated to come and join our team and help Wim coach the group. Seeing as she works with the learners every day she'll be a valuable support for Wim as she can keep him updated on the daily progress of the individual learners.
Berkenhof - another institution - will also join the project. They have about eight interested learners which would mean we'd have a group of 17 learners all together! Berkenhof still has to decide which educator will join the project to help support Wim with the training.
It's all coming together very nicely as a very interesting project where different institutions will all team up to make it a succes!
We'll keep you posted....
Wednesday, 9 January 2008
Happy New Year!
Best wishes for 2008 from the whole team!
And while I'm at it I'll give you all a quick update too! ;-)
Had a meeting with Het Brugske (a local institution here in Belgium) about the project earlier this morning. I must say it all went very well and they thought they'd have no problems finding learners who'd be interested in participating in the project. Trainer Tanja was also very enthusiastic about the whole project, so I think we've made a good start there!
What happens now? The staff at Het Brugske will talk about the project with their learners to see who'd be interested in participating. At the same time we'll be meeting with Wisper (see earlier post) to find ourself a proper drama coach.
So it looks like we're well underway to reach our target of setting up a group with coach by the end of January!
Hasta la Vista!
And while I'm at it I'll give you all a quick update too! ;-)
Had a meeting with Het Brugske (a local institution here in Belgium) about the project earlier this morning. I must say it all went very well and they thought they'd have no problems finding learners who'd be interested in participating in the project. Trainer Tanja was also very enthusiastic about the whole project, so I think we've made a good start there!
What happens now? The staff at Het Brugske will talk about the project with their learners to see who'd be interested in participating. At the same time we'll be meeting with Wisper (see earlier post) to find ourself a proper drama coach.
So it looks like we're well underway to reach our target of setting up a group with coach by the end of January!
Hasta la Vista!
Wednesday, 19 December 2007
Step One
Just to give you all a quick update!
Lots of things are happening in Belgium at the moment....
We've had our first contact with Wisper (www.wisper.be), an organisation in Flanders who work around arts with different target groups. Within their organisation they also have several coaches who are specialised in working with disabled people. We're hoping to reach an agreement with them to coach our group.... Watch this space!
Last night we also had a meeting with the local 'disabled advise board'. We've outlined the project for them and they promised to take it back to their respective institutions. They were all very positive about the project and didn't think they would have any problem finding interested learners. Finding motivated facilitators who would be willing to do most of the work on a voluntary basis might be a bit harder. But still, we're hoping to have a group by the end of January!
So far, so good I'd say.....
Lots of things are happening in Belgium at the moment....
We've had our first contact with Wisper (www.wisper.be), an organisation in Flanders who work around arts with different target groups. Within their organisation they also have several coaches who are specialised in working with disabled people. We're hoping to reach an agreement with them to coach our group.... Watch this space!
Last night we also had a meeting with the local 'disabled advise board'. We've outlined the project for them and they promised to take it back to their respective institutions. They were all very positive about the project and didn't think they would have any problem finding interested learners. Finding motivated facilitators who would be willing to do most of the work on a voluntary basis might be a bit harder. But still, we're hoping to have a group by the end of January!
So far, so good I'd say.....
Monday, 10 December 2007
5-7 dec 2007: An exploratory visit to the UK!
Last week Malta and Belgium packed their bags to head over to the UK for their festival 'Come on Down'.
Turned out to be an interesting 2 days! Since Malta and Belgium don't have a performance group of their own yet, this was an opportunity to learn from the UK....
Fran and Allison from the UK team (Headway Theatre Company) were kind enough to share some of their 'secrets' with Malta and Belgium. It was very interesting to see how they work with their group (Maybe Fran or Allison would like to write a comment on their working methodes?)!
We had a great time watching all the different groups Headway works with perform at the festival and it certainly gave us (Belgium) a new perspective on what lies ahead! We're very motivated now to set up a group of our own, but first we have to find a suitable coach.
Let the search begin!
Turned out to be an interesting 2 days! Since Malta and Belgium don't have a performance group of their own yet, this was an opportunity to learn from the UK....
Fran and Allison from the UK team (Headway Theatre Company) were kind enough to share some of their 'secrets' with Malta and Belgium. It was very interesting to see how they work with their group (Maybe Fran or Allison would like to write a comment on their working methodes?)!
We had a great time watching all the different groups Headway works with perform at the festival and it certainly gave us (Belgium) a new perspective on what lies ahead! We're very motivated now to set up a group of our own, but first we have to find a suitable coach.
Let the search begin!
Opening Doors: Developing learning disabled people's participation in arts across Europe
Well hello everybody and welcome to our blog!
Maybe a quick word about the project would be in order?!
Opening Doors is a European Grundtvig (http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/llp/grundtvig/index_en.html) project, for which 3 countries (Belgium - CC Leopoldsburg, Malta - St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity, UK - Headway Theatre Company) have teamed up to work around performance art with learning disabled people for a period of 2 years. Originally 5 countries applied for funds, but sadly enough Denmark and Lithuania did not make the cut. This also meant that the UK was the only partner left with a performance group.
So Malta and Belgium decide to adjust their original plans. Instead of only providing a venue to perform in for the existing groups, they will now each try and set up a performance group of their own (which will be an interesting journey in itself!). This means we will now have 3 performance groups and 3 venues.
Each country will work individually with their own group towards a final performance. All the while the partners keep each other updated on the progress made within their groups (e-platform + Blogspot). At the end of the journey each country will organise a ‘festival’ where all the groups will perform. This means that each group will perform 3 times, still evolving from the first one to the last.
We set up this Blogspot so everyone (involved or not involved) can follow the progress of the project and leave comments. It’s also a diary exchange for the 3 partner countries. This could also be fun for the learners. We will put up pictures from our different groups, so they can see each other. Will they realise that there are two other groups working on the same project in different countries?
So, if you're interested in this project we're looking forward to reading your comments on this Blog!
Maybe a quick word about the project would be in order?!
Opening Doors is a European Grundtvig (http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/llp/grundtvig/index_en.html) project, for which 3 countries (Belgium - CC Leopoldsburg, Malta - St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity, UK - Headway Theatre Company) have teamed up to work around performance art with learning disabled people for a period of 2 years. Originally 5 countries applied for funds, but sadly enough Denmark and Lithuania did not make the cut. This also meant that the UK was the only partner left with a performance group.
So Malta and Belgium decide to adjust their original plans. Instead of only providing a venue to perform in for the existing groups, they will now each try and set up a performance group of their own (which will be an interesting journey in itself!). This means we will now have 3 performance groups and 3 venues.
Each country will work individually with their own group towards a final performance. All the while the partners keep each other updated on the progress made within their groups (e-platform + Blogspot). At the end of the journey each country will organise a ‘festival’ where all the groups will perform. This means that each group will perform 3 times, still evolving from the first one to the last.
We set up this Blogspot so everyone (involved or not involved) can follow the progress of the project and leave comments. It’s also a diary exchange for the 3 partner countries. This could also be fun for the learners. We will put up pictures from our different groups, so they can see each other. Will they realise that there are two other groups working on the same project in different countries?
So, if you're interested in this project we're looking forward to reading your comments on this Blog!
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