Partners

Our project partners are a diverse mix of organisations spanning the spectrum of creative disciplines and include visual and performing arts – music, dance, photography, animation, film, sculpture and painting – and creative writing, media and journalism across cities in the four countries.

Colombia

Crazy Dance/Entrepreneurs for Peace

FouCrazy Dance logonded in 2015 in a rural community on the outskirts of Medellin; the community has been affected by gang violence and high numbers of displaced people. Crazy Dance is a dance troop of young people using different genres of dance to bring young people together to provide alternatives to violence and promote peaceful coexistence.

Lluvia de Orión

Lluvia de Orion logoFounded in 2012 by Robinson Usaga, a displaced journalist, Lluvida de Orion works with young people in the Comuna 13 area of Medellin through creative writing, communication and education. The aim of the organization is to use writing, animations and illustrations as a means of education communities about the conflict and historical memory in Colombia and promoting peace.

Ciudad Comuna

Founded in 2009, Ciudad Comuna is a community media and communications organization. Their work is focused in three areas: generating community driven audio-visual content (radio and newspaper) and media and communication training for young people in the area (photography school and audio visual programmes) and research to promote positive social change in marginalised areas affected by conflict in the city of Medellin, Colombia.

Corporación Talentos Culturizzarte

Culturizzarte logoA multi arts spaces in Comuna 13, Medellin, founded in 2009 by local artist MAURIZIO CORTEZ. Culturizzarte offers free visual arts and performing arts education to young people in an area heavily affected by gang violence and poverty and displaced people. Culturizzarte hopes to provide young people with alternative options to violence and raise their aspirations through art.

En Corto Taller

En Corto Taller is an audio-visual collective that works with marginalised young people in Comuna 5 in Medellin to provide new employment and educational opportunities through audio-visual workshops and training programmes.

Elemento Ilegal

Elemento Ilegal is a hip hop school based in Comuna 8 in Medellin. Founded in 2008 by a group of young people, the school focuses on social, artistic and personal development of children and young people through hip hop.

 

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Youth Cultural Centre OKC Abrašević

In the case study of Bosnia-Herzegovina, our main partner is the Youth Cultural Centre OKC Abrašević in Mostar. OKC Abrašević is situated on the former frontline of the divided city of Mostar and acts as an important cultural hub in the city.

Since its opening in 2003, OKC Abrašević is building on traditions of inter-culturalism and democracy. The centre is active in the redesign of public spaces in the city in order to create zones in which engrained logics of division can be challenged.

Their vast experience in cultural activism is a tremendous asset to our project and will help us understand the challenges that working in a divided city entails, especially for young people. We collaborate with the centre in the production of audio arts in the form of audio installations which will tell stories of old and famous Mostar architectural objects.

 

Lebanon

UTOPIA Association (Utopia)

UTOPIA logoUtopia is a non-governmental, non-profit organization, located in Tripoli, North Lebanon, dedicated to acquiring social justice among all within the same society regardless of their political or religious beliefs. Utopia’s purpose is to inspire a culture of civic awareness and equal citizenship in Lebanese society through specialized projects and programs to inspire and promote the changes toward achievement of social justice. The focus of Utopia is on the following programs: Community Service, Youth Empowerment, Women Empowerment, Child Development, and Advocacy.

Peace of Art (POA)

Peace of Art Lebanon logoPeace of Art is a humanitarian organisation and fine arts academy that has been in operation since 2016. The organisation is the first academic institute to provide professional artistic and educational training services for youth in North Bekaa area.

Its main goal is to empower and engage people in North Bekaa, Lebanese and Syrian, youth, children and women to live in dignity and peace based on the respect, protection, and fulfilment of Human Rights, and to bring youth from multiple religions, regions and nationalities together through Art and education.

Its mission is to create a more developed and equitable society through teaching fine arts, reducing poverty, eliminating exclusion, and fostering a culture of peace based on accepting the other.

Action for Hope (AfH)

Action for Hope logoAction for Hope (AfH) was founded in 2015 to provide cultural development and cultural relief programs that meet the cultural, social, and psychological needs of distressed, marginalised, and displaced communities. It believes in the role of arts and culture in empowering individuals and communities, particularly those in distress.

AfH provides people with access to culture and tools for creative expression to enrich their lives, increase the cultural capital of communities around them, and enables their contribution to our shared humanity.

AfH provides talented people from marginalized communities (that do not have access to arts and culture) with artistic skills, tools and knowledge needed to communicate, express themselves creatively, document their stories and work professionally in the art.