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Art Installation: Advocacy
Tool for Youth Concerns
In today’s context of Palestine there is a lack of a strong
forum that draws youth from different backgrounds together to
identify their key issues, facilitates open dialogue and
debate on their concerns, provides new mediums for expression
since the rhetoric is occupied, and communicates and
articulates the outcome to a wider youth gathering and
community at large. The existing mechanisms and approaches
employed for the youth sector are weak and ineffective. The
youth are voiceless, and as there is no room for them for free
expression, they feel frustrated and worthless. Such feelings
have strong impact on their behavior, behavior that is
translated into political and social actions as well.
As such, there is a need to propose a new and creative
alternative so as to build such forum that would give voice to
the youth. Art installation is a creative tool for free
expression, by which the youth is empowered to articulate
their concerns, to place their issues on the public agenda,
and to create opportunities where the youth partake and are
represented in the decision making process, a key element for
democracy.
The International Center of Bethlehem’s Art Installation:
Advocacy Tool for Youth Concerns Project which started on May
1, 2004 and shall be completed on June 30, 2005, which is
funded by
Tamkeen Civil
Society and Democracy Strengthening Project, empowers young
people to identify their concerns and prioritize their issues,
to develop creative means of expressing and communicating them
with other youth as well as a wider group of stakeholders, and
to proactively present issues of concern of this biggest
segment of the Palestinian society in the public discourse and
agenda. This educational process is crucial for any attempt of
democratization and governance. By working with the youth,
especially the youth of the rural areas and refugee camps, the
project targets an important yet neglected segment of the
Palestinian society and at the same time potential future
leaders. We introduce a new creative tool which is art
installation that youth can utilize as other mediums have
already been occupied by others, such as rhetoric, to create a
strong network and forum that draws youth from different
backgrounds together. With the help of trained art teachers,
who received their unique training through the project, as it
is necessary to provide equipped team who is qualified to
facilitate discussion among youth on issues of their concern,
and to assist them in developing artistic expressions of the
identified issues, the youth engage in open dialogue and
debate, and are able to present their findings eloquently and
creatively. Through this project, the youth are no longer
voiceless, but are expressing themselves vividly and
creatively, working towards their interests be more
represented in the Palestinian public discourse. By
implementing the planned activities, the grant objectives and
the project at large shall be accomplished successfully.
The Project’s Objectives:
a) To assist the youth within the Bethlehem Governorate to
identify and prioritize their key issues by selecting 150
young people from 10 schools to be trained in art installation
as a tool of free expression. The training will consist of 12
workshops/40 hours training conducted in each school.
b) To train and develop the skills of 10 art teachers working
in the selected schools to become familiar with the medium of
installation art through an intensive 5-day workshop (30
hours) facilitated by an international expert in the field of
art installation.
c) To train the 150 youth on how to communicate their concerns
and the issues deemed significant to the public and how to
inform their own community of their issues through organizing
10 art exhibitions and 10 public debates at their respective
schools after their training.
d) To create a viable network among the different youth groups
through having youth of the other participating schools
present at each of these exhibitions, thus sharing and
exchanging concerns and experiences.
e) To facilitate the presenting of the youth’s issues that
were identified to decision makers representing government
officials, local government officials and leaders of civil
society organizations through a one-month exhibition hosted at
the Cave Gallery at the ICB combining all the diverse artistic
expressions and pieces developed by the youth at the different
schools and 1 public debate with decision makers at Ad-Dar
Cultural and Conference Center.
f) To promote the issues on a wider scale by documenting the
whole process of the project from its inception to its
completion for future use in a 10-12 minute film and a booklet
published containing all the art pieces that were made.
This project is supported by Tamkeen’s simplified grants. The
purpose of Tamkeen’s simplified grants at large is to support
initiatives and activities that strengthen the democracy and
governance capabilities of civil society organizations in the
West Bank and Gaza. In accordance with this purpose, the ICB’s
project of the art installation incorporates through its
objective and activities elements of democracy and governance
by focusing on building the capacities of the youth,
developing their leadership abilities and giving them the
opportunities to express themselves freely, creatively and
effectively so as to be represented in the Palestinian public
discourse. The target group of this project, namely the youth,
matches one of the main target groups of Tamkeen’s. Youth in
Palestine are the largest segment of the Palestinian
population but they are marginalized and their interests are
the least represented. In particular, the project focuses on one of the most marginalized groups of the
Palestinian society, the youth of the rural areas and refugee
camps. Utilizing the practical forum of schools is the most
effective as it draws youth from different backgrounds and
contexts, and promises continuity of the process. The 10
participating schools have been carefully identified and
selected, insuring a balanced representation of schools from
the rural areas, refugee camps and cities within the Bethlehem
Governorate.
Direct Beneficiaries:
The first direct beneficiary is the 150 students of Grades
9-11 (ages 15 – 17) from 10 schools in the Bethlehem
Governorate. As mentioned previously, the schools have been
carefully selected to encompass as wide of a representation as
possible in terms of population distribution, but with an
emphasis on schools in rural areas and refugee camps, since the
youth there are the most marginalized in the society. The 150
students will benefit through getting the opportunity to be
trained in art installation in their respective schools,
exhibiting their work, directly expressing their concerns and
issues through new creative means, and networking with the
other youth of the other schools.
The second direct beneficiary is the student population of the
10 schools combined, approximately 5000 students. They shall
benefit by engaging in the discussions and public debates that
are planned in their own respective schools on issues relevant
to them as youth, thus actively sharing in presenting a youth
agenda.
The third direct beneficiary are the 10 art teachers who were
trained in a new medium of art, that of installation, thus
receiving further education in a new creative field and
utilizing this training for future initiatives and programs
within and outside of their respective schools.
Indirect Beneficiaries
One indirect beneficiary is the Palestinian youth in the
Bethlehem Governorate, who shall attend the 10 exhibitions and
10 public debates that shall take place at the different
localities at the selected schools, as well as the one-month
exhibition and the public debate that will take place at the ICB.
The Palestinian youth at large will also benefit from this
project as their concerns and issues will be presented to a
wider and now more informed and sensitive public, as well as
having documentation of these issues through the film that can
have future screenings if demanded by other schools and
organizations, both private and public and the published
booklet.
The Art Installation: Advocacy Tool for Youth Concerns
Project’s Activities:
Training & Capacity Building:
• 150 youth from 10 schools within the Bethlehem Governorate
will be involved in training workshops using art installation
and brainstorming discussions aimed at enhancing their
capacity to identify, prioritize, communicate and promote
their key issues. The training shall be carried out in each
participating school. The training performed in schools, thus
introducing a creative tool of expression to the sector of
education, empowers the youth to become proactive to partake
in the decision making process that affects their future,
especially as they are the largest segment of the Palestinian
society. As such the grant contributes through this training
and educational process to the strengthening of civil society
and democracy.
• 150 youth shall be trained in installing art exhibitions,
through preparing for the 10 exhibitions that shall be held in
the schools, one exhibition per school per week in a
consecutive manner, and preparing for the one-month exhibition
at the Cave Gallery at the ICB.
• 150 youth shall have the opportunity to develop and improve
their public speech skills as they will be involved in
explaining about their art pieces during the one-week
exhibitions and the one-month exhibition held at the ICB; as
well as
during the public debates to be organized as closing events of
each exhibition that will be held at the participating
schools.
• 10 art teachers will be trained in the field of art
installation with an international expert, thus building a
cadre of experts in the field who would facilitate and
continue with such activities that allow for free expression
and open debate, networking and public participation, even
after the period of the project has ended.
Soliciting Constituent Opinion:
• The training workshops for the 150 young people shall also
work as a structured forum where the opinions of the youth are
sought and expressed.
• 11 Public Debates will allow for the solicitation of
opinions on the issues presented, especially from youth within
and surrounding each school who did not get the opportunity to
participate in the project, and providing the forum where the
constituents meet with the decision makers, both in their own
localities but also on the national level thus allowing for
advocacy activities targeting decision makers to take place
and recommendations to be adopted that places the youth agenda
on the national agenda.
• A network of 150 youth who participated in the project is an
important body that allows for deepening the association with
the youth agenda being presented through the students’
artistic expressions, and also allows for open dialogue and
exchange of ideas.
Disseminating Information:
• 11 art exhibitions, 10 of which are held at the selected
schools in a consecutive manner for 10 weeks, and 1 held at
the Cave Gallery at the ICB for one month.
• 11 public debates which will also be a sharing information
forum for the local communities surrounding each school, and
on the national level at large.
• A 10-12 minutes’ film documenting the process to be screened
in the future to other schools and interested parties.
• 500 copies of a booklet containing colored photographs of
the artistic expressions of the students to be distributed to
schools, international donors, libraries, Ministry of Sports
and Youth, local government offices, and so forth.
TOP
Thank you for your visit today.
Contact us on telephone No. 972 2 2770047, Fax No. 972 2
2770048
Copyright © 2004 The International Center of Bethlehem
Installation art website designed By: Project Coordinator
Architect Anton Stephan
Assisted By: Project Secretary Raghad Mukarker Fadoul
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