The two week educational programme showed nearly 50 young professionals new ways of working with underprivileged youth through special social art practices in the fields of THEATER TECHNICS, MASK& OBJECT WORK, PSYCHOLOGY and MUSIC.

The EXCEPT ACADEMY was held on the Hungarian countryside in a village with a majority of Roma inhabitants.

Accommodation and meals where provided together with the social entrepreneurs from “Move 2 Hungary” www.move2hungary.com in Szakácsi in collaboration with local Roma workers. All collaborations not only aimed teaching social arts practices, but creating a new comprehensive understanding and the first steps for a world-wide network.

The outcomes were beyond all expectations and could been seen in the successful EXCEPT CAMPS with the youth, the TEAM SPIRIT and the NEW PROJECTS that were established between the participants.

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What happened till now:

- WORKSHOPS OF PROFESSIONALS in different countries to get to know each other’s practices
- A two week programme to establish performances which involve underprivileged pupils from schools in the camps and on a longer term
- The EXCEPT ACADEMY with trainings for Young European Professionals to work with underprivileged youth
- EXCEPT CAMPS in Serbia, Hungary and Poland for underprivileged youth

FUTURE
Our aim is to build a sustainable, long-lasting NETWORK of Social Arts Practices, that our partners and participants can work on a long-term in remote areas and increase the impact from year to year.
The first edition of the ACADEMY was a big success and financed by the EU grants. Already, during this edition we had huge cut downs from local, firstly guaranteed, grants.
To survive in this environment, we are depending on financial support, to make more editions possible.
At the moment, we are searching for stable SPONSOR RELATIONSHIPS, with whom we would like to work together on a long time base to guarantee that Social Arts Practice can stay A TOOL TO IMPROVE THE SITUATION OF UNDERPRIVILEGED.
We need the money to organise:

CAMP TOUR with 18 kids in 6 countries to present the outcomes and performances
CAMPS and ACADEMY 2015 (still pending and dependent on financial support)

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THE ACADEMY 2014 in more detail

Szakácsi was a perfect partner and place for the Academy – there are two former church buildings serving as the main venue for lectures and workshops, promising a solemn and cool ambient. The rich summer nature around, the silence of Hungarian village and the hospitality of Elisabeth Van Aerde offer perfect circumstances for our work. The Dutch entrepreneur, Elisabeth for more than 10 years has been living and implementing her social-development project called in the north of Borsod, in this poor-poor mostly Roma inhabited village – known as the “2nd poorest one” in Hungary.

The aim of the Academy was to inspire all participants to invent, conceive, design or rehearse new projects applicable for one of the disadvantaged groups of her/his own society, to discover how art can help to dissolve some of the hardships in their lives. We offer, in favour of this creative process, 10-12 hours of divert learning – in 2-6 groups, 4-6 sessions per day.

The creative director of the Academy, Andreas Schantz performer and pedagogue from the German Octopus taught us improvisation and clown techniques, but there were all professional leaders of EXCEPT attending, that are active in the different segments of Applied Performing Art practices: Balázs Simon from the Hungarian UtcaSzak was helping the participants to compose performing art pieces applicable for different audiences, Gianluca Barbadori, founder of Un Ponte tra Culture held a physical-theatre workshop, Filip Krwyzinski from the Polish Studio Skit gave lectures on the psychology of endangered youth, Noelie Morizot, the French apprentice of Stefano Perocco, worked with waste objects and masks, Ivan Pravdić dramatist and performer, delegated from the Serbian Kultura Nova, gave a hand in event structure dramaturgy. Twenty-two teachers and lecturers, professionals of children and youth workers offered workshops to enroll and their were two important experts whom we always wanted to work with – “guest lecturers” - who did presentations on their work. The president of Clowns Without Border International, Selena McMahan from the 12-13 of July, and from the 16-17 of July the leader of the Barefeet Theater, Adam McGuigen joined us.

We were unfortunately limited in inviting as many brilliant professionals as we planned due to the budgetary cuts and unexpected lack of resources of the main organiser, UtcaSzak in light of the decisions of the Hungarian National Cultural Fund. And the big problem continues. That is why we are searching for long-lasting funding’s elsewehere.

We had to make some limitations to the number of participants too. We hope that in the near future we can continue the discourse in theoretic and practical field about the connection between art practice and social development with more participants. We will do everything to grab the attention of institutions capable to help this expansion of our endeavour.

Click here to see the SCHEDULE of the Summer Academy 2014

Click here to get to know the TRAINERS & WORKSHOPS 2014

Impressions of the Summer Academy

photo’s of performances for the village; making new friends; dance, theater, clown workshops and happy Gypsy kids & trainees by Michelle Donkersloot www.michelled.nl and Goshia Mierzwa