Description
The aim of the project “I Spy Discrimination: Young Socially Engaged Artists" is to increase the level of involvement and sensitivity of young people in Bielsko-Biała and adjacent rural communities and to make them aware of discrimination and exclusion. A minimum of 1,000 students will take part in multimedia presentations which are expected to encourage them to get involved in initiatives for the benefit of their local communities, act against discrimination and violence, and to learn to respect different others. A competitive process will select approx. 30 people to take part in workshops conducted by experts in social arts, photography, film, discrimination and exclusion, photo-reporting and advertising. The project will purchase cameras for the young people to do an art project against discrimination. The exhibition will be shown in several venues to get the local people to be more pro-active against discrimination. All the activities will be presented on the project website and on Facebook.
Summary of project results
"According to the research commissioned by the Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Treatment and carried out by the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, 29 per cent of Poles say that at least once in their lifetime they were considered to be inferior because of some personal trait. While talking to students, mainly from rural schools, organisation discovered that their knowledge of discrimination is very limited. The programmes related to this problem, such as Watch Docs festival, Letter Writing Marathon and other activities run by NGOs, are addressed mainly to people living in larger towns and cities. In accordance with the National Curriculum, young people should be acquainted with various kinds of discrimination and how to combat them, also the Polish Teachers' Union issued a publication on discrimination. However, this issue is discussed in schools in a vague manner. The aim of our project was to encourage young people from rural areas and small towns in the Podbeskidzie region to get involved in anti-discrimination activities. 32 young people participated in the project implementation. They were prepared to use socially engaged art in anti-discrimination activities. Lectures on discrimination and socially engaged art were delivered in 10 schools for 1,080 students of lower and upper secondary schools in Bielsko-Biała, Godziszce, Buczkowice, Rybarzowice and Bestwin. Young people participated in workshops on photography, film, photo-reporting, composition and advertising. They also took part in artistic activities where they prepared exhibition works. The students did nearly 60 artworks, the school in Bestwin now has a mural showing disabled persons with reduced mobility who are nevertheless active in sports. In Bielsko Biała, young people organized the first “Living Library"" with 14 “Living Books"" with whom over 50 people communicated. The participating students organized exhibitions in Galeria SFERA and in three schools which were visited by over 1,600 people. The project's beneficiaries were young people aged 13-19 from Bielsko-Biała, Godziszki, Buczkowice, Rybarzowice i Bestwiny."
Summary of bilateral results