| Short profile: | The very basis of A.R.T. Fusion is the unceasing passion of its members for their work. Our NGO is where it is today because of its volunteers! Our voluntary work continues since 2005, and it seems to attract more and more people that want to implement all kinds of projects that produce change trough socio-cultural intervention. Ever since the foundation of our NGO in 2005, all its activities were coordinated and implemented by people that were involved only as volunteers. This aspect is still central to our philosophy. All the projects and events created or put into practice by A.R.T. Fusion, were given life and purpose by our volunteers. Together with them we have learned and accumulated experience; we understood that young people such as ourselves and the ones around us grow and develop certain skills and abilities which the social capital of our community is growing by our actions. We had the opportunity to learn by experience how the well being and health of our society can be improved and can be animated in each moment by the involvement, the energy and the motivation of our volunteers.
A.R.T. Fusion is a youth organisation that tries to offer a realistic perspective over the struggling problems of our Romanian society nowadays. We want to change the attitudes of the people in our community, together with other society members, to help find solutions to the problems that the community is facing.
A.R.T. Fusion’s Mission is to improve social competencies of children, adolescents and youngsters, trough participative arts methods, in order to help them achieve personal growth.
Social competencies are specific abilities and behaviours that one disposes of, in order to fulfil his social function. The social competencies in question are the ones that derive from the vast domains of communication, social activism, group dynamics and interpersonal relationships. Our target group is constructed out of individuals that are in a time of personal growth in their life, when they need to achieve and build certain skills and conceptions, that will help them fulfil their personal interests and create a path trough life.
A.R.T. Fusion’s Objectives:
- Giving a wider access to information, projects and programmes of personal and/or general interest for children, adolescents and youngsters, as long as these actions prove to be necessary for a harmonious personality development in our Romanian society.
- Rising the degree of involvement of the target group in socio-cultural and artistically activities that are necessary for harmonious personal growth.
- Stimulating a pro-social attitude in children, adolescents and youth.
The values in witch we believe are: each person can make a difference in our society; art can be an instrument of social change; you can reach self-awareness trough art; team work; continuous growth; tolerance; social responsibility; overcoming personal boundaries; equality; flexibility and openness to change.
Methods and activities:
- social theatre : forum theatre, invisible theatre, street theatre;
- street animation: clowning, joggling, poi-poi, balloon making, flash-mobs;
- music, dance, photography, spots, films;
- fund razing events;
- international projects (youth exchanges, seminars, trainings);
- blogging – internet gaming;
The A.R.T. Fusion’s staff members:
Our staff team is composed from a number of 4 members, each of them being responsible with different organizational aspects: PR and Communication, Projects and Programs, International Projects, Human Resources, Administration and Finances.
These 4 people are responsible with the main aspects regarding the organizational structure, but there are few volunteers licensed in marketing, PR, HR or related domains that are involved in the PR and HR activity. In time, we hope to get the volunteers to permanently involve themselves in all the departments of our NGO.
Beneficiaries :
- Students and pupils;
- Passive youngsters form different communities;
- Rural communities;
- Minorities;
Some of our projects related to participative art:
In 2007:
A Forum Theatre national dissemination Campaign (that lasted 6 months and involved 46 Forum Theatre Plays around the country, 1 Forum Theatre Practical Guide, creating and coordinating a Forum Theatre network and creating a platform of communication for this network – a discussion group and a FT site with information and some interactive online features).
2 Projects for the Social Integration of Roma communities (a Forum Theatre caravan and a 6 months intervention in 2 roma communities).
2 Festivals: 1st edition of the “ReCreate The ARTitude” national Forum Theatre Festival and the 1st edition of “Are You a Bystander? Take ARTitude” – a festival focused on discrimination and social apathy.
In 2008:
Because our volunteer have been developing their skills and they are really experienced in Forum Theatre, we have decided to take on street actions. So, right now we will have a 6 months dissemination campaign on street actions at the national level, involving all the elemets that the Forum Theatre Campaign had and more.
International projects:
Besides participating in over 40 international projects related to participative art, we have done 3 international trainings on Forum Theatre by now (the last one in January, Latvia) and 1 on Drama in Non-formal Education.
In November 2007, our application to Youth in Action for the 1.2 project “Are You a Bystander? Take ARTitude!” was accepted and financed. This is a national festival on social apathy and discrimination, that has come to it’s 2nd edition and will be implemented in May. It consists of 3 days of visible activities on these themes, from Forum Theatre and street animation, to debates, concerts, photo and video expositions and regular theatrical performances that targets over 5000 beneficiaries.
Some of our volunteers have been studiing video animation techniques and visuals in Norway. Since their return, all other volunteers have been trained in these methods and we are going to include them in all of our artistical projects for this year. First action of such kind will take place next week, when we will teach the young people of another initiative group to make visual animation. Their results are going to be presented in an Echological Festival organised in their town at the end of the month.
We are open to all collaborations related to participative arts. We have a lot of experience and we wish to share it with young people that have similar interests. We are really motivated and we aim for quality in every thing we do. We believe that in every new action there is something usefull to learn and we want to bring our new teachings to the people that will benefit the most from them.
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