5 Finalisten aus 65 europaweiten Projekten
FIVE FINALISTS ANNOUNCED FOR THE AMATEO AWARD 2019
Exceptional amateur arts groups are having a profound impact on their communities across Europe.
Some 65 projects from across the continent applied for the Amateo Award 2019, a €1,000 prize supported by Creative Europe to celebrate and strengthen participatory arts.
Today five finalists have been announced representing work from Serbia, The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Northern Ireland.
“The ability of the voluntary arts to make people’s lives better are writ large in the applications we’ve seen for this prize,” said Jim Tough, coordinator of the Arts Take Part project which runs the Award programme.
“Our finalists have done amazing things. Moving Ground in Belgium helped children connect with each other, express themselves & develop their talents in a tough neighbourhood by putting on a show for their neighbours. The Irish Video Game Orchestra has bridged communities in Belfast through their work, inspiring youngsters to embrace orchestral music by playing the themes to classic video games like Mario & Zelda.
“In the Netherlands, Theater Na de Dam brought young people together with WW2 survivors, sharing stories that inspired theatre performances shown in multiple locations after the national two-minute silence.
“In Serbia, a city has been united in art by Art Kvart – Start! as over 100 workshops took place touching an incredible 14,000 people. And in Austria the 10+10 Bridges project saw a human rights group and a contemporary dance organisation bring local communities together with refugees, creating collaborative dance shows and sparking friendships.
“Every project has on its own way made a hugely positive contribution to its participants and their communities.”
The finalists will be represented at the announcement of the winner on June 7th in Novi Sad, Serbia as part of the Amateur Art & Youth in Intercultural Society Conference hosted by Amateo member the Amateur Art Association of Vojvodina.
The Amateo Award is in its second year now and was launched by Amateo, the European Network for Active Participation in Cultural Activities in Europe.
The Network was founded in 2008 as the multi-disciplinary European organisation within the field of participatory arts and cultural activities. There are 32 national and regional umbrella groups and associations from 14 EU member states and 2 programme countries, with contacts to a huge network of regional and local associations within the European field of amateur arts.
Amateo’s 4-year programme Arts Take Part is supported by Creative Europe and aims to grow and strengthen the network over the next four years. As part of this programme and to celebrate its 10th anniversary, the first annual Amateo Award was held in Ljubljana, Slovenia last year.
It was won by OpRoet, an amazing collective from The Netherlands who brought together refugees with over 40 local actors and musicians to create the show ‘Ed van Hoorn, Fuck the System’ about a local activist credited with building refugee camps.
Amateo sees active participation in the arts as a core value for a free and open society as enshrined in Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
