THE MAIN FOCUS OF ART TO ACTION IS TO EMPOWER ARTISTS, MUSICIANS AND YOUNG PEOPLE BY OFFERING THEM THE OPPORTUNITY TO DEVELOP THEIR TECHNICAL- AND ARTISTIC SKILLS, INTER-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND STRENGTHEN THEIR NETWORK LOCALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY.
WE SEE MANY POSSIBILITIES IN HOW THIS COMBINATION OF ART, MUSIC AND DEVELOPMENT WORK CAN REACH FAR IN BRAKING DOWN BOUNDARIES AND PROVIDE VARIOUS TYPES OF PLATFORMS FROM WHERE YOUTH CAN GROW AND BECOME THEIR OWN AGENTS OF CHANGE.
THE FIRST ART TO ACTION PROJECT IS FOCUSING ON GHANA, HOWEVER, HEARTREBELS WISH THAT THIS CONCEPT SHALL EXPAND AND IN FUTURE BE CONNECTING YOUTH GLOBALLY.
SO FAR WE HAVE INITIATED COOPERATION WITH THREE STACKEHOLDERS: GHANA FRIENDSHIP GROUPS, TAMALE YOUTH HOME AND SABABAS. READ MORE ON THE WORK THAT HAS BEEN SO FAR IN RELATION TO GHANA BELOW…
In May 2008 HeartRebels met with Ghana Friendship Groups (Ghana Venskabsgrupperne), whom have been involved with Tamale Youth House in North Ghana, and this is how we got connected to the youth there. This Youth House offers young people a place to develop independent thinking and HeartRebels have joined forces to initiate a series of creative workshops, which can lead to strengthening competences, network locally and globally, entrepreneurial, organisational and administrative skills, export of products e.g. cloth and bags, and take part of supporting their aim of creating holistic and sustainable growth. These creative workshops will cover everything from music, design and film workshops to new-media and entrepreneurship courses and coaching.
From August 2008 to February 2009 Maja Hedin and Mia Beyer stayed in Tamale to get to know the youth and the involved partners at the Youth Home in Tamale. The money raised from the TrailerPark Festival 08 was geared to facilitate workshops and find solutions to how the youth could see themselves strengthen their capacities at the place. This resulted in HeartRebels taking part of:
- The establishment of a Youth Home Fund. Read more…
- The making of a documentary movie concerning youth and development, modernity and tradition in northern Ghana. Watch…
- Sababas music and art workshop at the Youth Home. Read more…
- The Youth Forum 08 - Focusing on Youth and Employment. This included a production of a small film being shown at the African Commission Conference in Accra 2008. Read more and watch…
- Voices of the youth. Read more…
Picture taken in front of the youth house in Tamale.
In relation to Art to Actions’ visions HeartRebels began a partnership with Sababas in February 2008, as the Sababas core values and aspiration correlate with how Heartrebels can see that art and music can be tools to address social, economic and political matters that hinders development.
The collaboration is build upon the idea that we can strengthen each other through cooperating resulting in our visions reaching further. Heartrebels’ assist the Sababas in the organisation and planning of the project, fundraising, networking, venues and festivals where the Sababas group perform, as well as all work related to youth e.g. workshops both in Ghana and Denmark.
The Sababas was initiated in 2007 and aims to support peace-building activities by enabling artists to address and share with others personal, local and global issues affecting their lives through music and video art. The project gives visibility to the important role artistic communication plays in peace-building and poverty reduction and initially invites renowned international and Ghanaian artists to collaborate, produce and present new works addressing social issues. Furthermore, this will be linked to strengthening the capacity of professional and aspiring artists, by setting up an audiovisual studio in Tamale. The Sababas project is an initiative of local musicians and video artists who will be involved in all stages of the project from design to implementation to encourage local ownership and sustainability.
Read more by pressing the links below:
- Workshop at the Youth Home in Tamale
- Workshops in Denmark August 2009. Read more…
- The program for Sababas performances and activities in Denmark August and September 2009 (coming soon)
- The Sababas Artists (in Danish)
- Priliminary planning and research
- Sababas Website
Sababas workshop at the Youth Home, Tamale, 2009.