Integration of East- and Southeast-Asian citizens by culture and art in Hungary: the integration of the Asian citizens in Hungary have to face with difficulties. The first and the most important problem is the language, and it is followed by the cultural diversities. One of the most hardest part of the integration is making the first step initiating a real, not just a “daily life” dialog and conversation between Hungarians and Asians. Without this communication, the knowledge and the related social acceptance can not be succeeded. We desire to help this process with the universal and mostly non-verbal methods of arts and culture. Our aim is to organize art workshops where Asian and Hungarian citizens can meet each other and work together on a common art product. It would not be a professional art and cultural event, we do not need any professional artists take part in the project, just Hungarian and Asian enthusiastic amateurs, who are opened for arts. In this project, the artistic quality of the realized artworks are not important but the communication processes, the cognition of the traditions of others, and the multicultural learning forms. The art pedagogy has already proved many times that the knowledge and information are easier and more efficient to deliver by its creative and playful methods as by the conventional and formal education.
Main aims of the project:
- to introduce the rich and colorful Asian cultures to the Hungarian citizens
- to enlarge the knowledge of the Asian citizens living in Hungary about Hungarian traditions and culture
- to increase the social network of the Asian citizens (new acquaintance, friendships, work relationships, etc)
- to develop the “soft competences”: creativity, communication, flexibility, critical thinking.
The project has two main activities:
1) Art workshops
The workshops have two methodical steps:
First, the participants will show their own traditional and folk art. In this part every country represent and show their own cultural heritage (songs, dance, craft, etc.) to the others.
Second, under the direction of our experts (art teachers, trainers, tutors) they create an artwork together, which represent the different cultures of the participant countries. In this cultural product every workshop' participant will do something creative activity (dancing, singing, do the set and costume, craftsmanship etc). The frame of the workshops consists of traditional Hungarian folk arts, which the participants can combine with their unique art style in a playful and creative way. The best art works/performances will be presented on the festival.
2) Asian-Hungarian Cultural Festival
At the end of the project we will organize a big cultural festival, where we can show the best artworks and performances from the workshops. The main aim of the festival is to represent the colorful Asian cultures to the Hungarian audience. In the frame of the festival we would like to provide facilities for further introduction of the countries (exhibitions, professional cultural performances, concerts, etc.)
Year: 2013.
National partners: Hungarian Heritage House, ELTE Confucius Institute, Korean Cultural Center, Japan Foundation, Thai Embassy, Indonesian Embassy, Embassy of Malaysia, Hungarian-Japanese Friendship Association
With the support of the European Integration Fund of the European Union.
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