‘Inside Out’, British Council Athens

HS Projects was invited by British Council, Athens and the Hellenic Migration Policy Institute (IMEPO) to participate in ‘Inside Out’, a two day conference in March 2006, part of an ‘Arts and Intergration’ initiative, examining ways arts can contribute to urban regeneration and undoing social exclusion in Greece and the UK.

For ‘Inside Out’ we delivered a series of workshops on how to commission, design and manage artist led workshops, exploring issues of integration and communication between different community and ethnic groups as well as issues of identity and representation. Our approach was that of a ‘Master Class’ where the conference participants were ‘walked’ through the structure of a typical example of a visual arts workshop programme themselves. The approach was designed to make it easier for them to implement a workshop programme when working wtih socially marginalised groups, especially with children and young adults, with the aim of encouraging self-esteem and improved self-image leading to greater integration.

At the end of each session there was a discussion to help crystallise the results, this was accompanied with information sheets.