Here they are! Ambitious, brave, creative - 13 young people, full of energy and ideas - our TAKE OVER Youth Board.
They will take over our Theatre, they will work with us during 2 years. They will create their own artistic event, using our support and experience. We will learn their perspective in understanding art and theatre.
The project Take Over: “Seeing young audiences through young people’s eyes” gathers British Council (UK), Bios (Greece), Chorea Theatre (Poland), Zaduzbina Ilije M. Kolarca (Serbia – “Kolarac”), and Teatro Limonaia (Italy), all organisations active in performing arts, driven by a strong desire to connect or re-connect with young adults (age 18-25) in an effort to engage with a wider and more diverse audience. During the project, the partners will re-imagine artistic programmes from the point of view of younger generations, making a lasting impact on staff and how they involve, engage with and attract young audiences as well as an eye-opening and learning experience for the young participants.
The project proposes an innovative demand-led audience development model, establishing a Youth Board in four arts organisations in order to include young people’s voices and opinions in artistic programmes and visions. Throughout the creation of the Youth Board and the Take Over events in Greece, Poland, Serbia and Italy, partners’ staff will receive training and learn from other European experiences, notably from the UK and Finland. This will help them to better understand how to engage with young people through these innovative techniques. In parallel, the young people participating in the Youth Board will embark into a long term learning experience that will give them a unique insight of the European cultural market and equip them with new skills. In four participating countries, the Youth Board will be in charge of curating and producing “Take Over events”, as a carte blanche for them to create an offer that reflects their generation’s cultural aspirations.
The work plan includes twenty activities: a study visit, participatory workshops, a baseline and impact survey, a European seminar, series of Youth Board sessions, a mentoring scheme, four bespoke Take Over events, an external evaluation, one final conference, one online platform complemented by local communication strategies.
The results will be the promotion of a more inclusive and upstream approach of Young Audience Development in the European performing arts sector, a blueprint for Arts professionals to re-think their programmes and services from the perspective of their audience, a new generation of cultural players equipped with new skills and a unique insight of the European cultural market.
CHOREA TAKE OVER YOUTH BOARD:
Aleksandra Ziomek
(…) Student of Lodz University of Technology, dedicated to sport and dance for many years. I’m trying to make the most of my time watching Polish movies, going to the concerts and reading modern literature between her work and studies. I’m a local patriot in love with the architecture of Lodz and street art (…)
Alicja Tranda
For a couple of years I unsuccessfully try not to dance and sing. When I do not move – I fall asleep, when I do not sing for a long time – I become a little spiritless. I need theatre and I want theatre to need me. Architectural studies changed my perception so that you can meet me while I’m looking for some interesting detail in seemingly bare walls (...).
Anna Maszewska
I am a mixture of crazy ideas and self-discipline. I mask my exuberant ambition with perfectionism. I study very unprofitable subject, which causes me great joy (...). I am master of diplomacy. I admire people whose ideas enrapture me. In spite of all, I am in love with an “ugly” city – Lodz. I hate being late. I am allergic to cats and pollens. I always forget about all possible anniversaries. When I will be old, I plan to sail my boat across the Finnish lakes dressed in thick sweater.
Basia Cieślewicz
I love theatre and dance and that is why I took part in Take Over. I am good at getting along with people. However, I often become secretive and talk without words. I like to share what I can with others and make people happy. I would like to help people see how big their potentials are. I would like for emotional disrobing to inspire people to think.
Damian Kukiałka
I am a person full of energy and ambition. That is the reason “I am human, I consider nothing human alien to me." I believe that everyone should get an impulse from life. I always try to look at things from a different perspective, which makes me certain of the decisions I've made. I do everything to make my dreams come true and I am rarely lead by the words of others. I love trying new things that fill me with inimitable and unusual experiences.
Łukasz Kin
An ASP graduate, improviser, icons’ painter who is cheerful, spontaneous, and maybe even a little crazy. Recently I've been called ... a human with a light spirit, keenly reacting to breezes of Ghost. Important thoughts are with me: "Be free like a bird" and “In perspective of the world, of an icon or a human, be like a child." I dream about being like a child, but not becoming infantile, since those are two different things. I move a lot and I try to move others.
Barbara Malinka
Highlander. Slavic mythology and herbal medicine amateur. Discovering way in the performance. My individual art is a scenery of storytelling, ilustation, costumes and set design. I’m now a graduate at Academy of Art in Lodz, Poland. You can explore my individual work at: www.facebook.com/malina
Marta Mruk
(...) I am a perfectionist and since I became aware of that, life is a lot easier. I like loughing very much. Considering my desire to reach perfection in every inch, working with me is not easy, nevertheless effective(...).I study English Philology but deep down in my soul, I dream about putting a tutu on, running on a stage and being a model for Degas. I tend to be crazy and my friends claim I am high off life. I love to sing. Creating things gives me pleasure. I often take up new challenges which make my life unstable but adventurous. I would not change anything.
Remigiusz Pilarczyk
(...) At the theatre I am trying to set difficult, uncomfortable questions. It not always must be nicely. In particular fascinates me a dark side of each of us. Some kind of evil and just human defects. I believe in the extraordinary power of the theatre. I believe into his influence on people. Also important is a real team. Team wherein everyone want to do one's best. It's only way to create something special, something interesting, something real. And of course in theater is no place to the full democracy, but final effect should be a result of the work of everyone.
Ewa Otomańska
I’m a brand new graduate of the theatre and film class in high school in Lodz. I love new challenges, finding and overcoming the boundaries brings her the greatest satisfaction. Movement is her way to communicate emotions in the most real and human way. I see theatre as a place for the manifesto and a space to meet another man. Above all, I appreciate humility values, freedom, honesty and chocolate.
Karolina Szaturska
My name is Karolina and I can’t live without: coffee, chocolate and tomatoes, art, music and singing, friendship, gratitude and joy.I like myths and legends from traditional cultures and ornaments on everything from Romanian architecture to a piece of cloth – I see stories in them as well…!My grandfather is a craftsman and I love every piece of hand-made stuff. When I need to think something over, I seek for some nature.When I need to t a k e something over, I sing up for the project. And here’s the first thing we’ve all got in common, I think!
Marta Kaczmarek
I love theater. I love dancing. I do not like sitting in one place. And I hate to talk about myself. "This man was never happy if he has not worked on something: laziness and idleness meant death for him."- Neil Gaiman
Piotr Fraszczyński
I am a welder loving theater. Apart from the passion to the theatre I deal with various forms of movement. I have trained boxing and Muay Thai for three years. I train contemporary dance, contact improvisation and Argentine tango (…).
