Environmental Projects, Forum-Theatre Plays and Exhibitions: Projects Supported in 2008

An exhibition by Blaumeier Art Studio entitled „Von Häfen, Schiffen und viel Meer“ (“Tales from Ports, Ships and a lot more/lots of Sea”), was co-supported by the Foundation and shown in Latvia in summer 2008. Around 200 members meet at Blaumeier Art Studio; young and old, more or less challenged, mentally hurt and “psychiatricized” people, lay and professional. They have been meeting regularly since 1985, creating art in the form of painting, theatre plays, theatre masks, mask play and music. The exhibition shown in Latvia encompassed 80 paintings and graphics, 65 photographs, 10 figureheads made of poplar wood as well as 10 prose-texts created by 30 challenged and less-challenged artists from the cities of Bremen and Riga. Showing the high level of artistry was of prior importance. Thus, there was no room left for visitors to have a bias towards the exhibited artifacts. What made this exhibition extraordinary was the fact that all artifacts were presented equal, no matter if the artist was a more challenged or a less challenged one.

Giving young people the opportunity to get to know Jewish life in Bremen through a vivid exhibition was (and still is) the goal of the Association Rosenak-Haus that compiled a touring exhibition titled: “Bremen-Students in the Footsteps of Jewish Parish Life”. Student groups, with the help of the Threshold Foundation, researched the life stories of Jewish citizens from Bremen and compiled their findings on posters. Several people, whose life stories were being portrayed in the exhibition, met with the students and gave personal accounts of their lived experiences: “One gets a different vantage point getting to know someone who actually experienced all this”, states one of the students, summing up her experience during the project.

IRSH-organization, based in the city of Shkodra in northwestern Albania, had been a partner of the Foundation for a couple of years and, at that time, carried out an environmental program for young people. Environmentalism does not get much public attention in Albania so far. Seminars for young people held by IRSH, with the support of the Threshold Foundation,  aimed at instilling a feeling of respect towards nature as well as showing them applicable methods that could be used by every individual to protect nature. Furthermore, IRSH-trainings conveyed the importance of building networks in order to achieve ones goals. Thus, these seminars are also a way of strengthening civil society in Albania.

RAND (Regional Address for Non-Violent Action) is a Croatian organization promoting non-violence as a philosophy and a way of life. With the help of the Threshold Foundation, a regional interreligious peace conference was organized for the second time in October 2008: "Through Building Peace, We Praise God – Non-Violence is the Way to Peaceful Coexistence".

The conference, held in Blagaj near Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, was attended by 45 people of different religious backgrounds and from different countries: Christians (Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants) and Muslims from Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Croatia.

Commenting on the conference, participants wrote: "We succeeded in making these encounters possible in a safe environment – a space in which we felt like equals and being accepted by others, despite our differences. This also enabled us to explore, discover and practice non-violence as a (personal) attitude towards life as well as a strategy of peace work. Part of the group was trained in methods of peace work; another part of the group deepened its theological knowledge that encouraged them to continue their social engagement. We have just begun to foster interreligious dialogue in our societies, where the majority of followers of different faiths is not familiar with interreligious and ecumenical events or even fears and distrust such events. We still witness nationalistic and hateful outbursts towards other ethnic and religious groups. Some people consider these outbursts to be inherently related to religion. Until now, Church-representatives and followers have not made enough effort to counter this notion and publicly criticize those outbursts.

Our goal is reliability, perseverance and visibility in order to challenge the social status quo and push for change. We do not know how this change will look like since this is ultimately shaped by all members of society, not only by us. We know, this process will take long and conflicts may arise. We want to get prepared and strengthen ourselves for it."

Citizens of Minden, Westphalia-region, jointly set up a "One-World Village" (Eine-Welt-Dorf), which is an intercultural art- and architectural-project. Since 2002, more than 800 students and about 100 adults from 13 different schools participated in building this special place of learning at the school yard of One-World-School (Eine-Welt-Schule) in the upper old town of Minden. This project is called "India is situated just behind the school – sustainable learning in the One-World-Village" and helps to awaken interest in and understanding of other cultures. Furthermore, it supports development-projects and sensitizes young people to adopt a careful approach to nature. The project saw a very broad and lively participation. This made continuous educational training and supervision necessary, which was supported by the Threshold Foundation.

The Center for Children’s Theatre Development in Prishtina, Kosovo, is a small organization that provides children and adolescents access to theatre play and dramaturgy.  The center is dedicated to heal the traumatic consequences of war-experiences through its socio-cultural projects. Furthermore, the center aims at triggering debates about current societal problems. In cooperation with the peace-work organization Friedenskreis Halle, the center’s team participated in further trainings on forum theatre, a method of peace education. These were co-supported by the Threshold Foundation.

In the Forum theatre method, the audience discusses alternative plots and options of action with regard to the conflict portrayed in the play. Actresses and actors challenge the audience to deal with the conflict, not to give in and encourage them to keep looking for alternatives of action. The actors and actresses visualize possible effects of the respective alternative ideas suggested by the audience, consequently leading to new ideas and points of view.