The partnership as a team consider that those interviews are also really value and worth to be shared among a wider audience, so here you are the first of the two videos with an extended explanation of the project’s steps and partners’ missions.

First part:

Second part (coming soon)

Please, have a look at this general view of the AMM aims:

And here you are a short video about the AMM Wiki Space (the knowledge base, the collaborative platform for the professionals)

You can find them already posted and deeper explained in the AMM wiki space; General description + wiki instructional video

Our laboratories aim at testing the new ART MADE MAN (Grundtvig project, co-financed by EACEA) methodology which integrates dance movement therapy, art therapy and craft techniques for the empowerment of personal and technical skills.

It was so that our laboratories started on January 2012: a mixed group of migrant and refugee women. Some from East Europe, some from Africa and some… from Italy!

Our dance movement session, has been held by the therapist Elisabetta Forghieri, in her studio in the old town in Perugia.

Here below some photos from our 3^rd and 4^th sessions during which we had been working with new techniques allowing to analyze the group cohesion!

Everybody, at the end of the sessions, expressed her own feeling writing or telling to each other how they appreciated them!

Our group had to deal with different obstacles: we are not talking the same language and we have different backgrounds and cultures but the group had been able to improve the internal communication and integration and, for all, the laboratories represent an opportunity to create integration by sharing customs and traditions…

And to leave behind for 2 hours problems of everyday life!!!

4/5/6 in March 2012:  Art Made the project this time involves us in the fourth meeting to be held in Lithuania and more precisely in the second largest city in the country: Kaunas.

The event is scheduled for Sunday evening, but there aren’t planes that depart from Rome to Kaunas, we must first go to Vilnius, the capital and from there go by train, bus or taxi in Kaunas.
We decide to leave on Saturday and then to “acclimatize” to the cold of the Baltic countries taking the opportunity to see new scenery and meeting new traditions!
We expect curious fact typical markets with wonderful compositions of dried flowers and all kinds of food from fish, meat, cheese …. all strictly smoked.
We spend a wonderful day of frozen lakes and castles.
On Sunday we go to Kaunas, where we meet with all partners (BULGARIA, POLAND, SPAIN, ENGLAND, ITALY LITHUANIA and precisely) in the hotel.

The meeting this time is to monitor the progress of the project and especially, since in some countries involved have started dance workshops and art therapy, and had to tell the progress of the various experiences of each, also in view of achieving a handbook on ‘”An integrated approach to the inclusion of socio-professional” and in general the use of activities (the experimentations made to be organized and evaluated).

The meeting also aimed to explain the use of multimedia WIKI page where we add contributions to professional and occupational dance, arts and crafts therapy and trials we are doing through the project.

Of course part of the project including cultural exchanges, our partners Lithuanian guests were wonderful and they arranged for us delicious dinner of traditional cuisine, a trip in their unique museum (DEVIL’S MUSEUM), and folk dances of which … I have not seen that photo documentation … We were too busy dancing!

(There is also a video)

The project is progressing very well and is all the countries involved are successfully experimenting with dance, art and crafts with various groups (immigrants or disabled).

The next “step” will be to organize a day Held in Perugia to give to anyone who is interested in information and updates …

Brimming emotion from the very start, the kids arrived in their track suits, all very keen to begin this new experience. They chatted and outlined their expectations during the entire day…the excitement was tangible and the atmosphere very charged! As we got to the dance hall, Carolina, our teacher, was expecting us – we then began our activities by creating the collage we will need for our evaluation. Such collage is very useful in order to evaluate the state of mind we find ourselves in at the very time of us making it. Armed with newspapers, scissors, sticky tape and a piece of paper one cuts out what they like, what inspires them or something that means something to them at any rate, thus creating a drawing.

We began to dance very softly, introducing ourselves and getting to know each other via the movement of our body and the rhythm of our voices. Even though we were all a bit lost at the start, everyone was very open and happy (except maybe for Claudio, a bit hostile and diffident at first but always curious) to try out this new and dynamic way of being together.

Today’s the turn of musical instruments, a novelty that everyone welcomes with enthusiasm.
Claudio played guitar and had also brought his own personal plectrum from home. Everyone else mainly played percussion instruments, such as the triangle, the bongos, and tambourines, Roberto’s favourite.

The elastic rope with which we work this time is brilliant and we all have great fun, expressing our imagination and making great room for physical play.

Resting will be good for everyone!
At the end of this final session, we all sit in a circle and Carolina asks us to share with the group our favourite aspect of the experience.
SANDRO: “The best thing was being together in a marvellous, brilliant group.”

PAOLO:” I enjoyed being a warrior and the King Kong dance.”

ANNA:” It’s been a lovely experience, even though I found it hard going because of my handicap, I would have liked to be able to move, but I became more and more integrated as the week progressed.

FRANCA:” During these months of dance therapy I did not think of anything negative, as I normally do, and I found this experience therapeutic.”

SOFIA: ” I feel calmer and happier.”

ROBERTO: “This was a thrilling and exhilarating experience for me. I particularly enjoyed the ball of wool, the elastic rope, so colourful, the circle and the tambourine – I hope we will do this again.”

CLAUDIO: “I did not enjoy anything!!”…and then he cries

LORY: “Being together is what I enjoyed the most, I have always thought that the strength we have comes from doing everything together (disabled or not, without distinction) and sharing new experiences such as this one. Together we are strong.”

SILVIA: “The thing I most enjoyed was sharing this experience with others, being together, the feeling of lightness (especially from the hardships of the daily pressure) I had during and after the dance.”

SILVIA MACCHIONI: “I really enjoyed joining this group. It’s been very interesting.”

CAROLINA: “Great! This group is beautiful, strong, interesting and very, very close. Thank you.”
Such were everyone’s words. They give a very good picture of the new experience we shared together.

The target group is people with psychiatric disorders. All participants work very enthusiastic, collaborative and experience some new “techniques”. The sessions are led from the art therapists.

 One of the participants is Petya Bakalska likes very much art and she makes great efforts even after the sessions at home.

The great news is that Petya participates in the annual city art exhibition for young painters in Stara Zagora.

The exhibition will last 1 month in the city gallery. She exposes two pieces of art.

Sessions were organized in Vacational Therapy Workshop “Na Przedwiośniu” and were lead by therapist and trainers acquainted with integrated approach.   Beneficiaries of this workshop were mentally disabled people.

Soon after beginning of the session, participats starts to feel comfotable and full of cooperation.  Conducting of the scenarios for each sesion allows to create a bond between participats and trainers.

This cooperation was the key of fullfilling the main goal of Dance session – creating “the team”

Special pillows were very useful to some of the exercises. Exercises were conducted barefoot, but we supplied participants with thick socks in same color.

Some of the activities were lead in pairs…

Some gives a lot of fun and joy to participants.

It is expected to be a nice store of resources (documents, pictures, bibliographic references, videos,…), built under a collaborative and open system, where any professional willing to share relevant materials to help or inspire others can post, describe and organize them on his/her own.

Please, have a look at the site: https://artmademan.wikispaces.com/  (it is yet under construction but you can start getting familiarized with the wiki!)

During the Coordination meeting in Warsaw, all the members of the partnership could experiment different artistic methods and participated actively in different dynamics in order to be able to reproduce them later on with groups of beneficiaries at local level.

The feedback of all the participants was very positive and motivating, and the general feeling among the group was really nice. At this moment we are about of getting to know how the implementation of the mixed methodologies works in the field.

The agenda of the event, starting the 7th and finishing the 9th of October, counts on two different sections: the coordination part (to follow up the ongoing workpackages), and the workshops for the professionals who will be in charge of the AMM methodology’s implementation at national level. Those workshops will be focused on the handicrafts and on the dance therapy Technic.