About the project

This summer, we entered into a small-scale partnership with EDUCULT (Austria) when we received funding for an Erasmus+ project ‘Young Thespians: Young Performing Arts Education for All!’.

Over the course of the next 16 months, both partners will combine their experience and expertise in research and performing arts respectively, to support the diversity and inclusion of youth, particularly those with fewer opportunities due to ethnicity, race, language, gender, and religion, through performing arts education. The partners will work closely with both youths, and art educators, social workers, and artists working closely with them to conduct a Needs Assessment, which will form the baseline and provide evidence from the field directly from practitioners and youth representatives on issues surrounding marginalization in performing arts.

The research conducted here will contribute directly to formulating the second result – a Toolkit for Inclusion and Diversity. It will be developed for youth, theatre practitioners, and art educators, and will consist of techniques, tools, and recommendations to address the need for diversity and inclusion in theatre and performing arts in both Iceland and Austria.

The project will conclude with pilot courses held in Reykjavík, and in Vienna with the support of associated partner Musisches Zentrum Wien (MZW), where the practical use of the toolkit will be introduced to its future users.