​This is the second year of our work on the Erasmus + partnership project Get Close to Opera, run by the highly efficient Matera Hub in the region of Basilicata Italy.  Excellent partners in European Network of Migrant Women, ESART, RESEO, University of Patras, Compagnie Teatrale L’Albero and us, where we have met in Brussels, Patras, Greece and Matera, Italy. 
​
We have explored for nearly two years the enigma that is informal arts education and its use as probably the most important tool we have to develop communication between humanity and our widely differing cultures.
 
GCTO is a research project, an experiment and a way of exploring informal arts education, in all its variety, including using Howard Gardener’s Multiple Intelligence Theory.  A fascinating look at how each human being has multiple ways of learning; also see Sir Ken Robinson. If we recognise and respond in 
more sensitive ways to our different intelligences then education can be much richer and more satisfying, rather than the more formal and one size fits all approach that most learning systems still use. MIT has been around for several decades and there are now many other learning theories and tools to resource but it has been an thought-provoking exploration.
 
The project aims to start a community of people that rethink cultural buildings including opera houses as spaces of social innovation, inclusion, cultural exchange and learning, for everyone.  At the heart of this exploration is how do we find a way to share our cultures with the new citizens that are arriving in our countries and not insist that they are only included in our own EU-based values.

​After much discussion we decided to explore what we called, A Conversation on Portland in Dorset. A 2 day exploration of how to start an informal arts project, who with and how to make it as inclusive and democratic as possible. Where to start? Who is part of this conversation?  How to use the arts in the community, who leads, who decides and what can we achieve in the long term. How can working through the arts make deep changes in our society possible?
 
We were welcomed to Portland by the arts and cultural organisation, b-side, who run an biennial arts festival on the island and Friends of b-side, volunteers and residents who support the work of the organisation.
 
Portland was  chosen not just because of its poverty or natural history/landscape, but because b-side already extend the philosophy and practice of participation and co-creation into their work as an arts organisation and are truly embedded and committed to the island as well as b-side’s openness to bringing people from the local community into the organisation. Invaluable contributions were given by Friends of b-side, volunteers on the island who help support the festival.  We would like to thank Tanja, Gina, Charlie, Hazel, Sally and Molly for their involvement, support and welcome.
 
Portland has many challenges including over 40% of its children are below the poverty line. At the same time it is a place of wild beauty and legendary paths, a towering Victorian prison and soaring stones and sculptures.

We invited a rich mixture of people and were delighted to welcome so many from Dorset Council, The Arts Development Company, the British Red Cross, The Shire Hall, Museum of Justice, The Centre for Seldom Heard Voices at Bournemouth University, Hearts and Dreams, an organisation working with young refugees and displaced people, Def-Explorer, Sir John Colfox School and St. Mary’s Primary School, several artists, young producers and even an Erasmus intern from Nimes in France.

The work was underpinned by the participation of Opera Circus in the Structured Dialogue process as part of Voices of Culture in Brussels in 2018. Social inclusion in 2018 https://voicesofculture.eu/2019/05/16/social-inclusion-partnering-with-other-sectors-2/and then reading the report of Dialogue on the Inclusion of Refugees and Migrants through Culture in 2015 https://voicesofculture.eu/2019/05/16/the-inclusion-of-refugees-migrants-through-culture-2/

We learnt a great deal from Foteini Galanopoulou about disability awareness, inclusive practices and creating barrier-free processes. An arts and cultural project manager, and access advisor, working in disability-led art companies and with independent disabled artists as a freelance producer. (http://www.foteinig.net/about-2/)
She delivered the session on accessibility during the training week in Matera, Italy (February 2019), but sadly couldn’t be with us in Portland.
More information about the training week earlier this year can be found on the GCTO web site.  ​

We will be writing a full report and sharing our conversations and views on co-creation and community involvement.

 A brief summary of the two days conversation. Thank you to Molly Scarborough for the notes. We are working on a more detailed report to share with everyone.
 
SUMMARY OF 31ST JULY (AS TOLD ON 1ST AUGUST) 

• Co-creation needs to be fully inclusive. It needs to include people in the conversation before the project is pitched / decided. 
• Conversations need to happen around barriers with participants before the project has started 
• Allow participants to have more control / power in the project 
• Go to where people are. Organisations should step outside of their comfort zone.
• Sometimes projects come and go – this isn’t helpful. Leaving doesn’t help anybody. Projects need to be sustained and have sustained contact with participants / co-creators. Permanent residence. 

Some identified issues / conversation points on the Island: 

• A lot of zero-hour contracts and seasonal jobs 
• Reliance on food banks in the area
• Prisons 
• The education system isn’t up to par 

How can the arts be used to give people a voice or share stories?

• Portland is often overshadowed by Weymouth 
• The new council might give Portland more of a say 
• The community needs to come together to document the social history
• We need to collect and tell stories from now. Use story telling. 
• Create things people can relate and engage with 
• Open up conversations, always 
• We need to step outside of threatening buildings 
• The Spirit of Portland documents and tells the story of the old Portland (stone masonry & fishing) not the new and current 
• Weymouth & Portland should establish a stronger relationship as the borough is separated from the rest of Dorset. Funding stops at the ridgeway. We’re under the ridgeway. 
• Communities are able to create quality art (who says what is and isn’t quality art?) 
• How much is created for community? How much is created for tourism? Creation vs consumption 
• “The lights in Weymouth are for tourists. Not for the local communities or their quality of life 
• Town Council Consultations don’t work. The council doesn’t seem to listen. What can we do instead? 
• Communities need to know their place better - 
  “Know about your place better then you can be filled with pride” 
• “The stories never stop coming and they never remain the same” 

1st AUGUST
When do organisations need to step aside? 
There needs to be opportunity for audience to reflect openly. Not answering prescribed questions. 
Organisations need to allow more time to reflect and adapt. Evaluation of projects could lead to doing it differently – like collaborations. Organisations shouldn’t step aside they should be persistent. Organisations should continue to utilise their contacts and resources but ensure they are working in a way that is helpful to participants / co-creators. 
Organisations / artists need to mindful and not infiltrate a world that they shouldn’t. Be mindful and aware of your own intentions. 
Be willing to listen, learn and understand.
Up/increase-mentorship 
How do organisations create sustained projects that do not overwork or exploit the participants? 
How do arts organisations need to go outside their comfort zone / location to engage new people?

• Do the non-involved want to be found? 
• Know boundaries 
• Don’t group people together and label them as ‘bame’ etc… allow people to participate because of themselves, their interests, not their labels 
• Let individuals tell their own story 
• Allow individuals to have their own experience, recognise it and celebrate it 

Creative thinking leads you to a new lifestyle. Once you’ve done it once, you know it is possible. You can do it again. 
SUMMARY OF CONVERSATIONS
Challenges = poverty, accessibility (buses etc), education 
Trust. Need to take time to understand a community. Work with them and build trust. 
Using arts as a vehicle for communication. 
Include people right from the beginning. 

We are ​working in a light white space in the Gymnasium (academic high school) of Sarajevo’s School of Science and Technology and linked to their Film Academy.  The weather has been stifling and airless. Yesterday the thunderstorm broke the atmosphere and today it’s fresher, although still hot.
 
In the room there are 14 of us, mostly. 7 people making short documentaries, Robert Golden film maker and photographer sharing his learning and experience; Tina Ellen Lee, artistic director of Opera Circus and managing the project; Tiffany Fairey and Henry Redwood participating and researching the process with King's College University, London and the Changing the Story project.  
 
Two of the young people are part of the digital and communications team, Rory Newbery and Francesco Pipparelli.
Two more, based in Bucharest, Irina Maria Ganescu, designer and photographer and Marko Stankovic, web designer.
Our project manager is Melisa H. Mehmedovic, with Lamia Sabic, film maker and mentor. Lamia is making a documentary with her own personal take on the working process.
 
The people making the documentaries range in age from 19 – 27 and come from a variety of backgrounds and educations…degrees in International Economics, one applying to study a degree in Philosophy, English and English Literature, others have completed degrees in Dramaturgy, Economics and Social Sciences, Film Studies, Politics, Arabic Studies and Communications, some with experiences and skills in theatre and other art forms.

We are on the 4th day and Robert isn’t teaching film technique as such, but using mind-mapping; why be a film-maker? The intersection between art and social commitment; why make a film; editing and eventually how to get people to see your film. 

We have been lucky to have Bojan Mijatovic from the Film Academy talking about cameras and some basic rules of film making.  Nikola Simic, an activist for the LGBTQ movement in BiH and later in the week Lejla Dedic, Senior Producer from Al Jazeera, BiH. 
 
There’s a new name for this work together, Izazov! Now the project is owned more by equally by everyone in the room and not just a title quickly thought up for a grant application.   In English this word means Dare, Challenge. Provocation or Provoke....the subtitle Change is a Creative Moment.
Now it feels a bit more real.
 
What’s always exciting is to create a more open working space of trust, kindness and freedom and watching those creative moments emerge. Change begins to happen.

More information on Changing the Story can be found here.  More information soon. Photos: Robert Golden

With thanks to partners Sarajevo School of Science and Technology and Film Academy, King's College, Leeds University, Arts and Humanities Research Council, Humanity in Action, Global Challenge Research Fund, The Complete Freedom of Truth through Opera Circus. 

Changing The Story is a four-year international, multi-disciplinary project which supports the building of inclusive civil societies with, and for, young people in 5 post-conflict countries. It is a collaborative project between universities, INGOs, artists, grassroots civil society organisations and young people across the world. The countries are South Africa, Rwanda, Columbia, Cambodia and Kosovo.

Opera Circus was invited as artists in residence to take part in the first series of workshops in Prishtina in September 2018. This was followed by a successful bid to develop the practical part of a youth arts research project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This will involve working with a group of young film makers from across BiH with the generous support of the Film Academy of the Sarajevo School of Science and Technology through Dr. Jasmin Hasic alongside Dr. Tiffany Fairey of the University of Arts, London and Dr. Henry Redwood of Kings College, London.

​Robert Golden will be leading the practical training through the understanding of story telling in film as well as contributing to some of the learning around activism.  Robert is not only an international photographer and film maker but has worked throughout his life against racism and injustice.  Robert's work will be seen at the Black Cultural Archives Gallery in Brixton, London from June 21st as part of the Commemoration of the Windrush Generation and their important contribution to the development of the UK after the Second World War.

​TCFT youth leaders are developing the communication strategy (Francesco Pipparelli) and the web design and social media content (Marko Stankovic and Irena Maria Ganescu.)

Melisa Mehmedovic is the Project Leader and Lamia Sabic will be assisting Robert as a young film maker and mentor throughout the whole process. Both will be available to contact via Slack shortly.

​Dr Jasmin Hasic also leads the NGO Humanity in Action  which is an international educational organisation.
They aim to educate, inspire and connect a global network of students, young professionals and established leaders committed to promoting human rights, diversity and active citizenship—in their own communities and around the world.

Opera Circus has raised funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund for this collaborative project reflecting on WW1 through song, music, film and dance.  We are waiting for our permission to start to arrive and then the project will run from this month to March 2019.  Bridport Youth Dance, Home in Bridport, David Powell, Bridport Town Council, Robert Golden, Bridport Arts Centre are working together towards a performance at BAC on 4th November, 10th November and then dance from Bridport Youth Dance in March 2019. More information soon.  Thanks to Bridport Town Council for their support.

For the last 5 months Opera Circus has been involved in a process called Structured Dialogue through the Voices of Culture project led by The Goethe Institute in Brussels and the European Commission.  The question really was how can the EU combat the Nationalism and Fascism that is rising in Europe and can the arts and culture help? They also wanted to know what a variety of organisations thought about this question from those that represented the disabled, worked in prisons and hospitals, the arts, employment and academia.  The document is only a work in progress of course but the discussions were good, the commitment from the editorial team profound and the result, useful.  It doesn't have all the answers but is a good addition to the challenges that are at present not being deal with in particular all the migrant people who are looking for new countries to live in.  Photograph: Robert Golden

The photograph describes the many ages of the people who take part in the TCFT process, the care of mentoring and support of the young people by generous and experienced artists and the multiplicity of cultures with whom we work. You can see the photographic gallery and comments about this process with Glyndebourne, Crisis Classroom and Battle Festival here including the link to The Giufa Project web site.

The core partnership team are meeting at the beginning of October to talk about how the process can move forward, so more news soon.

​At the moment we are part of a very special company of people being hosted by Battle Abbey School in the grounds of the ruins of the glorious Battle Abbey in Battle, East Sussex. For those who aren’t aware, this is the site of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 where England lost to the French Norman army and our culture and language changed. 
 
Our project is called The Giufa Project, the roots of which are in The Complete Freedom of Truth programme and our work with the organisation Arrischianti in Sarteano, Italy in April 2017.  
 
Laura Fatini, writer and theatre director, had been exploring the character and stories of Giufa for over 4 years and the ideas came together whilst we were working as part of  one of the TCFT programmes funded by Erasmus, Arts Council England amongst others.  Music has been created by Sara Ross, composer from Lisbon, Portugal and a series of workshops, stories, performances have led to our ten days together.
 
Glyndebourne is a long established opera company set in the beautiful countryside around Lewes in Sussex, South England. Glyndebourne has a history of high quality participation and education work and two out of every three years the company commission a main stage opera for Glyndebourne Youth Opera and a Community Opera Commission as well as smaller scale works.

​Last year a new opera called Belongings was commissioned and produced by Glyndebourne, with music by the composer Lewis Murphy, a young artist in residence with Glyndebourne. The libretto was written by Laura Attridge.
​The opera explored the experiences of young people forced by war to flee their homes. At that time, in 2016, TCFT began looking at our concerns for young refugees and migrants and Lewis and Laura both joined the TCFT programme at Bournemouth University in Dorset and in Sarteano, Italy.
 
A partnership began with Glyndebourne,  Opera Circus, Arrischianti in Sarteano, Urban Playground Team, Project Art Works, Crisis Classroom, a charity built to provide education and learning for refugees as well as their hosts. and with a number of artists with great facilitation experience, those who had a great deal of TCFT experience and those who were new to the process. These include Lucy Bradley, Annis Joslin, Darren Abrahams, Omar Shahryar, Judith Coleman, Alister O’Loughlin, Laura Fatini, Cedoux Kadima, Tim Corrigan and Tom, Rosie Russell, Susan Bisatt and Robert Golden. The producing team is led by Chris Stones from Glyndebourne, Tina Ellen Lee from Opera Circus, Sally Lampitt from Battle Festival with support from Amanda Downes, Rory Newbery and many others. Thanks to Sosi, Dave, Amanda and James for the great food from  https://www.hohcharity.co.uk

​With the support of Battle Festival and the town, the school and Glyndebourne’s vision we are now in the school and town creating new artistic work, learning about each other’s cultures and lives and living in an environment of inclusion, equality and inspiration.
 
Other people keep joining us, youth leaders who have been with TCFT for many years and now help deliver these projects and their own, other artists and facilitators, our mentors and friends. 
 
On Saturday 25th, Urban Playground Team, led by Alister O’Loughlin, will be sharing some new work in progress as part of the Journey’s Dance Festival at 1pm and 2pm on Abbey Green in the middle of Battle. http://18hours.org.uk/journeys-2018/
 
On the 29th and 30th there are summer workshops for 9 – 13 year olds who will participate in the sharing of the work on the 30th.
https://battlefestival.co.uk/events/2018/the-giufa-project-summer-workshops-for-9-13-year-olds
 
On Thursday 30th August at around 5pm we will be sharing the work we have created over the 10 days we have been together in and around the town of Battle and in the Battle Abbey grounds themselves.  More information on this in the next few days.
 
On 20th October The Giufa Project will be shared again at Battle Abbey from 18.00 – 20.00.
 
A sharing of some of the work and experiences will also be held in Bridport, West Dorset on the 24th, 25th and 26th October, to be confirmed.
 
The Giufa/TCFT project will continue in 2019 so do keep an eye on any of our web sites and social media pages.
 
 All photographs and film on this project is by Robert Golden
 
 
 

The last two years can only be described as exquisite pain, that place you strive for when creating art that drowns you in a pit of despair and then makes you realise that you have understood something intangible, it might be small, but your life changes. 

We have worked towards a new way of delivering work, building different kinds of partnerships and raising funding in new ways.  We have sought opportunities in Europe as our government drives us away from the natural tendency of artists to ignore borders, both political and intellectual.  We hope that all this struggle will produce a sustainable company that has a much more horizontal way of working with a larger ensemble taking part and feeding into the way we adapt and change our processes. We started in 1991 and Opera Circus has had many phases of its life, changes made with so much inspiration from artists and others with whom we work and surviving National and Global challenges.

TCFT, an Opera Circus long term project, has taught everyone a huge amount and its reach has affected our performance work as well as our relationships. Thank you to everyone who has been part of the journey to date and to all those who have committed themselves to our future. (See more information below)

We are working on several major programmes including co-partnering with Teatro L'Albero in Matera and Senza Spine in Bologna through the Fondazione of Matera 2019, Italy's City of Culture next year. We are working together to create a new collaborative community opera, called The Silent City.  Get Close to Opera, an Erasmus + research project run by Matera Hub looking at informal education in opera with Belgium, Greece, Spain, Italy and the UK. The Giufa Project with Glyndebourne Education, Battle Festival, Arrischianti, Italy, Setubal Festival of Music, Portugal and Crisis Classroom, using the TCFT process to look at new ways of working with the arts and young people, in particular the exploration of inclusion and migration.

We are part of the working pilot process with Leeds and Bournemouth University called Changing the Story. More information on this below. 

The Artistic Director, Tina Ellen Lee, has been working with some of the advocates for the greater acknowledgement of Culture and the Arts in Europe, in particular Culture Action Europe, in Rome as part of Belonging and Becoming December 2017, in February 2018 at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on The Artist as Citizen and in Brussels in April 2018 looking at Social Inclusion in the EU with Voices of Culture. In September 2017 the Discussion Document will be delivered and shared widely...it will be on this web page.

​Making progress through dialogue is so much slower than dictatorship but we have noticed that changes are being made from our first meeting with Salzburg Global Seminars in 2014, "Building Peace Through the Arts" to the workshop led by Alain Ruche with the European External Services in Brussels. 

There is news about Naciketa, the beautiful new opera with music by Nigel Osborne and poet/writer Ariel Dorfman. We are waiting for a final confirmation before we launch the public journey to performances in 2020.  More soon - some information on the Naciketa page on this web site.

There is a new web site on its way, but until we have the thinking and funding in place, we will be using this blog to share our progress this year.

Opera Circus has been in the privileged position of having the photographer and film maker Robert Golden record most of its work since 1991.  An archive of beautiful imagery and storytelling that has partly made us who we are today.  Robert has also been at the core of the artist/facilitators team, teaching film making, photography and the art of story telling through images.  He has helped to deepen the political thinking in TCFT and become a mentor to numbers of young artists. If you scroll down on this blog page you will find our Vimeo Gallery which contains most of the films made about the work of the company.   RobertGoldenPictures

​ TCFT, aka The Complete Freedom of Truth is a project originated by Opera Circus. The work grew out of Opera Circus' collaboration with the British composer Nigel Osborne which started in 2014, originally in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia but also in the town of Bridport, West Dorset where Opera Circus is based. It is one of many projects run by Opera Circus, but we have realised TCFT has grown to be so successful that many people think it is an organisation  in itself, maybe it will be one day. 

Thanks to the organisations who have contributed in the last couple of years to the TCFT 2015 - 2017 process, VBC, Romania, Teater Mimart, Serbia, Youth Council Srebrenica, Bosnia, Diverse City, Dorset, UK, Arts Development Company, Dorset, UK, the Comune di Sarteano, Italy, Setubal Music Festival Portugal, University of Bournemouth UK, Urban Playground Team, UK, SLYNCS, Blackburn UK, Besso and Company, Georgia and Education:IPOW, University of Manchester UK.  Partnerships are always a challenge and we learn as we progress but without everyone's support and input, TCFT would not be the process it is today.

The UK government may have chosen to leave the European Union but I don't think British Artists will be.  We are very lucky to have European partners who believe in movement and exchange of artistry and who don't recognise political and national borders.  Art thrives across borders and the richness of cultural exchange and the understanding it brings of how much we all have to share, creates the world we want to live and work in.

So far in 2018
February 12 - 16. We ran a week long TCFT in Bridport, West Dorset.  We try and do this every year either in the February and/or October half terms inviting young participants from across Dorset including Bournemouth and from some of our partner organisations, Young People Insight in Croydon, SLYNCS in Blackburn, Activate with Remix and Face Forward from The Arts Development Company.  With thanks to Bridport Arts Centre, Bridport Town Council , West Dorset District Council , Awards for All, Alice Ellen Cooper Dean Charitable Foundation and the people of Bridport who so generously helped to make this week such a success including Evie Vergano, organic local chef and caterer.

The artists who worked with us included Alex Gichohi, Louise Katerega, Louisa Adjoa Parker, Ricky Romain, Robert Golden, Rachael Veazey, Rosie Russell, ExileArts, River, Susan Bisatt, Shaniqua Benjamin and with thanks to Francesco Pipparelli and Rory Newbery.

We were happy to welcome Albert Heta Artist and Director of Stacion Cultural Centre in Pristina, Kosovo celebrating the start of Changing the Story, a Leeds and Bournemouth University led Arts and Humanities Research Council Project. Opera Circus hopes to be able to participate in this 4 year, 5 country project with the work in Kosovo. Thanks to Dr Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers, Principal Academic at Bournemouth University, Anthropology and Sociology and part of the Seldom Heard Voices Project at BU.

WHAT IS GET CLOSE TO OPERA ABOUT?
The GET CLOSE TO OPERA project will develop and promote inclusive and multicultural arts education and training programmes seeking to support best practice in migrant and refugee contexts. The training methodology will use Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory and focus on Opera as the delivery artform.

GET CLOSE TO OPERA brings together a partnership of organisations from across Europe - Materahub (Italy), Teatro L’Albero (Italy), Opera Circus (UK), Fundacio Privada Promocio d’Escoles (Spain), University of Patras (Greece), European Network of Migrant Women (Belgium) and RESEO (Belgium) and RESEO, the International Association for Higher Education in Opera and Dance.

GET CLOSE TO OPERA is inspired by opera as an artform that embraces multiple languages and engages its audiences emotionally through music. We believe that through opera we can unleash the potential to reach across barriers, creatively communicate, and explore what we have in common.

GET CLOSE TO OPERA recognises the wide range of activity that has already been created in this context, and seeks to engage with opera houses, opera companies, singers, musicians, dancers, actors, cultural mediators, facilitators and cultural practitioners working through the arts in migrant and refugee contexts, and educators interested in non-formal arts education. 

Over the next two years until 2019, we will develop and test with them a new methodology, exploring the opportunities that the Theory of Multiple Intelligence could contribute to informal education training and skills in Opera. After a preparatory research phase, we will design an innovative training programme for educators and trainers, which will take place in Matera (Italy) in 2019. We will then apply the methodology developed through a series of pilot actions involving migrants and refugees that will be carried out in Italy, Spain, Greece, Belgium and United Kingdom. MIT was named by Howard Gardner, more information here. multipleintelligencesoasis.org

We understand that the level of informal education in the arts is at a different stage of progress in different countries. Working with our partners across Europe we will bring together our learning and the opportunities for the advancement of formal education in the arts in each country.

We will share our experience and our tools on an online platform open with all those who wish to experiment and share the GET CLOSE TO OPERA research and resulting methodology throughout Europe.

Opera Circus will be approaching facilitators and cultural practitioners from their wide network to assist with the research and with our partners and organisations in this field, explore what is available to learn from, and share within, this sector.

Further information from the Get Close to Opera web site.  Please get in touch with Opera Circus on admin@operacircus.co.uk if you would like to participate in the general survey. The survey link will be sent out on the morning of the 8th January 2018.

https://www.getclosetoopera.eu