Online discussion and meet up
For this 6th Culture Reset Stroud session we are focusing on looking at radical and fresh ways to put the power in the hands of young people to bring about real change in their lives and communities. We have chosen to focus on the incredible pioneering work of Marcus Faustini in Brazil and how his methodology has been adopted here in the UK.
We will show a video provocation by Marcus Faustini, inspirational Brazilian writer, theatre director, educator, filmmaker and cultural activist which was produced for the first Assembly for Culture Reset - on 20th July 2020. He is the mastermind behind the educational methodology “Agência de Redes Para Juventude” (Network for Youth Agency) which has transformed the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, and has now been adapted and adopted with partners across the UK. Marcus' live comments were translated by Paul Heritage, Director of People's Palace Projects.
(12.56 mins)
Twitter: @marcusfaustini
https://peoplespalaceprojects.org.uk/en/projects/the-agency/
“ Hope lives eternally in our hearts, we cannot do anything about it, thankfully. As long as there is something inside of us which is the core of our humanity, we are going to maintain hope against all evidence. Because all the evidence is really bleak. But we have no right to be empirical about it. Unlike the weather, which is independent of what we think about it, history is made by people who don’t a damn about predictions”
Yanis Varoufakis, Greek economist, academic, philosopher and politician
Marcus Faustini worked with lead UK partners Battersea Arts Centre and Contact Theatre to set up The Agency which provided support, advice from industry professionals and funding to develop young peoples passion into a project.
One of Contact Theatre’s 2016/17 Agency funded Projects; Console.Code aims to provide a space for young people in the territory to learn and to practice key computer programming skills, which can then be used to create software applications or hardware systems for their functionality or purely for fun!
https://contactmcr.com/
Marcus Faustini, a 43-year-old Carioca born and raised in Cezarão - the largest residential complex ever built for poor residents of Rio located in Santa Cruz, the West zone of the city - has a multi-faceted career as a writer, filmmaker, theater director, producer, educator and cultural activist. Faustini has been an important player in the cultural scene in Rio since 1998 and also had a significant role in the student movement, serving as vice- president of Rio's Student Association. He is the mastermind behind the educational methodology “Agência de Redes Para Juventude” (Network for Youth Agency) created to benefit youth and young adults living in "pacified" favelas of Rio de Janeiro, peripheries and other selected regions of the city. He is a weekly columnist at O GLOBO -one of the most important newspapers in Brazil - where he writes about culture, identity, behavior, access to the city and share possibilities for social development, integration and ideas for change. Some of the awards and public recognitions Marcus has received throughout the years include the "Make a Difference" award (2012), the Orilaxé Ruman Rights Award (2010), UK's Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Award (2012), and the Shell Theater Award (2012) for leading innovative work in Rio's Home Theater Festival.
The sessions are free to attend. Once you are booked you will be sent a Zoom Invite. Please book here by Monday 22nd February noon.
#CultureResetStroud Mondays - Pod Sessions
#CultureResetStroud is organised by SVA and Atelier Stroud. Small groups are invited to meet online to listen to inspirational provocations by international ‘Culture Reset’ arts activists, leaders and thinkers.
Each session will be made of a short film or podcast followed by a discussion in small breakout groups. The session will end by bringing all the participants back together to continue the discussion from a more local perspective.
Each session will last approx. 1.5 hours.
Listen here
Katharina Child (Atelier Stroud) and Jo Leahy (SVA) met on a sunny Sunday morning to discuss what Culture Reset is all about and how it connects to the work they are doing, the community of Stroud and international connections such as the upcoming Creative Bureaucracy Festival in Berlin.
This conversation is an introduction to a series of #CultureResetStroud discussion groups which will take place at Atelier Stroud, SVA and online.
What is Culture Reset?
Culture Reset is a UK wide practical rapid response programme to inspire more relevant and impactful cultural organisations and practices. Born out of the devastating impact of Covid-19 and inspired by the urgent need to accelerate change and respond to the experiences of a broader diversity of people, it provided expert support and dynamic stimulus for 192 arts and cultural producers, makers and directors across the UK over the summer of 2020
SVA
and #CultureResetStroud
Jo Leahy ( SVA), one of the participants of Culture Reset, engaged in critical discussions with artists, producers, theatre makers, operational managers, curators, artistic directors to build a body of research and network connections to help to find a way forward in finding some answers.
"Culture Reset and other initiatives like Culture Plan B (set up by David Jubb) have suddenly burst forward as result of the pandemic and the devastating consequences on the arts. The pandemic and Black Lives Matter have exposed the great inequalities in our society and as a result there is an urgent call to arms for a complete reset of the structural and economic systems that the current arts world so obviously relies on."
Atelier Stroud
and #CultureResetStroud
Following on from last years Berliner Zeitgeist and Creative Spaces and Communities spaces, Katharina Child and Uta Baldauf are keen to continue to work with SVA to share and extend these discussions in connection to Culture Reset and the community of Stroud.