This project is a response to a political and media hate campaign aimed at minorities and promotion by the ruling camp of ultraconservative, discriminatory ideas in education, the media, culture, and art. Homophobic and anti-Semitic statements during the 2020 presidential campaign, or local council LGBT-free zone resolutions are just a few examples. In recent years, the culture and art sector has been subjected to restriction of artistic freedom and politicised to an unprecedented degree. Independent and progressive institutions are cut off from public funds, and others have undergone radical reorganisation. As a result of this policy, cultural and art institutions practically do not take up the subject of minorities and equality.
Under the project, a group of artists will be given training on being active in the community and working within an alliance with self-advocacy organisations. The artists will attend five workshops on minority and international activism, and will produce a series of podcasts on intersecting oppressed identities. At the end of the project, with mentoring, they will create three artistic works, which will be displayed publicly. There will also be open talks given by equality organisations.
Primarily, a group of ten artists with non-normative identities will benefit from the project, as well as the pro-equality CSOs themselves. On a micro scale, this will strengthen the alliance between the social sector and the cultural and art sector. The participants will share their experiences on methods of self-organisation, objecting, and grass-roots awareness-raising practices; they will improve their competences relating to working collectively or strategies for conducting campaigns to help minorities. The project will provide training for artists to practice socially engaged art that draws attention to minority rights.