Cultural audiences are ever changing. In most European cities, more and more children – but also the parents – have different native languages and (social) cultural backgrounds. How do you address these visitors? How do you get into dialogue with a child who’s average vocabulary in the ‘school language’ of the city is very limited? What if the topic is ‘a work of art’? How do you articulate their ideas, feelings, dreams, wonderings? Can you interact with them and/or stimulate not only their creative skills, but also help them to express themselves in the ‘common’ spoken or written language of the city?

The past two years, we tested in the city of Antwerp tools and strategies to develop people’s literacy in foreign language language. Using works of art (pictures, poems, texts, dance performances) to stimulate discussion, children, youngsters and adults get into contact not only with the cities cultural potential, but also with contemporary art. The workshop for the creative forum in Vilnius focused on that process and gave concrete examples and practices how to stimulate this dialogue. A technique that can be used in any art institution, school or workshop.

You can download the presentation of the workshop here.

workshop_vilnius.pdf