APPALSHOP (USA)FILM SCREENING AND WORKSHOP Appalshop, a U.S. nonprofit cultural arts organization based in the mountainous central Appalachian coalfields of eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, upper eastern Tennessee, and southwestern Virginia, is coming to ICAF to celebrate its 50th anniversary through exchange with its international peers! Appalshop was founded in late 1969 by Bill Richardson,…
Jasmina Ibrahimovic has been appointed as new director of the Rotterdam Neighbourhood Theatre Company (RWT) and will succeed Heleen Hameete on 1 June 2019. “Precisely now, in this historical moment, we need artists at the frontline of misunderstanding, who are capable of stepping out of their bubble and entering into a dialogue with ‘the…
‘Symphony of the Ursus Factory’ (Poland) – Film screening and workshop The Ursus factory in Poland once covered 170 hectares and employed 20,000 workers, producing 100 tractors a day. The Ursus tractor was well-known, not only in Poland but throughout the world. Now, its buildings stand derelict and empty; half have already been demolished by investors…
On 7 February we held our first ICAF consultation session. With 32 professionals from the field from what 13 international guests who were present via Skype to talk abut our (provisional) ICAF 2020 program. It was a very inspiring conversation. Looking forward to March 2020!
SEND US YOUR TIPS AND PROPOSALS FOR NEXT ICAF! From 25 through 29 March 2020 the next International Community Arts Festival will be held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The theme of ICAF-8 is ‘vision’. This time we were inspired by the number 20/20 and its association with sharpness of eyesight, but also with a vision for the future of community…
After the last ICAF festival in March 2017, our Spanish colleague Eva García approached us with the suggestion to hold the next ICAF Summer School in her hometown Barcelona. She had attended our very first Summer School in the Netherlands at the end of August 2016 and saw many possibilities to improve it – as…
A month ago, after our Summer School and during our summer break, we received horrific and heartbreaking news from our colleague Hjalmar Jorge Joffre-Eichhorn from AHRDO in Kabul, Afghanistan, where a suicide bomber had blown himself up in an educational establishment that is preparing young Afghan women for the national university entrance exam. They were rehearsing a…
Everyone who was present on ICAF 2014 or 2017 will probably remember the energetic tunes of Met-X: the community music organisation from Brussels led by Luc Mishalle, that works all over the city with a variety of groups. In 2017 we were lucky to host their Marockin’ Brass band on our opening night, and now…
Between April and November 2018, a series of case studies of participatory and community art will be published on François Matarasso’s website A Restless Art. The first three case studies can now be read online, both in English and Portuguese: Festival de Música de Setúbal, Welfare State International and ‘Bed’, Entelechy Arts. Enjoy!
The registrations for our Summer School are flowing in from different directions. Australia, Greece, Portugal, England, Spain, Catalonia, Czech Republic, Mexico, China, Germany, the Netherlands… Not only are we impressed with the diversity of nationalities, but also with the high quality of experience and education of the participants, including social circus practitioners, visual artists, peace builders. Up until now we have…