Who needs empowerment? Exploring Gender and Power through/in Art

Background In all societies, power is distributed unequally between people: they have different influence over decisions, different rights and duties. Gender is one of the dimensions that seems to organise this inequality of power distribution, with women tending to have lower rank and less power than men, across different times. Though in many European countries there was a perception that these differences have been overcome, the explosion of the #MeToo movement showed that the subject is not quite settled. Our primary target group consists of young people (18-30) across different cultural and social origins. In our needs assessment we have identified three domains: a particular need among young people to work on gender issues and living experiences, assignations and social diktats. The need to speak in a secure space and to exchange experiences is strongly felt by young people who do not have access to alternative environments that deal with these issues. There is a need of intervention for the youth with a less privileged background as well. Our other target group consists of youth workers who need tools, manuals, and art-based, non-formal pedagogical resources to tackle questions on gender identity, discrimination and inequality. Objectives We wanted to offer young people creative and non-formal ways to understand the concepts related to gender, gender role and identity. We also wanted to raise awareness about how gender is connected to power: how people today still live discrimination and oppression because of their gender identity and how art institutions continue to generate gender inequality. We wanted to equipe and empower young people to develop their gender identity in safe and creative ways, to face challenges, oppressions related to their gender identity and to learn to express their concerns via artistic tools. A main objective was to develop understanding, empathy and solidarity towards others with different types of gender identities and sexual orientations to step up against oppressions that others suffer. We wanted to give tools to communicate about gender related inequalities and challenges in museums and through artworks. We also wanted to offer youth workers and trainers comprehensive tools to address issues of gender and power with young people in safe ways, with non-formal, art-based methods. Implementation We undertook all of the administrative and financial management of the project, including the design of administrative tools and communication platform, the updating of the work schedule, the drafting of explanatory sheets, the organization of monthly meetings at distance, the exchange of a very large number of e-mails, regular budgetary control. We have designed qualitative and quantitative evaluation tools of our pilot workshops, our multiplier events and the quality of our collaboration as a consortium. We drafted a collaboration protocol at the start of the project. We have disseminated the results of the project to young audiences and youth workers, through a series of actions and various forms. We have created the project's website where all our resources (manuals, toolkits, podcasts, videos) are freely accessible and free of charge. We created an Instagram account and a YouTube channel to share project information and products. We have forged numerous partnerships with associations and art institutes. We organized 4 transnational meetings, a joint staff training and a blended mobility course. Achievements IO1: “Book of artworks and questions”, a collection of artworks with questions to trigger debate and identify main gender and power issues, a set of 25 pedagogical cards with definitions of key concepts related to gender, and personal stories accompanied by a description of activities. IO2: 5 thematic itineraries for museums and 25 audio podcasts made in co-creation with young people exploring issues concerning gender/power through specific art works. IO3: Set of method sheets of activities including: a) activities to identify the “subject” of the art work to create b) adapting Werner Moron method to gender issues and different artforms, a video lesson on the process IO4 5 art-talks performances and 5 video recorded interviews with curators, artists and art specialist on gender inequality IO5 5 art based campaigns with young people, with 50 people reached as “audience” Toolbox for youth professionnels on how to create art-based campaigns with different pedagogical objectives IO6 Playbook that retraces the tools developed in the previous IOs of the project and respond to these questions for youth workers and young people A learning path of 5 modules. These IOs were complemented by numerous pilot workshops and multiplier events.