Through making Art We made New Friends

Thursday, June 26th, 1:30 pm. The doors to room A in Kasárne–Kulturpark are slowly closing, a signal to participants that the performance is about to begin. Our colleague, Lucia Hrubá, who has planned this whole day for the children involved in the project Art4Rom, welcomes guests and start with a video greetings from children  from the community center in Rudňany who had hoped to participate in the performance, but due to jaundice had an enlarged livers and could not leave the settlement. The video greeting is sincere and full of hope that we will all meet at similar event in the future. Lucia invites onto the stage Danka Pustulkovú, leading the CC Rudňany.

Danka talked about what the children had prepared for visitors and also about how they regret that they could not attend (video of the rehearsal of a theatrical performance of children can be seen on our website).

Monika Beňová, leader of the music club meeting in the community center in Rankovce, and Dávid Benko, a teacher at the Conservatory on Exnarová street are others who stood on the stage to present what the children have learned under during their joint meetings. Musicians from Rankovce – the boys from the music club, an ongoing within the project Art4Rom – are called. Ascending to the stage as artists and musicians, the boys see themselves as a group of good friends who just want to show off their talents. Together they played 5 songs which greatly entertained the audience.

Another part of the program was a dance-theater performance by children from the community center in Moldava nad Bodvou directed by Irma Horváthová, leader of the community center, and Štefan Turanský, a teacher at the Conservatory on Exnarová street in Košice. This Roma-Hungarian-Slovak performance told the story of how Romani found not only work but, more importantly, faith in God and in himself as well.

Throughout the performances artwork done by children from the community center in Košice – Šaca and Podsadek – Stará Ľubovňa and children from Elementary school in Košice – Šaca, which are also involved in the project, were displayed in the foyer. The heads of the artistic circles – Daniel Ščigulinský and Lenka Kováčová – along with classroom teachers and children from Elementary school – introduced not only the created artworks, but also described the art construction techniques and some of the different activities that accompanied the preparation of the works. (the artistic clubs can be read about  in our other article).

Spending an afternoon full of artistic performances together again confirmed that art is a great  way to find one’s roots and  to the better understand why we perceive cultural differences, but it also provides a way to search for what unites us and helps us overcome barriers that often prevent us from finding some new friendships.

The ART4Rom project has been funded with the support from the European Commission.

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