The power of art in education: Horizon Europe funding
An academic from Oxford Brookes University has secured nearly €400,000 in European Union (EU) funding to help children and young people at risk of poverty or social exclusion gain access to arts-based education through co-creative research.
Co-creation and participatory research are approaches where researchers actively involve the people or communities being studied in the entire research process. It focuses on empowering participants and ensuring that the research benefits them directly, often by addressing real-world issues they face.
Guida de Abreu, Oxford Brookes University, Professor of Cultural Psychology, will play an important part in the new project titled ‘ALPHABETICA: Activating Learning Paths: Holistic Arts-Based Education and Training for Inclusion and Cultural Awareness’. The wider project, which received just under €3,000,000 from the Horizon Europe fund, is led by Professor Rachele Antonini at the University of Bologna and involves 14 institutions from 9 different countries – one of which will be Oxford Brookes University.
Imagining new ways of caring through art
Professor Guida de Abreu will work in collaboration with Professor Sarah Crafter and Dr. Nelli Stavropoulou at The Open University. The team in the UK will focus on how participation in art has the potential to enable children and young people from disadvantaged communities to imagine new ways of caring for better futures. Art may feel inaccessible for some young people, therefore the project team will work with young people in participatory ways to co-create art that is meaningful to them. This intervention will take place in a formal setting (school) and out-of-school community setting (local library). It will involve working with 3-18 year olds, teachers, library staff members, and families.
On receiving the funding, Professor Guida de Abreu said: “We are really delighted to be working on this project with children and young people who are increasingly at risk of poverty and living in disadvantaged communities. Art and creative engagement can support a different way of engaging with the world by nurturing creativity, curiosity, critical thought, emotional expression, and imagination.”
Professor Guida de Abreu further explains: “Equally, young people can feel excluded from art. Or perhaps they don’t feel like their everyday activities are forms of art. This is something the UK team will explore through their participatory and co-creation activities in Our Caring World through Art. We argued that art in education has the power to foster love, care and solidarities and offers the power to imagine a different future. We will provide young people with an opportunity to explore human relationships and more-than-human relationships, such as nature and pets, through art in education."
Working with international partners
The ALPHABETICA project was launched on the 15 of January with a meeting at the University of Bologna, Italy, bringing together all partners to connect and discuss the project's goals and objectives for the next four years.
The team in the UK will also be leading on a work package that supports five other pilot actions in other European countries. At Oxford Brookes University, the study will be based in the The Centre for Psychological Research, School of Psychology, Social Work & Public Health.
Other partners on this project are:
Universita of Bologna, Italy; Universita Degli Studi di Torino, Italy; Synthesis, Cyprus; Interkulturalni PL, Poland; Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal; Elhuyar, Spain, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain; Kirlareli, Türkiye; União de Refugiados em Portugal, Portugal; Ministero Della Cultura, Italy; and Save the Children Italia, Italy.