European Projects

A one-year cooperation project in the field of training (Erasmus+ program) took place in cooperation between the puppet centres Les Tas De Sable Rivery  (France - leading partner), Centre de la marionnette de la fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (Belgium), Topic Tolosa (Spain), Synkoino cooperative (Greece), Teatro Gioco Vita (Italy), UNIMA International and our theatres. The project focused on three goals: new methods of vocational training, analysis of possibilities on the European labor market for the field of puppetry and systematic integration between training and employment. As part of the project, two sets of informal training were held for 14 young participants, one was hosted by Ljubljana, where the workshops were led by Martina Maurič Lazar and Fabrizio Montecchi.

Coordinator: Lutkovno gledališče Ljubljana (SI), partners: Puppet Animation Scotland (UK), Sveuciliste Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku, Akademija za umjetnost i kulturu u Osijeku (HR), Vilniaus Teatras Lele (LT),

The project is focused in the field of reflexion on contemporary puppetry - in education of new generation of critics. 4 partners of the project are building new web platform that would enable exchange of information, informal education and distribution of relevant news in our field of work. We would like this platform to go across borders of our partnership and also that it would become permanent.

By exploring the potential reach of contemporary puppetry the four partners will contribute to the development of an artistic field and through the professional discourse release it from the preconception the general public has, that it is an art form for children, an inferior art form. In the frame of this project the partners will get a chance to systematically nurture a specific segment of puppetry critic and reflection and foremost they will devote special and systematic efforts to introduce a specific audience groups to contemporary puppetry. A great deal of project activities is centered on audience engagement devised to enable and encourage the audience to engage in peer-to-peer dialog, provide them with the opportunities to process their own responses alongside other people’s, enhance their knowledge, theoretical background, improve their articulation skills, broaden their understanding of contemporary puppetry, increase audience members’ engagement in and enjoyment of the contemporary art events. By doing that we will deepen, broaden and sustain relationships with and between our audiences.

Mapping is an artistic research project focused on creating a sensory-based relationship with very young children, from 0 to 6 years, through performing arts. In particular, it explores the idea of “children-spectators of today and not only of tomorrow”.

Children, especially the youngest ones, are “new subjects of the world”, they are still discovering it, as much as they are discovering themselves. They have not established specific classification criteria yet, but they perceive what is aesthetic at any level of representation.

By observing them, we can detect the signs, the aesthetic moments experienced by the children in contact with artistic proposals, when they are “extremely sensitive”, that means in harmony with what they perceive.

Objects are all around us every day. They can be useful, or beautiful. We often use them in a careless and automatic way. About 1 century ago with the rise of contemporary Design, objects became an expression of social imaginary, material shapes of the Zeitgeist as well as of the views of their designer: a vehicle of culture. Thanks to the intuition of a specific branch of puppetry, which we will call “Object & Figure Theatre”, objects can also be storytellers. They thus transcend their material and utilitarian dimension to earn a soul, a life, a destiny of their own.

The Puppets & Design project (P&D) aims to emancipate everyday objects from their utilitarian feature, instead lifting them up to the role of meaning and artistic expression conveyers, communication and intercultural dialogue tools. P&D will interweave the paths of puppet theater artists and of designers. The designers’ competence can help puppetry to renew itself; puppetry and object animation will help designers to rethink objects and give them a soul by giving them specific shapes. P&D will innovate the Puppetry practice and increase its popularity with adults, children, families, schools by cross-fertilization with design practitioners (professional designers, scholars, students) through a set of cultural, educational and promotional EU activities.

ConnectUp sets in place an international cultural initiative for the target group 12+ in order to counteract the process of increasing social and cultural division across Europe. To achieve the aim of cultural inclusion it is essential to provide opportunities for  young people to actively engage with different nationalities, cultures and social groups and to remain open to other people and life experiences. The partners believe that this is the only way the young people can perceive and understand the positive potential of living and working in partnership and in shared responsibility within a global society. 

10 theatres with different artistic expertise, 9 festivals and 2 universities, working in the field of Theatre for Young Audiences, combine their different skills in a European “union of diversity” and plan a major investment in Audience Development. Following Nelson Mandela’s quote »No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin or his background or his religion...« the theatres and festivals aim to reach the cross section of society at least within their auditoriums by bringing together existing middle-class audiences with audiences from the margin of the society. 

Babel is a European large scale cooperation project, that pursues the rights of children and youth to full cultural citizenship, and it aims to investigate the communication process, intercultural dialogue, and mutual understanding in TYA and more extensively the Performing Arts for Young Audiences.