Each year, Norteas applies for funding to Nordplus in order to support its actions and programmes, specifically aiming mobility for students, teachers and staff. The Network has over the years established several study programmes - like for example the Nordic Common studies consisting in "swapping" students during a whole week or the Intensive Course which is a week of gathering of students and teachers questioning different burning questions in the field of the education of artists.
This year (2023), the title of the intensive course which will take place from 28.august to 2 September 2023 at the Theatre Academy in Helsinki is : SENSITIVITY – POWER – BORDERS.
A theatrical space can be a risky one. Have we as students, educators and artists become afraid of making mistakes, asking sensitive questions, discussing topics that might disturb or hurt our colleagues and audiences? How might we together (students and teachers) fact check this concern?
How might we explore this concern together, find out what our blind spots are, and how we respond when faced with bias?
What might Radical Diplomacy look like? Could it offer a way to imagine reconciliation processes?
And how might we develop ethical guidelines and procedures for all of us to lean against in our daily work?
Are there pedagogical styles or ways we work in art that need to be abandoned? Could this inform a new pedagogy or new ways to structure artistic work?
1. The question of sensitivity and sensitiveness
How do we understand sensitivity and how do we negotiate the sensitiveness of our pedagogical processes?
Sensitivity is key for an artist but is there a difference between the sensitivity one exhibits towards one's art compared to the sensitiveness one might have as a private person towards a certain issue? An “appropriate” reaction to something “inappropriate” in current society might be a form of self-censorship within the arts. As arts institutions we should be in front not behind the societal debate, but we need to develop new terminology and methods that equips us for this task.
2. The question of power
How do we recognize and negotiate embedded power structures in education and artistic work?
Power is complex and paradoxical, and in all social aspects where two or more people interact, one will find that there are power dynamics at work. However, power is also the ability to pass on important tools, methods and techniques and the ability to find the strength needed to express that which is un-voiced.
How do we give and/or take power through an artistic process? We need to view power, powerlessness, and empowerment in light of our differences and similarities. How do we negotiate power when we interact, students to students, students to teachers, teachers to students, teachers to teachers, artists to audiences? Where and how might we need to deconstruct existing power dynamics?
3. The question of boundaries and borders
How do we recognize, share, and negotiate our personal and social boundaries to create safe and BRAVE spaces to work together as curious artists?
To be aware of one’s own boundaries (personal, social, etc.) and to be able to negotiate about them in various contexts is essential. How can we recognize which borders are needed and which are possibly even harmful? Borders are negotiated and decided, borders are narratives, borders are fictional, and they can be renegotiated. But to be there, we need to talk, negotiate, and agree.
As artists we are facing constant questions. It is crucial to know how to be brave but stay safe when staging our art?
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The course is open to NORTEAS students and teachers.
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Saul Garcia Lopez (NTA) is member of the working group of this course together with Ville Sandqvist (chair of the network at Uniarts Helsinki), Tine Damborg from DASPA, Augustas Gornatkevičius from LMTA, Nína Hjálmarsdóttir from Iceland University of the Arts, and Samuli Nordberg at Tampere University.
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You can access for free the series of lectures that were produced some years ago as a result of a former project with the title SUSTAINABLE THEATRE ARTIST.
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For more information you can either contact Sage Canellis who is currently a member of the F4 coordinators group (sage.canellis@hiof.no), Ville Sandqvist, Norteas chair, ville.sandqvist@uniarts.fi (for anything related to the content of the course) and Lotta Karlsson, Norteas coordinator, lotta.karlsson@uniarts.fi for any other administrative or practical matters.
Beyond NTA, the other schools partners of NORTEAS are:
Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (EE, University)
University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy (EE, University)
Tampere University (FI, University)
Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki (FI, University)
Aalto University (FI, University)
The National Theatre School of Greenland (GL, University)
The Iceland University of the Arts, Department of Performing Arts, (IS, University)
Latvian Academy of Culture (LV, University)
Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LT, University)
Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo (NO, University)
Stockholm University of the Arts (SE, University)
Luleå University of Technology (SE, University)
Malmö Theatre Academy (SE, University)
Academy of music and drama, university of Gothenburg (SE, University)
The Danish National School Of Performing Arts (DK, University)
EE-Tallinn University (EE, University)