The urban setting is both a place of integration and division. The Multicultural Center Prague recognises the important part dialogue between divided group can play in overcoming the problems that often persist in ethnically diverse cities, and thus has undertaken the project Cultures from Around the Block, a flagship project as apart of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008.

The project aims to bring together young people from different ethnic groups living in the same city and, through workshops where they will document their surrounding with various mediums, facilitate intercultural dialogue with an aim to build long-lasting ties between those in different communities.

The Project activities include:

• Local media projects in Bratislava, Brussels, Bucharest, Coventry , Offenbach, Prague and Warsaw.
• Creation of a website about local integration. Making use of the media items from local workshops and providing additional background information, users are offered a vivid picture of European cultural diversity by strolling virtually through diverse European neighbourhoods.
• Production of the documentary film "Your Street. My Street" with direct involvement of students from local media projects.
• Presentation of the project results in the Festival "Dialogue of Cultures".
• Public presentation of project results in Brussels.
• The active encouragement of cross-country partnerships between all actors involved.

There is seven such local projects across Europe in Offenbach, Prague, Bucharest, Coventry , Warsaw, Bratislava and Brussels which will be glued together by the ‘linking elements’ that bring the local achievements to a European stage.

The first such element is the documentary film ‘Your Street – My Street’ which will take children from each of the selected neighbourhoods, and have them guide the film team through their city as well as the activities they realise during the local workshops.

The Dialogue of Cultures festival held in Prague from October 2nd – 5th will be the second gluing module, bringing together performers from the participating cities as well presenting the workshop’s outputs through a multicultural tombola. The work of the young people will also be exhibited during the third linking element at the Mediterranean Movies Festival in Brussels (from 28th November to 5th December) in Brussels.

The project website European city will not only serve its purpose as the fourth and final amalgamation of the product of Europe wide intercultural dialogue, but also aims to become an online source for articles, studies and reports on urban issues. The website was launched in summer and will be contributed to by a series of debates, student research seminars and blogs.

Local projects

The project “Cultures from Around the Block” aims to bring together young people from different ethnic groups living in the same city and, through workshops where they will document their surrounding with various media, facilitate intercultural dialogue with an aim to build long-lasting ties between those in different communities. There is seven local projects across Europe in Offenbach, Bratislava, Brussels, Bucharest, Coventry, Prague and Warsaw.

Belgium

Children selected from a school in an ethnically diverse part of town, working with those from a youth group in a different part of the city made a series of short documentary films under the guidance of the Brussels Centre for Intercultural Action. Upon choosing the films thematic focus the children were trained by professional journalists and technical specialists, and attempted to create professional final results which may later be used on Belgian television.

Czech Republic

Armed with cameras and a passion for black & white documentary photography, children from the vastly different districts of Zizkov and Modrany explored each other’s neighbourhoods on a fortnightly basis throughout the first half of 2008. Amongst other activities, children learned to work with the camera, take pictures and to develop and enlarge their own pictures. Maybe the most important feature of the project methodology was the fact that the kids from the participating schools did meet several times in common workshops. Thanks to these workshops the students not only became acquainted with a different part of Prague, but also came in contact with kids that are of the same age but from a different social and cultural background. The project methodology rests on the idea that common activities alongside pride in results are an effective way to overcome social barriers and prejudices, which otherwise often block interaction and communication beyond the borders of ethnic communities. The results of their documentation along selected thematic lines will be exhibited in the participating local schools as well as in a public space close to the city center.

Germany

Interaction between different groups is even more challenging when faced with language difficulties, but Rejs e.V. (Plotki) hope that artistic means can help overcome these problems and facilitate intercultural dialogue. This summer a group of refugee teenagers in Offenbach, met their middle-class German peers for a week long intensive photography workshop. The tangible output of the workshop was a series of screen printed designs, put onto t-shirts and bags which can be worn as well as displayed in exhibitions.

Great Britain

Coventry is a diverse city, and children with migratory backgrounds mixed with children of second or third generation migrants as they photographed symbols of culture in the local neighbourhoods. Sessions on the meaning of intercultural dialogue as well as photographic techniques did allow the children to explore both cultural concepts as well as their artistic sides. The results of the work were shown in the schools as well as at a local carnival in the summer.

Poland

At the end of the intensive film workshop, a group of ethnic Vietnamese and ‘white’ Polish children have produced their own film, set in the Praga district of Warsaw.  Fundacja Nowa Ameryka selected children from different ethnicities and started them working together in groups. These young people acted as directors, camera operators and protagonists as they created a series of short films which were cut by a professional editor under their guidance to produce the final film. The film will be premiered in the Vietnamese Cultural Centre before moving on to be shown elsewhere in the city and abroad.

Romania

Utilising either the medium of sound-scaping or photography in three different schools, the Bucharest part of the project took children from the Roma community along with ‘ethnic Romanians’ and over a period of many months introduced them to the different methods of documentation as well as to each other. The different schools and media will come together for common exhibition in the local communities and city center in the autumn.

Slovakia

The project "Cultures from Around the Block" is realised from January 1st, 2008 till December 31st, 2008 with support by the European Union within the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue.

Project coordinators:
Jarmila Neumannová, project coordinator
phone/fax: +420 296 325 347 
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Anna Činčerová, coordinator of Czech activities
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Ondřej Daniel, redactor of www.europeancity.cz
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it