Volunteerism for Development

For next Wednesday, April 6th, we are organizing a conference about "Volunteerism for Development", in order to create a space where we can analyze, conceptualize and discuss how volunteering contributes to development.

We will present different programs that provide support for international volunteering and development cooperation. Moreover, Adrián Madueño, a student of Malaga University who participated in a project of the University Volunteer Programme in Development Cooperation, will present his experience and a rap song he composed during his stay. 

This activity is carried out under the framework of our project, Peace and Development Processes, with the cooperation of Malaga City Council.

We are waiting for you!

UA&ST Team Meeting

This photo has been taking during one of the meetings of our team where we coordinate, prepare and manage all the activities related with urban art and social transformation.

Formed by social workers and educators, youth workers, pedagogues, graffiti writers, break dancers, DJ's and MC's, we work togheter all year long to propose and carry out different activities where we use urban art as a tool of social transformation and inclusion.

The main activities of the UA&ST team during this year 2015:

- Graffiti and breaking workshops

- Open Door Day at Iniciativa Internacional Joven

- El Círculo Breaking Day

- Jamonth

- Day of Europe, Junta de Distrito 11 

- "Hip Hop movimiento y color de calle" project in Guatemala

- Participation to the Summer Scratch 2015 in Alba (Italy)

- Project management and personal and professional development activities

- Meetings with different public and private organisations at local, regional and national level.

Finally, to celebrate the first anniversary of our Training Course "Urban Art & Social Transformation" we finish the year with different activities and workshops here in Málaga:

11/12/2015 (19:00/22:00): "Making the streets happy" at Plaza de la Merced;

12/12/2015 (12:00/14:00): Graffiti and breaking workshops at El Artsenal (Muelle Uno)

12/12/2015 (17:30): Projection of the documental "Urban Art & Social Transformation" at El Artsenal (Muelle Uno)

12/12/2015 (18:00/23:00): Jamonth and exhibitions of graffiti at El Artsenal (Muelle Uno)

Moreover, very soon we will inform you about another amazing activity before the end of the year.

Summer Scratch 2015 (Alba, Italia)

We want to share with you some photos of last weekend. Members of our entity were in Alba (Italy) to participate in the event “Summer Scratch 2015” that was organized by our friends of the association Espressione Hip Hop. Togheter with the guys of El Círculo Breaking, we explained activities we do, projects we want to carry out and our urban art can be a valuable tools of social transformation. We showed, as well, to urban artistis and local popolation, the video of the international training course “Urban Art & Social Transformation” that we carryed out thanks to the Erasmus+ programme and where we knew the members of this italian organisation. 

Thank you very much guys for the invitation, the big hospitality and to make events like this to promote urban culture, dialogue and participation.  

UA&ST: Antoni Gabarre

Antoni Gabarre is one of the experts that participated in our international training course “Urban Art & Social Transformation”. He’s a great example of social educator who tries to get better the world where we live, promoting participation, inclusion and peace culture through muralism and graffiti.

Thanks to his participation, that we want to share with you, we could discover how urban art uses public space and how it can be a tool of social transformation. It’s an honour for all of us that he supports projects we carry out and he participated actively in this training course.

To watch the video:

UA&ST: Trailer

Within the project “Urban Art & Social Transformation” that our organisation Iniciativa Internacional Joven, carryed out thanks to the subvencion of the Erasmus+ programme and with the collaboration of El Círculo Breaking, we created different audiovisual products that we are starting to publish. All the material is subtitled (English/Spanish).

Today we want to share with all of you the trailer of the documentary that soon will be available. A small summary of all activities made last November during the international training course that was carryed out in Málaga. 

"UA&ST" as the Experience of the Month!

Our international training course "Urban Art & Social Transformation" has been chosen as the experience of the month in January bulletin board of the Andalusian Institute of Youth.

Organized by our organization, together with El Circulo Breaking, and thanks to the subvention of Erasmus+ program, this course has been a great success!

Visit of "Espressione Hip Hop" from Italy

Our friends from the Italian association "Espressione Hip Hop" - Freesteps crew, who participated in the course "Urban Art & Social Transformation", came this morning to visit our headquarters and discover our activities in the socio-cultural center "El Consul".

We want to wish good luck to all of you (in bocca al lupo!), and also our fellows from El Circulo Breaking, in a break dance competition this weekend in Almeria.

Interviews With the Organizers of the UA&ST

Our video-making team recorded the last interviews with the organizers of the "Urban Art & Social Tranformation" international training course. Together with a lot of videos of the training course itself, it will be produced into a documentary of this project. Members of the Iniciativa Internacional Joven and El Circulo Breaking explained their objectives, activities and achievements through this opportunity. All this was a big step towards more joint projects in the future, to which we are looking forward with all our hearts.

    

UA&ST: Day 8

Yesterday night participants were enjoying a farewell party with typical Spanish and Malagan food, sharing their last hours together.

After a week full of dance, music and colors, we greeted our participants who went their homes. We are a little bit sad, but in the same time happy and pleased we participated in this project. These young artist have learned a lot, developed new skills, acquired/improved competences and, what is very important,
strengthen their will to continue with the urban art and become more than just artists. Now they are able to become social transformers.

We hope we will continue to collaborate and create much more events and cooperation in the future!

Thank you all! :)

UA&ST: Day 7

The highlight of this day was definetely the big event of the open doors in La Caja Blanca (art and cultural center of Málaga City Hall) which we were preparing for a long time. In this event participated more than 250 persons throughout the whole day.

In the morning we had basic and advanced workshops of the different elements of hip hop. Our participants were teaching classes and implementing foreground and background in the training course.

In the afternoon we started to present the "Urban Art & Social Transformation" project and the Erasmus+ program. Ana Belén Dominguez from "Iniciativa Internacional Joven" and Alejandro Morales from "El Circulo Breaking" explained their objectives, activities and results achieved throughout the week. Our international participants were sharing with the entire local population emotions and impressions and explained how they came to engage in the street art, how their desire to professionalize and act as social transformers came to their hearts.

Later in the afternoon all participants were able to show the local population their artistic skills. The DJs had a possibility to start the musical afternoon together with Dj Wave and DJ Bionic Escasso. The rapper who won the competition the previous day had the opportunity to perform in front of a large audience.

The graffiti artists participated in a competition made by Taco Bell, which requested certain parameters and provided the prize, won by Sidney from France.  The jury was formed with Malagan writer Lalone and Alfonso Navarro, representative of Taco Bell.

Finaly, there was also a break dance competition where a lot of people gathered to see the glorious energy of bboys and bgirls. DJ Wave and DJ Bionic Escasso were in charge for music and judges were XVen from Málaga, Muñeco from Badajoz and Chicano from Madrid.

Basic workshops and masterclasses at “La Caja Blanca"

This morning the participants of the Training Course “Urban Art & Social Transformation” are putting into practice what they have learned during this week. They are teaching hip hop elements to all the children, young people and adults interested on it. Come to “La Caja Blanca”, it’s for free!

UA&ST: Day 6

After very long and fulfilled Friday, participants used Saturday to prepare their workshops for Sunday's event at La Caja Blanca. They were preparing two classes (one for basic and one for the advanced level) by selecting the content and activities, preparing a pedagogic approach, dividing responsibilities between them, etc. Tomorrow they will offer to the population of Málaga workshops of hip hop elements for free.

Moreover, we present the Erasmus+ programme, which has financed this training course. We spoke about its objectives, its key actions, the possibility that young people have to participate, deadlines, etc.  

All participants showed great interest in all these actions, especially for the European Voluntary Service, youth exchanges and training courses.

Afterwards they were also introduced to Youthpass, a certificate that the European Union gives and where all learned skills and adquired competences are recorded.

With the help of the trainers, our participants drafted their youth certificates, reflecting their new skills adquired throughout the course.

And then we went to “La Cloaka”, an alternative place which is very close to “La Noria”, where young people usually gather to enjoy good music and cultural activities. There all the youth could participate in a rap competition open to everyone. The judge was Little Pepe who declared Mc Farina as the winner. But this night wasn't only dedicated to rappers, but as well to all the bboys and bgirls who could show their dancing skills, and graffiti writers who presented to us their artistic works.

Make the Street Happy (Alegrando las Calles)

After many hours spent in La Noria center, participants of the training course "Urban Art & Social Transformation" went to the streets and had some outdoor activities. First of all, they enjoyed a graffiti tour around the Soho neighborhood (Málaga has plenty of graffiti!) and they found out about the "Maus" project.

Afterwards they all made streets of Málaga more happy and alive by following the idea of Freddy Cross (one of the participant of "UA&ST" training course). The concept of this activity was moving to different points around the city and show their artistic skills at each one. They went to two very central places of Málaga, the square in front of the Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) and Calle Larios, the most popular and important street of the city. This way they gave visibility to European Union and Erasmus+ program as an important part of social transformation among youth and European citizens.

They also participated in a break dance jam and set an exhibition of graffiti art. All this was possible thanks to Erasmus+ program, which intents to liberate the space for young people to share their experiences, skills, knowledge and culture through various exchanges, training courses, seminars, etc. Through these mobility activities young people and professionals who work with them can learn and enrich their personal and professional portfolio.