9-10th April our conference was held at Kulturhuset in Örebro.
During the conference Mir Serrande took photos and conducted interviews on behalf of the Mosaik newspaper.
Tuesday April 9th
The day started with our board member and project manager Kerstin Björsson, who gave us a warm welcome. She talked about Article 30 in the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilites and the right to cultural expression, not only for one’s own benefit, but also for the enrichment of society. After that the moderator of the day Anders Wieslander, a member of the The Conference Guide project, took over.
Quinten Moody made a presentation of The Conference Guide project, which finalized an interactive e-book about planning, arranging and holding a conference. We watched some of the short films from the book. Hanna Björklund told us about The Culture BUREAUcrats project which aims to decrease the gap between artists and culture institutions. The aim of the project is that culture made by artist with learning disabilities and neuropsychiatric disabilities will have a natural place in society’s culture.
The play IMAGO and workshop with Mosaikteatern
We watched the play IMAGO, a tragicomic black and white play about existence and coexistence. How people include and exclude each other. But by the end of it all, letting the friendship win… During the Stockholm Fringe Festival, the play won the “Network award” and will represent Sweden during the festival in Brighton, in May 2019.
Efter the play the actors Sofia Wittmark, Josefin Jakobsson, Johannes Lundberg, Miriam Kroneld, Joakim Fernström from Mosaik held a workshop on the theme, “Be conscious of your surroundings, to lead and be led”. After the workshop we held a group conversation with the actors where we had the possibility to talk to them and ask questions.
Annual meeting
During our annual meeting the board members Helena Petersson (chairperson), Anneli Aaltonen Krantz and Hanna Björklund were re-elected. Britta Jonsson was elected as a new board member with a mandate of 2 years. This year Calle Doolke was elected as co-opt during the board meeting, since Calle is thinking about joining the board.
We give Marie Lindblad our thanks for her work on the board!
During the night we had Thai food made by Tant Norra. We had a visit from Sundsvall by singer-songwriter Soy. She played the guitar and sang songs she herself had written and also classics that we all know. During 2015 she won the national music competition Musikschlaget with her song “I’m leaving you”, which she also sang during the night.
Wednesday April 10th
We started the day by greeting newcomers to the conference and Kerstin introduced the moderators of the day, Magnus Östling och Quinten Moody.
Presentation and workshop with the culture workroom AniAra
aniAra is a culture centre (länk) located in Hallsberg and their vision is that everyone, no matter the disability, should be able to strengthen their sense of self and self-esteem through creative work and thereby show everyone else that “I have great abilities! I can!”. aniAra had several pieces exhibited during the Swedish exhibition Nya Stjärn-scott. They told us about their work and the project “ Who has the right to call themselves an artist?”. The project wants to open the eyes of the public, politicians and the market and to allow the project’s target group be included in everyday cultural events.
They held the workshop,”Whoops”, something that every newcomer at aniAra tries upon arriving. During the conference they also held an exhibition in the foyer. They also had an installation called “The Empathy Box”, an experience about the attitudes you may sometimes meet in society. Negative as well as positive.
We ended the day with a showing of the video experiment and documentary “Out by Art”. Five short films and a documentary exploring what it’s like to be an artist outside the norm. In the documentary we all got to see a close up on the creative work and processes in the creation of the movies. The movies are a result of a Nordic collaboration with artists from NOA (Nordic Outsider Art) creating the Out By Art movies, which have been shown at the Modern Museum, Stockholm Fringe Festival and the European Outsider Art Conference in England.
After the movies a conversation was held with the participating artist Marianne Schmitd and Hugo Karlsson from Inuti and project coordinator Lotte Nilsson Välimaa and project manager Sven Blume. The conversation was led by Magnus Östling.
Chairperson Helena Peterson concluded the annual conference and thanked everybody for participating.
This was our fourth conference and for our 5 years anniversary 2020 we might try something different. Keep an eye open!
