The Creative Campus Global Initiative originated with the work of Florence International Theatre Company engaging hundreds of American students in relation to the local community of Florence. (please see our Impact Page) Under The Global Theatre Project the initiative will be brought to a global level through creating a replicable template for creative student engagement with the local community of artists and residents in which they live. A collaboration will begin in January 2012 between The Global Theatre Project and the office of the Assessore all’Università e Ricerca (the ‘Commissioner of Universities’ under the Mayor of Florence). Her initiative, ‘Project Link,’ has a complimentary mission to Creative Campus: integrating the visiting students into the environment of the city in a healthy way.
Creative Campus was an initiative which began following the 104th American Assembly of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, held in March 2004. Since that time colleges and universities throughout the United States have connected their schools on campus to each other and to the local communities through creative projects. Our Artistic Director explored the question of the Creative Campus during her time at Syracuse University. In bringing this question to a global environment we believe we are initiating a logical next step with the Creative Campus movement: how can we effect our international relationships built through collaborations with our artists and students in local engagement abroad?
The concern of The Global Theatre Project is the need for active and imaginative participation of students in the cities and towns they visit internationally. We believe that this participation allows them to develop relationships and understandings which will expand their views as global citizens, bring unquestionable value back to the United States from these experiences as well as leave a lasting impression with those they engaged with abroad. We will also strive to develop a ‘Creative Campus’ aspect in conjunction with all of our initiatives, productions and projects.
We invite you to read what former Creative Campus students felt about their experience.
These will include the already successful models of:
The English Spettacolare! project
Working with children through theatre workshops and performances to ‘activate’ their English language skills
The V-DAY international project
Working with the V-DAY headquarters in NYC to promote awareness of violence against women and girls through bi-lingual theatrical and educational events
The Student Generated Event
Multi-disciplinary events created around themes or issues of local concern to the community. Pictured here: US art and business students created an ‘Elegant Auction’ to raise monies for victims of the Abruzzo earthquake in partnership with local professional classical musicians.
Art Crawl
Night time photographic and ‘Light Graffiti’ events to counter-act binge drinking and ‘pub crawl’ environments popular where large populations of students study internationally.
For more information please contact us.
