Joint Press release
© UNHCR/Popi Dionysopoulou
For the ninth consecutive year, the Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet – Gr) in collaboration with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, as well as local and education authorities, universities, parents’ associations, museums, and other institutions, are organizing artistic school festivals in 14 cities across Greece.
From 5 to 29 May 2023, more than 1,500 students, including refugee children, from 150 schools will take part in 16 student festivals including art workshops and performances during which they will exchange experiences and work jointly in order to celebrate inclusion, peaceful coexistence, and togetherness.
The aim of the festivals is to bring together students, teachers, theatre pedagogues, and parents in a big non-competitive celebration, to play, discuss and enjoy each other’s creations.
The events will be held in Athens, Igoumenitsa, Zakynthos, Heraklion, Thessaloniki, Ioannina, Kalamata, Corfu, Larissa, Patras, Rhodes, Serres, Trikala, and Tripoli. For schools from other regions of the country or from abroad there will also be an online celebration!
This years’ festivals will involve schools participating in the “It could be me- It could be you” project, run by TENet-Gr and UNHCR in Greece, as well as schools and youth groups that implemented relevant artistic programmes during the current school year. The TENet-Gr student festivals are an activity that started in 2015 in the form of “action days” hosted in schools engaged in the “It could be me-It could be you” project and evolved into wider festivals that take place in many cities around Greece.
“Our participation in the ‘It could be me- It could be you’ festival was an exciting experience for all of us. We found ourselves among colleagues and young children with whom we share common concerns, thoughts, and experiences around the need to embrace the person who is different and suffers, with the aim to transform our society into a safe space for all, a society of acceptance, respect, and inclusion,” says a teacher who has participated in these events.
More than 37,000 students and 17,000 teachers have taken part in the “It could be me- It could be you?” project, launched in 2015 by TENet-Gr and UNHCR. Student festivals held towards the end of each school year are among the most collective activities of the project in terms of participation and outreach to the local community, bringing creatively together dozens of schools and thousands of students of all ages. As one young student involved in a festival discussion about role-playing put it, “You know what is the worst role? The one who didn’t attend this festival yet!”
Below is the festival schedule so far. New dates are announced daily.
More details about the festivals in each city (date, location, cooperating partners, etc.) can be found at www.TheatroEdu.gr.
Information- general management: T. 2106541600 / [email protected]
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