Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) hosted Arts, Youth and A Shared Peace, a Council of Europe international youth arts project that's part of a 10-day cultural exchange pilot project in collaboration with Lviv-European Youth Capital 2025.
Attended by 30 young people from Ukraine and the UK, the one-day event, which took place on 25 June at AUB’s Innovation Studio, was led by Darren Abrahams, singer, facilitator and trauma therapist along with Eileen Haste, a community artist from Bridport.
The European Youth Capital for 2025 is Lviv, Ukraine – the first city in a country at war to hold this title. The European Youth Forum awards the title to empower young people and boost youth participation. Lviv's program focuses on resilience, recovery, and reconstruction, emphasising the role of young people in these efforts.
Organised by Opera Circus and their international youth arts programme, the event explored the use of creativity and the visual arts in self-care and trauma.
The project encourages collaboration and the fostering of cross-cultural friendships, creative expression, and solidarity through arts and music workshops with cultural activities and the use of the creative arts for collective healing.
Opera Circus is an artist-led performing arts company that produces and tours new works of chamber opera and music theatre nationally and internationally. The company devises projects with children and young people using creative and cultural activities to explore issues of Equality, Inclusion and Child and Human Rights.
Facilitated via a partnership with AUB and Bournemouth University and led by AUB’s Dr Emma Shercliff and Professor Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers, the day prompted many thought-provoking conversations as Emma explains:
“It was extraordinary to see how deeply powerful carefully facilitated artistic expressions of voice, movement, music and image-making can be.
“As creatives here at AUB, we have a sense of this, but to see it in action with a group of incredibly brave young people really opened my eyes to the important role participation in the arts can play in trauma attuned leadership for social change”
The project continues till the end of July with a return visit to Lviv to discuss plans for the next iteration of the work, with an international youth event planned in Europe.
