Europees project SILO

Met een aantal partners werken we samen aan het Europees project SILO (Socially Inclusive Literature Operations). Met dit project willen we Europese literatuur toegankelijk maken voor groepen die normaal gezien niet in contact komen met deze teksten. Zo betrekken we bvb vluchtelingen, ziekenhuispatiënten, jongvolwassenen, gevangenen, ouderen ...

SILO (Socially Inclusive Literature Operations) will make foreign European literature accessible for everyone, especially for groups that do not normally come into contact with this kind of literature. From a participatory approach we involve different groups of citizens (refugees, hospital patients, young adults, prisoners, secondary school students, elderly people). We work "outreach": we organise events in these groups’ daily context. During those events we create situations where everyone can take the role as writer or as storyteller. So, we create a narrative community where sharing stories is central. By doing this, we create an opportunity to talk about foreign literature and learn about the different experiences op people from different parts of Europe. During every event there will always be a (foreign) writer or literary expert. These writers will help participants discover the power of writing in tackling problems they face.

On a digital platform we share stories from the narrative community: a social medium where every participant can share narratives in different forms (text, image, sound ...) Every European citizen can, by visiting the platform, learn about the versatility of lifestyles and values across Europe, thus gaining new perspectives on participants’ own situations. The stories on this platform can provide inspiration to write new stories.

A framework for organizing participatory literature events, is an important output resulting from our preparation, our research and our events. Educators (social workers, cultural workers and teachers) and organisers of cultural events are a key target group of this framework. They will be inspired and guided by this participatory framework for literature events, allowing them to engage new audiences, who are otherwise hard to reach.
Our consortium is suitable to achieve this ambitious goal. We have a mix of expertise: the literary world (library, writers), participatory experts, experience in interdisciplinary work, policy representatives. This means that we can realize our goal at local, regional, national and international levels. In Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, Serbia, Portugal and Spain, we will reach new audiences at events. In other countries will also provide inspiration through the online platform and framework. Coming from different sectors, we can disseminate results via very different network organizations we are members of, inspiring other organisations in using our participatory framework for audience engagement.

Consortium: UC Leuven-Limburg (BE), Aarhus Universitet (DK), Cultuurhuis de Warande (BE), Fundación Uxío Novoneyra (ES), Câmara Municipal da Madalena do Pico (PT), Szepirok Tarsasaga (Hungarian Society of Writers) (HU), Association KROKODIL (SR), Aarhus Public Libraries (DK)
Duration: 01/09/2017-31/08/2019

Funding programme: Creative Europe
Coordinator contact: Tobias.Frenssen@ucll.be
Local contact: Maarten.Minne@warande.be