AIM AND OBJECTIVES The overall aim has been to improve the competences of the voluntary associations and their volunteers to provide enlivening arts and culture opportunities in the sparsely populated communities, with an added value for civic and democratic participation, community bonding and local identity.The objectives have centred around: 1) To develop innovative ways of outreach to citizens engaged in arts and culture to become resourceful culture volunteers e.g culture guides, arts volunteers, mentors, champions for the arts .2) To develop high quality courses tailored to these groups on how to organise cultural activities with an added community value e.g. recognition of prior learning, volunteer management, media literacy skills, event management, levering-in resources, improving the local cultural offer 3) To develop the competences and skills of the voluntary associations to support volunteering and cooperation with stakeholders - building connections, co-production activities, encouraging groups to not work in silos but share information/skills/expertise/kit/equipment/venues 4) To develop appropriate methods to assess the involved knowledge, skills and attitudes to fulfil such demanding voluntary work e.g. field studies, evidence of prior need, desk research, case studies. OUTLINE OF ACTIVITIES The innovative dimension of this project is its integrated adult education approach, where we will: 1) Complete local field surveys of the current competence profiles of cultural volunteering to get a baseline as well as state of the art examples for the succeeding development work 2) Develop an integrated curricula frame for cultural volunteers, as well as culture managers, to provide enlivening cross-culture activities with added community values. 3) To design and test a series of national pilot courses for culture volunteers and managers in the varied contexts of the partner countries. 4) To design and test new Erasmus+ pilot courses for culture volunteers, as well as culture managers, with the aim to offer sustainable Erasmus+ training events and also, high quality national courses after the end of the project.5) To provide a Communication Portal with desk research and other supporting information about the issues of the project as well as presentations of the project’s pilot work and outputs to the virtual audiences. The Partnership Circle includes • two national umbrella organisations for voluntary culture: Voluntary Arts Network in United Kingdom and Cultural Councils in Denmark; • one national association for liberal adult education: The Hungarian Folk High School Society; • two organisations from the liberal adult education and NGO work, with expertise in field research and curricula planning: Foundation of Alternative Educational Initiatives in Poland, and Interfolk, institute for Civil Society from Denmark; • one public body, the Municipality of Lousada, Portugal. • ActKnowledge from New York will be involved in the pilot work as the initial evaluators (theory of change process) and the final evaluation will be produced by beatitude.ad.vitam - a health/arts Community Interest Company in Liverpool - who specialise in a formative and summative approach. This multilateral partnership circle, with a huge dissemination potential, represent a transnational European totality of varied expertise and experiences in the field, which we cannot find in just one of the countries. Learning curricular and programmes will be disseminated widely at the end of the project to ensure further take-up of opportunities and to build a wider network of contacts, partners and associates. Legacy courses are in place to ensure that learning continues after the initial phase of project activity has been completed e.g. Liverpool/Vol Arts; Denmark/Interfolk.

BACKGROUND The decline of trust the last decade is one of the central challenges of our societies. Several surveys by UN, OECD, EU and others indicate that the declining trust refers not only to the usual suspects as governments, companies and mainstream media, but also to NGOs and even more concerning to an increased distrust of other people. Trust is the fundamental element of social capital in a country, and the World Development Report (2013) shows that countries, where people are more likely to trust others, are also countries where there is less violence and more political stability, accountability and stronger economic growth. Furthermore, trustful social relations are essential for happiness. The World Happiness Report (2012) indicates trust as one of the major reasons that some countries are happier than others. Trust among fellow citizens is also essential for the subjective well-being or Quality of Life. Accordingly, the Eurostat Report: Quality of life in Europe – facts and views (2016) can conclude - contrary to one of the overarching aims of all EU learning and culture programmes - that the Quality of Life for the EU citizens is declining. NEED Without trust, institutions don’t work, societies falter and people lose faith in each other. Here, we think, the European sector of participatory culture (amateur arts, voluntary culture and heritage) can make a difference. This sector is, next to amateur sport, the largest civil society sector in the EU member states, and it has in the last decade been the civil society area with the highest rate of expansion in members and new associations. A vast number of voluntary and paid staff and artists are employed in a myriad of associations to provide arts and culture based activities for about 38 pct of the peoples in the member states (Eurobarometer 399, November 2013). However, the voluntary arts and culture associations could strengthen their societal engagement. Especially in these times, the learning providers in this sector should prioritise new initiatives that can help to counter the current decline of the cohesiveness and mutual trust in our communities. AIM AND INNOVATIVE ELEMENTS The aim is to bridge social capital and to promote inclusion, cohesion and trust by strengthening the participatory and co-creative culture activities in the European sector of amateur arts, voluntary culture and heritage. Our development work will focus on bridging social capital in the following five contexts of culture activities and lifelong learning: inter-social, inter-generational, inter-regional, inter-cultural, and inter-European. Thereby, we intend to strengthen new participatory culture and co-creation activities, where the learning context are changed not only from individual creativity to collective creativity, but to bridge people normally outside of each other’s direct social networks - not just bonding social capital between similar subgroups of individuals, but bridging former segregated social groups. KEY ACTIVITIES AND OUTPUTS The 2-year project has four main phases: 1) FOUNDING - launch the Communication Portal, English ed. and complete a State of the Arts Survey, seven language ed. ; 2) DEVELOP - compile good practice and innovative approaches and publish five Thematic Compendia, seven language ed.; 3) TEST - design and test curricula by seven national pilot courses and two European pilot courses, and provide Curriculum Report, seven language ed., and design sustainable Erasmus+ training course packages; 4) VALORISE - complete seven national conferences including representative foreign guests, deliver final dissemination and publish Project Summary report, English ed. IMPACT AND BENEFITS The goals are on short term to educate the educators, to teach and engage the key staff in the huge European lifelong learning sector of participatory arts and culture to initiate new co-creative culture activities with high potential of bridging social capital. On long term, we expect it can help to increase the mutual trust and thereby improve the quality of life for our EU citizens. We expect the project’s information provision, awareness raising as well as new possibilities for further education regarding participatory culture and co-creation will inspire the learning providers in amateur arts, voluntary culture and heritage to be more societal engaged to counter the current decline of cultural cohesion and mutual trust in our communities and to promote empowerment, togetherness, recognition, openness and inclusive participation among former segregated social groups. PARTNERSHIP CIRCLE The partnership circle includes 8 partners from 7 countries in Northern, Eastern and Western Europe, that represent four strong national umbrellas as well as four knowledge and research centres, representing a transnational European sum of varied expertises and experiences in the field, which we cannot find in just one of the

This is the first major study of amateur dramatics. Amateur theatre has an active place in the social and cultural life of many communities, despite receiving little intervention from funding councils, charities, local authorities and professional theatre. Moreover, the term 'amateur' is often used disparagingly; professional actors continue to deride amateur dramatics for their production values, often vociferously, despite many performers having started their careers as amateurs. For theatremakers on the political Left, the perceived conservatism of 'am drams' has been seen an obstacle to community theatre. Academics have often been conspiciously silent on the subject of amateur dramatics, favouring forms of theatre that are more palatable to radical politics and more in tune with metropolitan taste. Yet for the participants in amateur dramatics themselves, the choice of repertoire, the craft of performance and the production values are deeply important. This study will take the social and artistic intentions of amateur dramatic companies seriously. It will consider systems of apprenticeship and leadership, how casts and crew refine and develop their craft, and how their commitment to rehearsal, production, competitions and festivals shapes their skills as theatre-makers. The study will consider the social aspects of amateur dramatics: how participation fosters friendship and romance, weathers conflict and fall-outs, and sustains family involvement and community participation across generations. It will examine how amateur dramatics is viewed by audiences and valued as heritage, and the contribution made to productions by the wider communities in which they are situated. The research will focus particular attention on amateur dramatics in constructed communities, that is communities conceived to fulfil particular social and institutional functions (military bases, naval ships), or designed as utopian imaginaries of urban life (Garden Cities/ post-war New Towns and suburbia) and rural villages constructed in the transition from organic communities to commuter dormitories. By researching cultural activity in non-metropolitan communities, it will address questions of international significance by asking how and if amateur dramatics contributes to sustaining and revitalising communities; whether amateur theatre companies resist change or adapt to new circumstances; why people give time to amateur dramatics; how participation enhances wellbeing and raises the quality of community life. This research will be conducted with and by members of amateur dramatic companies, who will share their insights and local knowledge. It is significant that this research is proposed in a context in which creativity is recognised as valuable commodity in globalised, knowledge-based economies and State funding for the professional arts has been cut. In times of austerity and recession, funding for participatory arts as a means of promoting social cohesion has been eroded. Nonetheless, there is a widespread cultural anxiety that although we may be increasingly globally networked, many people scarcely know their neighbours, leading to loneliness and social isolation. This makes questions about the practice of amateur arts all the more pressing. There is urgent need to understand the social, cultural and economic significance of amateur dramatics - as one of the most social, sociable and durable cultural practices. The project will culminate in a research festival that will bring together amateur and professional theatremakers, academics and cultural policy-makers to share practice and experience, and consider future possibilities. The outcomes will be of interest to cultural policy, voluntary arts organisations, Naval and military institutions, local authorities and heritage groups, as well as to the amateur dramatic companies themselves. By studying amateur dramatics in the past and present, this research will inform the future.

This project proposes a radical re-evaluation of the relationship between participation and cultural value. Bringing together evidence from in-depth historical analyses, the re-use of existing quantitative data and new qualitative research on the detail, dynamics and significance of 'everyday participation', it will create new understandings of community formation, connectivity and capacity through participation. Orthodox models of the creative economy and ensuing cultural policy are based on a narrow definition of cultural participation; one that captures formal engagement with traditional cultural institutions, such as museums and galleries, but overlooks other activities, for instance community festivals and hobbies. This frame, founded historically on deficit based assumptions of the logics for state cultural support, misses opportunities to understand the variety of forms of participation and their (positive and negative) consequences. We argue that by creating new understandings of the relationships between everyday participation, community and cultural value, we will reveal evidence of hidden assets and resources that can be mobilised to promote better identification and more equitable resourcing of cultural opportunities, generate well-being and contribute to the development of creative local economies. The central research questions are: - How, historically, did we arrive at the definitions, fields of knowledge and policy frames informing notions of cultural participation and value today? - What are the forms and practices of everyday participation - where do they take place? How are they valued? And how do these practices relate to formal participation? - How is participation shaped by space, place and locality? - How are communities made, unmade, divided and connected through participation? - How can broader understandings of value in and through participation be used to inform the development of vibrant communities and creative local economies? - How do we reconnect cultural policy and institutions with everyday participation? Using a variety of methodologies, including historical analysis, qualitative work with communities of practice and use, and the reanalysis of existing data on participation and time-use, this project focuses on six contrasting 'cultural ecosystems' to investigate the connections between multiple understandings of community (geographical, elective, identity based etc), cultural value, 'cultural economy' and everyday participation. The findings from the situated case studies will inform four partnership-operated trials of new policy interventions or of professional or community practices. Throughout the project research will be integrated with key partners, stakeholder cultural and community organisations in order to evolve better, shared understandings of everyday cultural participation and the implications of this for policy makers and cultural organisations at national, local and community levels.