Mind The Gap origins: building bridges from concept to partnership

The idea for a project that later became Mind The Gap had been brewing for a few years. During the 2020’s the project partners and other international connections had discussed  the challenges facing art education and the surrounding social context, both at national and international level. Other projects, such as Youth Learning Through Arts (YLTA) touched on these issues, such as mental distress related to climate change among young people, and the need to continue to tackle these issues was mutually understood. 

The actual preparations for Mind The Gap began in the fall of 2023 when the lead applicant’s representative participated in a project writing workshop in Serbia. After working with the project idea by giving presentations and pitches, debating with other project writers it was time to start gathering the team. 

When the decision was made about applying for Creative Europe funding, it was time to connect with partners. You can read more about our dynamic consortium of children’s culture professionals from the partners’ introduction page. 

Months of rigorous project planning, application writing and several online meetings later the core idea of the project was crystallised. Each partner had identified a gap in their own context that they wanted to address through art education, whether it was stress management for pupils, the situation of students with reduced mobility, mental health challenges or increasing teachers’ skills. The common factor was the desire to address societal challenges conceptualised as gaps using art education methods in a school context, where it is possible to reach all children and young people of an age group.

We live in a world of constantly accelerating change. Creative methods offer a wide range of tools for tackling difficult issues. We wanted to identify key development issues from a genuinely local and national context, where other project partners could find identifiable perspectives. Peer-learning is one of the key points of the project. We support each other during the planning process and implementation of the art educational laboratories.

Mind The Gap project official commenced the 1st of November 2024. Preparations for the development laboratories and capacity building events will be in full speed during the early months of 2025. The partners will meet in Krakow in January for an official kick-off hosted by the Małopolska Institute of Culture.

We invite you all to a journey to bridge the gaps with us. The project website is a living platform for project news, events and publications. Want to learn more about the project? The fuller description of Mind The Gap can be found at About page.