CREAR VALE LA PENA is a nongovernmental organization who since 1997, is working in a politic of social transformation through art which aims to achieve equality and generates programs which integrates art, education and community action in different areas of the country.
- To recover the position of art as a right and driving force for people’s lives.
- To improve the quality and conditions of life for children, adolescents and youth who have few opportunities
- To promote joint actions through high quality artistic practices that generate social integration, effective citizenship, promotion of human rights, interaction between cultures and sustainability through art
- To reform artistic and cultural spaces in order to pursue better access to and creation of high quality artistic productions.
- To generate, through artistic spaces, the integration of worlds that draw people and contents towards better collectives that can finally achieve an equitable and peaceful society.
- To encourage spaces for theoretical/practical training (existential, participatory and in groups) and investigation into art and social transformation.
- To present artistic productions that allow reflection about questions linking art and social transformation through diverse artistic languages.
- To work for the promotion of new audiences and the construction of collective thought and active citizenship between youth and adults.
- To progress with diverse social actors towards multi-sectorial spaces with the objective of jointly approaching problems from which society suffers such as discrimination, violence, indifference and the construction of citizenship.
Training trainers:
At Crear Vale la Pena we believe that to advance social transformation we should organize trainings of trainers in new tools to advance culture and promote knowledge and practices of social organizations.
This implies the reformation of artistic and cultural spaces, making them more able to create integration between particular worlds that draw people and contents toward better collectives that can finally bring forth an equitable and peaceful society.
We provide theoretical and practical training (existential, participatory, and in groups) and investigation into art and social transformation. Training sessions are developed from Crear Vale la Pena’s areas of expertise - art, education, social organization, social integration, identity, citizenship and rights. We produce conceptual, choreographed, dramatic, musical and audiovisual works.
We encourage artistic productions that permit reflection on questions linked to art and social transformation articulated through diverse artistic mediums. These productions are also designed to attract new audiences.
We believe that the learning process is more effective when participants have the opportunity to commit themselves to concrete projects that favour exchange, analysis and discussion about the process of learning and the implementation of learned knowledge. We also aim to create spaces that encourage participation and the effective exercise of human rights.
During 2008 we organized 20 trainings and workshops (1891 participants), 7 conferences (1269 participants), and 6 artistic presentations (1000 participants) for more than 4000 participants, in different parts of the country: the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Suburbs of Buenos Aires, the Province of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Jujuy, Santa Cruz, Mendoza, Cordoba and Tierra del Fuego.
Promotion in networks: we understand that the path to social transformation is a collective construction that can only succeed through the exchange of knowledge where we challenge ourselves to move beyond our spaces and closed institutions to open those institutions to other experiences.
In order that our practices are truly transformative we should generate spaces and itinerant knowledge to draw people and content towards transformative artistic collectives.
In this way, we will generate diverse, new questions and new possible answers for the construction of an equitable society.
Networks and Alliances of Artistic Transformers:
- We form part of the Metropolitan Alliance of Art and Social Transformation along with El Culebron Timbal (Moreno), Grupo Catalinas Sur (la Boca) and Circuito Cultural Barracas. The alliance was founded as a group for specific action in the city and suburbs of Buenos Aires to strengthen the local network of art and social transformation (www.artetransformadorargentina.blogspot.com)
- National Network of Art for Social Transformation. Consists of the members of the Metropolitan Alliance, along with La Grieta, Cultura sin Moño (Rosario), Cre-Arte (Bariloche), Andean Centre for Education and Musical Culture Musica Esperanza (Tilcara), Community Theatre Network (with groups on a national level), C.H.I.C.O.S. Association (Rosario), Free Air Association (Rosario), Chascomus School Orchestra, Social Circus of the South (City of Buenos Aires).
- From its beginning we formed, the Latin American Network of Art for Social Transformation along with organizations from Brasil, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Guatemala and Costa Rica. We promoted joint actions through quality artistic practices that favour social integration, effective citizenship, promotion of human rights, interculturallity and sustainability through art. (www.artetransformador.net).
Support and accompaniment of other experiences of art and social transformation:
We continue our work in the original territory of Crear through the promotion of a new social organization “Engranajes” which is the responsibility of the cultural centres. We accompany this implementation with funds for and supervision of the activities.
In the nature of multiplication of knowledge and practices of development throughout the path of Crear, we have promoted the construction and accompaniment of a community cultural centre (“Nuestro Lugar”) in Pico Truncado, Santa Cruz- along with OXY Argentina, which offers workshops and other artistic proposals that gather 100 children and youth each week. Also, in the frame of these actions in the Pico Truncado zone, along with the team of “Mas Color” and the community, we developed a painting community reaching 152 houses and 3 painted public spaces.
We support for the creation of a School Orchestra in the neighbourhood La Sauce-Beccar and in conjunction with the Biblioteca Popular La Sauce.
