Youth Art for the Earth (YAFE)

Youth Art for the Earth (YAFE) originated as an initiative of Paint the Change, which was created in 2015 to bring social action and street art together. We have produced more than 60 murals around the world, on every continent, and have engaged millions of people through digital and broadcast media with our unique mix of youth engagement, public art and public awareness campaigns. The murals are only a part of our story. Local educators and artists lead our workshops. Educators involve young people in meaningful conversations while artists help participants to express and visualise their ideas. The result is a giant work of art that becomes part of the fabric and history of the neighbourhoods where we work. Street art is an excellent tool for communication and debate, and for enhancing public spaces for the benefit of local communities.

Our goal in this project is to improve capacity for the co-creation of engaging street art that promotes inclusion and environmental sustainability by:

• Involving educators and street artists in piloting an innovative programme.
• Engaging up to 120 young participants in highly interactive workshops that build creative and critical thinking skills.
• Delivering six pieces of public art through a co-creative process for the benefit of local communities.
• Amplifying workshop discussions through film and digital media. Our focus is on older teenagers from disadvantaged and marginalised communities (half of our target group).

Our objective is to help them find a voice and a sense of agency in tackling issues of environmental sustainability, by building their creative and critical thinking skills, and by engaging them with public art. Wherever possible, we will use new environmentally friendly technologies such as carbon-absorbing paint. Our activities will take place in France, Serbia and Slovenia through the partnership of the following organisations: Nobulo and Urban Art Paris, France, Fund B92, Serbia, IRDO, the Institute for the Development of Social Responsibility, Slovenia.

In Slovenia we will implement this project together with international partners in the period from March 2023 to February 2025 (24 months). Within the project we will involve young people through workshops on the topic of youth art and sustainability, paint two murals (each in Ljubljana and Maribor) and recorded videos that will eventually be combined into an international documentary film. We will support everything with promotion and other educational and awareness-raising activities. The Youth Art for the Earth (YAFE) project represents the collaboration of cultural organizations across Europe in a program to engage young people in articulating messages and co-creating artworks about social responsibility and environmental sustainability. These workshops and murals are made possible thanks to the generous support of the European Union’s Creative Europe Programme.

More information about the YAFE project: www.paintthechange.me/yafe

IRDO institute

(Partner) Ljubljana-Dobrunje

All projects of Slovenian producer

Foreign producers in the supported project

Nobulo and Urban Art Paris (partner)

France (EU)
Fund B92 (leader)

Republic of Serbia

Funded projects

CAFÈ: Redefining Historic Cafés as European Cultural Heritage

ArtElevate – Fostering inclusive cultural expression in Europe

CARE – Culture for Mental Health

Glassmaking Between Tradition and Innovation

WONDERCUT – Collaboratively Exploring the Public Value of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Next Level Cultural Experiences

Heroes Unleashed: Implementing a Sensory Reading Program in European Public Libraries

DATAS – The Data and the Sovereign

TALKING HEADS – Conversation with the art of the past

Libraries of Emotions for Good

GreenHeritage – Nurturing a sustainable future in the gardens of time

G-BOOK 3

PAGE: a Project for Advancing coGnitivE accessibility in publishing

DIGITAL on STAGE – Unleashing the Performing Arts Experience through Digital Innovation

OASis – Open Art Spaces in Synergy

Transport: Sustainable puppet co-creations for European young audiences

Danube Dance Alliance for Development of Contemporary Dance Scene in the Danube Region

Mind the GAP

Beletrina Digital

WOMEN interACT - participatory theatre against the double exclusion of women

TECH(ing) TALES WITH A TWIST for the children of the present

DoSEL – Drama of Smaller European Languages

MUSICVILLE – Green European Opera

Operation Nova

Kino x Games

FASIH - Future Art and Science Industrial Heritage

Cultural BEES

Is this us?

Climate Art Fusion Caravane (CARAVANE)

Moving Balkans

Youth Art for the Earth (YAFE)

Shadow Pandemic: Hidden Voices

Open House Europe (OHEu)

Third Stage

VERSOPOLIS – WHERE POETRY LIVES

December: Uncomfortable Beings, Azra, Best Imaginary Friends Forever

LINA - Learn, Interact, and Network in Architecture

Reactivating unused urban spaces through architecture and arts (ReCITYing)

Art Nouveau: a new EUtopia

Creative Industries Development Centre (KUL)

Web 3.0 Accelerator for Sustainable Cultural Tourism (Web3Tour)

Studiotopia: Enter the Symbiocene with Arts and Science (Studiotopia 2)

Bio Awakening - developing bio-art practices in Western Balkan

TestArt

GREENSTAGE

Connecting Emerging Literary Artists (CELA)

Transmedia stories of insularity (TRAST)

Female Digital Creativity (FLUX)

Planet Hope (New European Fiction) (PH)

More than a Book (MTaS)

Our Little Library: Through literary bridges to reading adventures (OLLLB)

Connected with Books (CWB)

Exploring Expanded Publishing: EX-Pub

Thinking Publishing (ThinkPub)

Novel Europe (NovelEU)

REVIVE

Temporama: Mini Slate 2023

Studi Virc: Mini Slate 2023

The 10th and 11th edition of FeKK - Ljubljana Short Film Festival

The 20th and 21st Kino Otok - Isola Cinema International Film Festival

20. and 21. ANIMATEKA International animated film festival

Film in Hospital 2.0

EU Youth Cinema: Green Deal 2024-2026

Cinema without barriers (CWB)

Literary Agent Platform: Capacity building (LAP CB)

Tramal Films Mini Slate 22 (TFMini22)

Vertigo Slate 2022: Chestnuts, Memory of Autumn Mists, OHO, Splashing around

Staragara slate 22

Our Little Library: Literary exchanges (OLL LE)

Testing Ground (TestG)

Better Live

Variola - Dark Spring TV series

SEMA

Paradiso

Leave the door open

The Big Green

The Long Way Down

New approaches for local media (NEWLOCAL)

Life Long Burning – Futures Lost and Found (LLB3)

Time For Live Art (LIVETIME)