EVENS FOUNDATION ANNUAL REPORT 2017 LIVING TOGETHER HARMONIOUSLY IN EUROPE
CONTENTS OUR MISSION I WHAT WE DO I ABOUT THE EVENS FOUNDATION
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CHAIRWOMAN’S MESSAGE
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PEACE EDUCATION The Peace Education Prize Conflict Matters Conference Conflict Matters Platform ‘Hot topics’ – Embracing controversy Learning Communities for Peace Dream Your School CyberSense Poland and Belgium EduCATe
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MEDIA The Media Education Prize The Prize for European Journalism Difference Day – World Press Freedom Day Media Meets Literacy in Sarajevo Visual Literacy: How to Think and Act with Images MediaCoach Polska Lab – Urban media citizenship laboratory Ersilia – questioning images EMELS – European Media Literacy Standard
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EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP Enhancing EU citizenship in a changing world FutureLab Europe The Cycle of Conferences The Arts Prize The Science Prize What’s Your ID? Poland Young Art Reporters
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OUR MISSION The Evens Foundation initiates, develops and supports projects that encourage citizens and ultimately nations to live together harmoniously in a diverse Europe. It promotes respect for diversity, both individual and collective, and works to strengthen people’s physical, psychological and ethical integrity.
WHAT WE DO The Evens Foundation initiates and supports sustainable projects, and awards biennial prizes that contribute to the progress and strengthening of Europe, based on cultural and social diversity, in the fields of: · Peace Education · Media · European Citizenship
ABOUT THE EVENS FOUNDATION The Evens Foundation is a public-benefit foundation with headquarters in Antwerp, Belgium and additional offices in Paris and Warsaw. Created in 1990, it owes its existence to the generosity of the late Mrs Irène Evens-Radzyminska and Mr Georges Evens, philanthropists and European enthusiasts. Of Polish origin, they settled after the Second World War in Antwerp, where Mr Evens pursued a remarkable career in the diamond industry. Given his great success in business, he and Mrs Evens-Radzyminska decided to give something back to society – through the Evens Foundation. Mrs Corinne Evens – daughter of the two founders – is Honorary President of the Foundation. Mrs Monique Canto-Sperber is Chairwoman of the Executive Committee.
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for the European Union. With its enduring hope for a better future, the
which offers momentum for increased attention to media education, but
Foundation is faithful to its motto, and continues to disseminate its out-
also poses the risk that a much-needed wide and creative approach to
put with the goal to inspire further initiatives. Determined to play its part
media literacy is narrowed down to a reactive one. Given the focus of the
in the definition of a new role for philanthropy, we are further strengthen-
Evens Foundation on media education for children and young people,
ing our cooperation with EFC and joining other foundations in specific
we launched initiatives in Poland, under the name of Polska Lab, an
actions.
urban media laboratory to promote critical and creative use of diverse media channels. We continued to support the MediaCoach training pro-
CHAIRWOMAN’S MESSAGE
The Peace Education program is at the heart of the Evens Foundation’s
gram, which also includes a focus on the active and creative aspects of
initiatives. Living in diverse and heterogeneous societies raises difficult
media literacy.
challenges, and education can do much to overcome them. Many projects undertaken by our Foundation seek to make the wish for more
Our biennial media literacy magazine was published in 2017, and this
The year 2017 was an important year for the development of the Evens
harmonious European schools a reality. They have been successful in
third edition was dedicated to visual literacy. The choice of theme was
Foundation. We concluded many projects in the framework of our stra-
bringing together professionals (practitioners and educators), invited to
inspired by our work on the innovative online platform Ersilia, developed
tegic plan 2016-2017 and launched several initiatives in order to prepare
attend training workshops on controversial issues, and to experiment
by Le Bal in France, offering students and teachers tools for a better
our next projects, which will start throughout 2018.
with new strategies to confront tensions and conflicts in school settings
understanding of images. Finally, a lot of work was devoted to Media
while adopting a non-normative approach.
Meets Literacy in Sarajevo, a European gathering where media literacy professionals (practitioners, scholars and policy makers) explored the
The strategic plan was implemented through several pioneering projects, many of which started in 2016 and were prolonged and broad-
The Conflict Matters conference, held in London in November 2017,
challenges of the changing media world. The conference also offered
ened, giving them a more enduring outreach. Peace Education, Media
focused on exploring the role and the transformative potential of conflict
the stage for our 2017 Prize for Media Education award ceremony.
Education and European Citizenship have been confirmed as the key
in education, relying on arguments and reason but taking on board the
topics in which the Evens Foundation has a solid track record of ex-
emotional implications of sensitive issues. Through its Peace Education
European Citizenship still functions as a connecting thread between
pertise.
Prize, the Evens Foundation awarded excellent practice of using dia-
the two other programs. Awareness-raising and promoting harmony
logue tools and other strategies to broach sensitive topics in schools.
through difference are key in this program. We partnered in the Brussels
As is often the case with action plans carried out over two years, 2017
During the conference we brought together shortlisted candidates for an
Days / Journées de Bruxelles on the topic of Europe: Yes we can! We
saw the completion of projects launched the year before. As such,
exchange seminar. Building on three pilot projects conducted in Belgium,
continued to support the FutureLab Europe project to encourage young
conferences, teacher trainings, educational resources and platforms
Poland and France, we also broadened our own experience in promot-
Europeans in their active citizenship efforts. Finally, we held a challeng-
remained key manifestations of the Foundation’s activity in 2017. The
ing dialogue in educational settings, in the Embracing Controversy initi-
ing meeting in Paris, in the Centre Pompidou, on New populisms and
Journalism Prize was awarded in May 2017 in Brussels (on the occa-
ative. In an attempt to support schools to engage in sustained dialogue
diverse paths of Euroscepticisms.
sion of Difference Day), the Media Meets Literacy Conference was held
with the broader school community, we supported the development of
in September in Sarajevo, and the Conflict Matters conference and
strategies to transform schools into Learning Communities for Peace,
These initiatives confirmed the unique place of the Evens Foundation
the awarding of the Peace Education Prize took place in November in
while the Dream Your School initiative encouraged children to share ide-
among European foundations. However, we will never rest on our lau-
London. The ongoing process of convincing and mobilizing our partners
as about the ideal school they would like to be part of.
rels, but will keep on finding new ways to promote harmonious living-
and active communities truly payed off in bringing our projects to life.
together in a diverse Europe, and keep rising to the new challenges that
The preparatory work conducted in 2016 was key to the success of our
Our Media Education program continued its focus on promoting media
emerge in the years ahead. Our next annual report will present a full
initiatives, and yielded results in 2017.
literacy. Initiatives related to the capacity to understand the media and
range of innovative projects designed for our new strategic plan.
to critically assess the value of information are conditions for the deThe Evens Foundation is more than ever oriented towards European
velopment of highly aware and responsible citizens. Around the world,
issues, especially as 2017 remained a year of numerous difficulties
there was intensified awareness of the detrimental effect of false news,
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Monique Canto-Sperber, Chairwoman
PEACE EDUCATION The Foundation believes that one of the ultimate goals of education is to find ways to live well together, respecting our differences and still being able to build a world in common. For the past 10 years, the foundation has actively supported educational projects in the field of conflict transformation in the framework of its Peace Education program. In particular we focused on exploring how to turn conflict into an educational opportunity in order to address major educational challenges. In response to the increasing discords and polarization in our societies, we recently broadened our perspective to investigate the potential of conflict in the process of social transformation. Our work included: fostering collaboration between researchers and education professionals; initiating innovative methodologies and testing them through pilot projects; supporting the exchange of inspiring practices; facilitating networking among EU-based organizations active in the field, and supporting organizations in their efforts to convince policymakers of the importance of conflict management in education.
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THE PEACE EDUCATION PRIZE For the 2017 edition of this biennial European prize, the Evens Foundation looked for strategies implemented in secondary schools for dealing with ‘hot topics’ in a constructive way. A total of 13 high-quality projects from all over Europe were selected for the shortlist. During the Conflict Matters Conference in London, the Evens Prize for Peace Education 2017 was awarded to New-Bridge Integrated College in Loughbrickland, Northern Ireland. On this occasion, all shortlisted candidates were invited to an exchange seminar in order to share experiences and good practices. According to the international jury of experts, New-Bridge Integrated College had developed an impressive and strongly embedded project that continues to break new ground in relation to integrated education in Northern Ireland, with an approach that is very transferable to other EU countries and contexts. While the project arose in the polarized education system in Northern Ireland, it also integrates more recent problematics (social and cultural mix, mixed-ability students). It helps teachers to respond to everyday diversity as well as to transform controversial subjects into a learning opportunity. The project is
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steered by the school and has strong leadership, both from the Senior Leadership Team and the Community Relations, Equality and Diversity team. It also has a solid peer-learning dimension: the project was developed by teachers for their colleagues. It focuses on both knowledge and skills development, and works with teachers, pupils and families. The cross-curricular approach to controversial issues is being mainstreamed into formal education processes across the school, and is accepted by all stakeholders. To ensure a consistent approach to teaching controversial issues, the project offers teachers specific training, ideas, tools and activities to work positively with controversial or sensitive issues when they arise, as well as material to prepare lessons on controversial subjects. It does not expect teachers to follow extensive training courses but rather to start working and build their competences and confidence to deal with such topics step by step, at their own pace. The laureate received a cash award of €25,000, some of which is to be used to share their vision and good practices with colleagues in other European countries.
CONFLICT MATTERS CONFERENCE The Conflict Matters Conference is a biennial event exploring the role and transformative potential of conflict, both for individuals and society. It was designed as a platform for practitioners and researchers from across Europe to meet, learn from each other and reflect on strategies to work with conflict in a productive way. The 2017 edition, organized in collaboration with the Faculty of Education of the University of Cambridge and the British Academy, took place at Friends House in London from 8-10 November 2017, gathering more than 200 educators and researchers from across Europe. In response to the increasing discords and polarization in our societies, the conference opened with a public debate at the British Academy featuring Richard Sennett, Srecko Horvat, Tariq Modood, Paulina Tambakaki and Colin Crouch. They discussed the place of conflict in contemporary democratic practices and institutions, and
reflected on the institutions, space and practices needed to address the conflicts and struggles that structure our societies.
Discover the conference videos and website, and stay tuned in 2018 to learn about future Conflict Matters initiatives by the Evens Foundation.
The second part of the conference focused in particular on the educational policies and practices needed to transform the tensions and conflicts that structure our contemporary societies into learning opportunities both in the classroom and beyond. The event featured contributions by internationally acclaimed scholars and a series of experiential sessions to discover methods and strategies that allow confrontation to be expressed but at the same time transform it into inclusive egalitarian dialogue. Ultimately, the conference sought to engage in reflection on how education can enable everyone to act as equal political subjects. It was also the occasion to award the 2017 Evens Prize for Peace Education to New-Bridge Integrated College in the presence of the jury members and the other shortlisted candidates.
CONFLICT MATTERS PLATFORM In 2015, the Evens Foundation launched the conflictmatters.eu platform to collect, share and highlight good practices in the field of constructive conflict transformation in school settings. It provides a space for reflective practice among peers. It functions as an additional platform to enable dissemination and connection on a broader scale. In a wider perspective, it will help the Foundation to identify key elements that make a practice innovative or successful.
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In 2017, the Escola de Cultura de Pau, our partner for this project, focused mainly on the description and publication of new practices. To discover the educational good practices collected around Europe, you can browse the map geographically, or select the practices according to the different tags.
‘HOT TOPICS’ – EMBRACING CONTROVERSY In the past few years, controversial events and issues have provoked educators to spontaneously put together recommendations to help their colleagues discuss hot topics in the classroom. This mobilization reveals the urgent need for educational strategies for teachers confronted with challenging views among students, and the demand to discuss complex and divisive issues. While a number of traditional debating tools are used in educational settings, they do not specifically tackle hot topics, and, being based on reasoned and tempered debating, they fail to take account of the emotional implications of sensitive issues. To answer this need, the Evens Foundation initiated three pilot projects in Belgium, France and Poland for (future) teachers and educators on how to deal and debate with students on sensitive and/or controversial topics, taking the different national contexts into consideration. In Poland, the project was developed in close consultation with 30 pilot schools. In the preparatory stage of the project, the Center for Citizenship Education, our local partner in this initiative, conducted a diagnostic study among teachers and young people in the whole country. The results of the research helped us to define the most difficult and controversial topic areas. In addition, we selected five tools for tackling hot topics in schools: film education, forum theatre, social campaigns, round tables and co-resolve. These were tested and implemented in schools, and students and teachers chose a model to work with. The best solutions, practices and effects were evaluated and published in the form of ready-to-use toolkits with exercises and audiovisual materials, and presented during the Education Leadership conference in Warsaw in June 2017. In Belgium, we initiated a collaboration with Democratic Dialogue
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to examine how dialogue principles could be integrated transversally in the educational curriculum of the Bachelor of Secondary Education program at Erasmushogeschool (Erasmus University College), Brussels.
on establishing constructive dialogue about these sensitive topics. This guidance can serve as a tool in promoting the implementation of the democratic dialogue principles within the Teachers Bachelor of Secondary Education program.
Educational curricula enable the build-up of constructive behavior through learning activities, as well as the further development and evaluation of these activities. The educational curriculum proposed by Democratic Dialogue advocates an inclusive approach to the dialogue competencies, meaning that it does not entail extra work but rather a different way of working.
In France, the Evens Foundation initiated collaboration with our long-term partner, La Ligue de l’Enseignement, the biggest French network of non-formal education. Together, we are developing a digital platform for teachers and educators to help them tackle sensitive and controversial issues and turn them into learning opportunities. This will centralize both existing resources and case studies of several experimentations we have conducted in the frameworks of the project.
In September 2016, they began in-house research with lecturers and students to determine how future teachers are being prepared to engage in and facilitate dialogue on sensitive topics with/ between their pupils. The discussions indicated a clear need for a preliminary process in order to develop the intended cultural awareness and approach. Most lecturers felt insufficiently prepared to facilitate a dialogue about sensitive social topics, and both students and lecturers felt insufficiently aware of the current urban challenges within the education system. In a second phase, ideas and suggestions based on Democratic Dialogue’s experience of supporting schools in dealing with tensions and polarization were piloted with students and lecturers. The result of this work is summed up in a guide that aims to define and support the development of skills and competences permitting democratic dialogue at school. In this way, teachers are prepared to accompany students in learning how to relate their set of values to those of others within an increasingly diverse context. The educational curriculum they propose, which lasts three years, comprises identification of sensitive social topics and know-how
LEARNING COMMUNITIES FOR PEACE Many urban areas in Europe suffer from structural inequalities and often dysfunctional integration policies. The resulting tensions have intensified the fear of difference. The erosion of trust particularly affects strongly migrant communities and the schools within them. How can such schools and the communities surrounding them engage in the kind of sustained dialogue, integration and peacebuilding that is so urgently needed? Over the past years, we noticed that traditional approaches to peace education seemed to fall short of proposing adequate strategies.
In an attempt to support schools to engage in sustained dialogue with the broader school community so as to improve the wellbeing of pupils, the climate in the schools and living-together in the wider community, a consortium of six partners brought together by the Evens Foundation launched Learning Communities for Peace. This European project, funded by Erasmus+, aims to support primary schools to build their own unique peacebuilding strategy and become hubs for peace within their community. The project was launched in November 2016, with the first partners meeting in Sweden, and it will last until May 2019.
In early 2017, the Evens Foundation organized and hosted Joint Staff Training in Antwerp for the partners to introduce their experience and train each other in their respective methods and approaches. During spring 2017, the four operational partners (Greece, Croatia, UK and Sweden) identified the pilot schools they will be working with. In April 2017, representatives from the schools and the partners came together in Zadar (Croatia) for a European Learning Communities for Peace Lab to get familiar with a set of strategies, actions and ideas proposed by the partners. In September 2017, the implementation phase steered by the pilot schools in close consultation with operational partners was launched. This phase, which lasts until June 2018, is being monitored by researchers from the University of Cambridge. Afterwards, the partners will start developing a set of intellectual outputs to share the project experience with policymakers and other primary schools that have an interest in working with the broader school community.
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DREAM YOUR SCHOOL It’s almost always adults who come up with ideas about changing school – even though they are no longer at school and generally base their proposals on abstract ideas or specific adult concerns. That’s why the Evens Foundation launched the European project, Dream Your School, in which children themselves were encouraged to express their ideas about improving their school, or education in general. The project was developed with three partners of the Foundation: the association a21-Apprendre au 21ème siècle (France), ONCA (UK) and CEO (Poland). Each partner ran workshops with schoolchildren to brainstorm and develop concrete proposals. They then organized public events where students and education specialists discussed the proposals. Finally, the resulting ideas were disseminated among policymakers and the broader public through a publication in French, Polish and English. In this publication, a newspaper, the three partners outlined their project, including the proposals of the children, as well as of some mixed child/adult groups. The result was a fascinating overview of how European children ‘dream their school’. The project has both an educational and a political dimension, in that it promotes the growth and creativity of children, who learn how to take responsibility and develop their democratic and civic skills, while also encouraging policymakers to change education for the better. The Evens Foundation and partners, by disseminating these great ideas, aim to put them at the heart of public debate and thus help to reinvent the school of tomorrow.
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CYBERSENSE POLAND AND BELGIUM Given the rise of cyberbullying and hate-speech online, the Evens Foundation decided to develop a project on social media and conflict at the intersection of our Media and Peace Education Program: a European project around the topic of cyberbullying, realized in two countries, Poland and Belgium. As a starting point, the project used the online resource developed by the UK-based Ariel Trust, which helps to equip children (9-11) with the skills to recognize, respond to and report cyberbullying and promote staying safe online. It includes exercises that get young people discussing these important issues in an informal way, while it also gives them the opportunity to practice how to react when confronted with incidents of cyberbullying. Facilitated by the Evens Foundation, Ariel Trust introduced the partners to the theory and methodology behind the program during a partners meeting in March 2017. They then started working with each partner to adapt the program to the local context and develop customized content. In Poland the project was developed in partnership with Towarzystwo Edukacji Antydyskryminacyjnej (TEA) (the Anti-Discrimination Education Society). Under the guidance of Ariel Trust and supported by the Evens Foundation, TEA developed new animations and introduced the translated and adapted CyberSense program in the Polish context to over 100 educators, in the form of animations and educational materials. In Belgium, Pimento was selected as the project partner. The results of their work will be presented at a media education conference in Belgium on 17 May 2018.
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EDUCATE After meeting in Warsaw during the Learning Lab on the Promotion of Conflict Management in Education organized by the Foundation in 2014, six partner organizations formed a transnational team to further develop their collaboration by combining their experience in constructive and nonviolent conflict transformation (NVCT). In spring 2015, the consortium applied for funding for their EduCATe project. In July 2015, the project was selected for funding by the French Erasmus + Agency. The goal of the project is threefold. The partners aim to create and test a common training program to help teachers deal with conflicts nonviolently (phase 1), develop a common advocacy strategy and support each other in advocating NVCT in education in their respective countries (phase 2). Finally, they wish to establish a European network that connects different actors in this field. The work began in fall 2015 and intensified during 2016 as the partners researched the state of the art in their respective countries. The Foundation is mainly involved in the advocacy work, providing a state of the art of international policy related to this topic as well as a shared position paper for the organizations to use in their advocacy work. The work on this project continued in 2017 with a pilot training and partner meetings in Barcelona and Gothenburg. It will be concluded with a partner meeting and multiplier event in May 2018, taking place in Belgium.
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MEDIA To promote harmonious living together, the Evens Foundation seeks to stimulate efforts to increase media literacy by raising critical awareness and encouraging media creativity. Both activities help to develop highly aware, active and responsible citizens. We define media literacy as the ability to access and understand the media, take a critical approach to media content, and be able to create communication in a variety of contexts. Thus, in the media domain, the Foundation has been working in particular on projects that enhance the media literacy of citizens, with a special focus on formal as well as non-formal and informal media education for children and young people. We support projects that raise understanding of how the media influence perceptions and convictions; encourage a strong sense of responsibility among journalists and editors, and in particular young journalists, so that they use the power of journalism to reduce conflict and promote harmony in European society, and, finally, research the role of the new social media in both conflict and conflict management.
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THE MEDIA EDUCATION PRIZE Young people are extremely vulnerable to manipulation by the media. Within the constant stream of media messages (24-hour news cycle, endless feeds on social media platforms, specialist sites, etc), false and manipulative messages – from all sides of the ideological spectrum – are distributed to influence thoughts, opinions and behavior. On top of that, an increasing number of online hatemongers seek to polarize society into competitive or even enemy groups, with growing extremism and radicalization as a worrisome result. Therefore, the Foundation decided that the fifth Evens Prize for Media Education, awarded in 2017, should focus on projects that help young people, aged 12 to 18, to develop a critical attitude to the media.
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The prize was aimed at European initiatives that creatively address these issues in informal or non-formal learning contexts. After site visits of 13 shortlisted organizations (out of 50 applicants), an international jury of external experts made the decision. The Evens Prize for Media Education 2017 was awarded to ZaLab, Rome, Italy for its Project Otherness. The international jury praised it for its exciting approach to media literacy as something connected to lived experience, participation and production – all based around a hub in the community and addressing key issues of our times.
The standard of entries was so high that the jury also awarded a Special Jury Prize, which went to the Association for Communication and Media Culture in Zagreb, Croatia for its project Djeca medija (Children of Media). The jury were impressed by the way the project involves both academics and volunteers, how it approaches the media as part of lived experience, its importance in the context of Croatia, and the impact it has on both participants and volunteers. The award ceremony took place at the Media Meets Literacy conference that the Evens Foundation organized in Sarajevo, on 21-22 September 2017.
THE PRIZE FOR EUROPEAN JOURNALISM The Foundation’s Media program has two main aims: to increase media literacy and to promote high-quality journalism. Combining this with its European scope, which runs transversally through all activities, the Board decided to establish the Evens Prize for European Journalism to reward journalists whose work contributes greatly to making Europe more comprehensible and accessible to a broad audience. The laureates must be European journalists (working and living in the EU) with an impressive record in reporting, and/or commenting on Europe. For the 2017 edition of the prize, the Board invited a nomination committee to draw up a shortlist of candidates who meet the strict
criteria. An international jury of journalism experts then assessed this shortlist and decided on the winners. The Evens Prize for European Journalism was awarded to Tom Nuttall of The Economist, and Christoph Zotter of Profil magazine was awarded the Encouragement Award for a young journalist under 36. The two laureates were honored at the Difference Day event on Wednesday, 3 May 2017 in BOZAR, Brussels. Tom Nuttall writes on European politics and economics in The Economist’s Charlemagne column. Among other issues, he has covered the European migrant crisis, the rise of populism, the
DIFFERENCE DAY – WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY In 1993, the United Nations General Assembly declared the 3rd of May as World Press Freedom Day to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press, and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression. In 2015, the Evens Foundation, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Erasmushogeschool Brussel, BOZAR & iMinds (now imec) named this special day Difference Day, which is intended to honor individuals and organizations who make a difference by defending and promoting these values. On 3 May 2017, the founding partners were joined by other organizations – including WAN, EBU, ACT, MPAA, the European Commission, UNESCO, and the European Parliament – to celebrate the third edition of Difference Day with debates, workshops and discussions about this fundamental theme that concerns us all.
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Highlights of the event included a conversation with Edward Snowden, who joined the event digitally via video stream. Live Magazine returned with their captivating format of storytelling, in which performances are neither recorded nor broadcast; instead authors, photographers, journalists and artists go on stage to tell the audience stories. In that way, it’s all in the ‘here and now’. During the festive concluding ceremony, aside from the Evens Prize for European Journalism, other titles handed out included the Difference Day Honorary Title for freedom of expression, awarded to the Global Investigative Journalism Network.
Greek bailout and Brexit. He is the author of ‘Looking for a home’, a report on the world’s refugees. He is a regular commentator on television and radio. Christoph Zotter is an Austrian journalist who uses storytelling techniques to bring readers closer to understanding highly complicated but extremely important matters at European Union level. He thinks it crucial to find ways of making the often very technical activities in Brussels, The Hague and Strasbourg more accessible for his readers.
MEDIA MEETS LITERACY IN SARAJEVO We’ve witnessed in the past few years a tidal wave of fake news, disinformation and propaganda, rapidly disseminated through the Internet and other media. Given the social and political consequences, it is more crucial than ever that our citizens be critical users of the media. Civil society is maintained by having informed, critical and media-literate citizens, while the media – from radio and television to the Internet and social networks – are the essential means of informing the public in our democracies.
After the successful Media Meets Literacy event in Warsaw in 2015, a pan-European gathering where media-literacy professionals explored the challenges of the changing media world, the Foundation decided to organize a second edition of the event. It was once again aimed at reinforcing dialogue, cooperation and partnerships between the education/training and media sectors, as well as other stakeholders, including civil society and youth organizations.
Media Meets Literacy in Sarajevo was held on 21-22 September 2017, in partnership with the European Commission, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and Mediacentar Sarajevo. With around 250 participants and experts – media-literacy scholars, practitioners, journalists and policymakers – the conference was once again a well-attended, successful event. It included a variety of workshop formats, a networking session where the ‘living library’ format was mixed with a form of professional speed dating, and short, inspirational storytelling presentations. It was preceded by a pre-conference series of interactive seminars: Propaganda Lab. The choice of Sarajevo marks the expansion of Evens Foundation activities into the Balkans. It was motivated by the fact that we also wished to reach educators and practitioners who have less access to more formal initiatives such as media-literacy knowledge centers. The strong interest in our conference of attendees from South-East Europe confirmed that we filled an important gap by branching out into the region. For more information on Media Meets Literacy, see: www.mediameetsliteracy.eu
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VISUAL LITERACY: HOW TO THINK AND ACT WITH IMAGES The Foundation publishes its Media Literacy in Europe magazine to highlight inspiring projects that seek to increase media literacy in Europe. Following the first two editions, 12 Projects that Will Inspire You and Inspiring Ways to Involve Parents, in 2016 it began working on a third edition of the magazine, devoted to visual literacy. The Foundation invited View – the Foundation for Visual Culture, Poland to collaborate on the magazine. Published in September 2017 and first available at Media Meets Literacy in Sarajevo, the magazine combines a number of theoretical-conceptual essays by renowned experts – including
documenta 14 curator Hendrik Folkerts and 2011 Evens Arts Prize laureate Sven Augustijnen – with a more practical overview of best practices in visual literacy. It covers issues such as the theoretical framework of what visual literacy is and why it is important, and reflects on the role the image plays in our contemporary world, visual activism and how images are used for political purposes, how seeing and decoding an image can be a democratic action, how to be image-literate and image-critical, and to avoid being deceived by images, and so on. The 12 practical chapters highlight a wide variety of good practices from different EU member states.
MEDIACOACH Once again, the Evens Foundation supported the Belgian MediaCoach program in Flanders, the French community and Brussels. The project partners are Media Animation for the French-speaking part of the country and Mediawijs, Mediaraven, LINC, Cultuurconnect for Flanders. The training program was developed for teachers, youth workers, librarians and others who work with youngsters and/or adults and who want to integrate media literacy in their professional environment. It combines theory with practice and supports the participants in preparing and presenting a personal media project that they want to use in their professional context.
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For this edition, running from September 2016 to June 2017, with 83 Flemish and 28 French-speaking participants, the partners decided to differentiate topics more clearly by organizing a series of workshops (such as “Social media and vulnerable groups”, “Creating a social media protocol”, “Digital storytelling”, “Augmented reality” and “The Internet of Things”) as well as a public conference on conspiracy theories and educational suggestions to decode them. This differentiation allowed participants to select the topics they considered most interesting for their professional context.
In June 2017, participants were invited to present their media education project to a professional jury, who discovered great variety in both topics and methods. As the MediaCoach project has proved increasingly successful, the training program will continue with another edition in 2017-2018. https://mediawijs.be/mediacoach https://media-animation.be/MediaCoach
POLSKA LAB – URBAN MEDIA CITIZENSHIP LABORATORY Polska Lab was a two-year urban media citizenship laboratory, launched by the Association of Creative Initiatives “ę” and the Evens Foundation in medium-sized cities in Poland. We combined the potential of local NGO organizations working with young people, city activists, and experts in the field of new media and new technology, with the aim of increasing civic awareness and strengthening the influence of the young people in the space they lived in.
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The modern educational system lacks time to develop social awareness in young people. However, rank-and-file initiatives, non-governmental movements and citizen initiatives are growing stronger in Poland. They put pressure on the government, fight for citizen-friendly space, flag abnormalities, and care for common goods. Such informal projects create an opportunity to drive social change, which in turn can be enhanced by wise use of new media and technology.
Polska Lab focused on critical and creative use of these tools, while reflecting on the needs and challenges of the ‘real world’. Our aim was to unleash the potential that lies in medium-sized cities by supporting those who work for local communities and strengthening the processes taking place there. Two open recruitments took place in 2016 and 2017; we chose to work in Przemyśl, a town in the eastern borderland, on the subject of national minorities and tolerance, and Jarocin in central-western Poland, on the subject of city activism. With our aid, partner organizations formed local partnerships consisting of municipal citizen organizations as well as experts in new media and/or new technology. We helped them to organize two one-week Media Citizenship Laboratory events for local youth (mid-high and high school) in 2017, focused on a social issue that is important for the local community, local organizations, young people and local partners.
ERSILIA – QUESTIONING IMAGES Ersilia is a unique digital visual literacy platform, initiated with the support of the Evens Foundation. Launched in 2016, it offers students, teachers and artists a comprehensive way of questioning and thinking about the world of images. It is the result of three years of experimentation led by LE BAL, a research and exhibition center in Paris dedicated to the image, and its pedagogical arm, La Fabrique du Regard, in close collaboration with a team of teachers and students. Supported by the French Ministries of Education and Culture, Ersilia benefits from a nationwide dissemination campaign. Several thousand users – teachers, students and artists – have registered on Ersilia, and hundreds of education professionals have participated in the trainings and workshops.
© copyright LE BAL
EMELS – EUROPEAN MEDIA LITERACY STANDARD EMELS is a project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. It is led by Modern Poland Foundation (Fundacja Nowoczesna Polska) and has as partners the Evens Foundation, Mediawijs/imec (Belgium), Ariel Trust (UK), JFF (Germany), Karpos (Greece) and Zaffiria (Italy). The main goal is to develop a standard of media literacy for youth workers, so as to strengthen the value of developing media-literacy skills and digital competencies in the young people they work with.
common approach to media-education training, learn from each other and exchange experiences. The partners are also consulting with several organizations and institutions involved in media literacy and youth work. The envisaged standard will be an innovative tool that should be useful during the preparation of media-literacy activities planned by youth workers. Exchange of best practices is fostered through the MIL/PEER platform supported by the Evens Foundation. The project will conclude in 2018.
The project brings together international experts to develop a
www.emels.eu
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EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP Major steps have been taken toward creating a peaceful, democratic and multicultural society in Europe. The Evens Foundation seeks to contribute to this process by raising people’s awareness of the need for peacebuilding and by collaborating with those who work to maintain harmony in European society. The Foundation also seeks to empower citizens and encourage them to take an active part in shaping the future of Europe. In the European Citizenship program, the Foundation focuses on projects that link the local with the European level.
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ENHANCING EU CITIZENSHIP IN A CHANGING WORLD Various forms of populism have emerged in recent years, both in Europe and in the Western world in general. This is not the first wave of populism in international history, yet there is a widespread impression that it has new, distinctive features. Indeed, all the current populist movements have a strong Internet presence, and use the web to broadcast their positions. The political situation is also unusual, given the reassuring framework of the European Union. Yet this framework is increasingly perceived as the source of many problems, which tend to erase the very reasons why it was established. Sixty years after the signing of the Treaty of Rome, the Evens Foundation, in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou and its Bibliothèque Publique d’Information, organized a public debate and scientific conference on 29 and 30 November 2017 in Paris, titled “New Populisms and Diverse Paths of Euroscepticism”. The aim was to raise a number of questions that seem relevant in most European countries, whether these questions are indeed new or are only novel versions of an ever-existing phenomenon. We wanted to better understand the reasons why these problems arise in order to rethink the definition of the European project and find ways to answer the questions and concerns that keep cropping up. The conference and public debate brought together experts in European issues, political philosophy and the political history of the continent, including Wolfgang Merkel, Thierry Chopin, Thomas Serrier, Mauve Carbonell and Cédric Durand.
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FUTURELAB EUROPE Europe has a multi-level governance system, and participation in European democracies starts at grassroots level. Yet policymakers, both at European and national level, are disconnected from citizens’ daily considerations and Europe is too often perceived as an elite project. With that in mind, the Evens Foundation decided to continue its support for the FutureLab Europe project, which encourages young Europeans in active citizenship efforts at their level, i.e. their communities. It gives them a chance to shape the reality around them by supporting the implementation of their projects. At the same time, it connects young active citizens with a strong interest in matters of European relevance – mainly democracy and participation, equal opportunities for young people, and European identity. Participants develop their own ideas and positions and implement their own projects, while using them to address decisionmakers with specific messages. The chosen projects will be developed during 2018. FutureLab Europe is a joint initiative with the King Baudouin Foundation, Fritt Ord Foundation, Robert Bosch Stiftung, Allianz Kulturstiftung for Europe, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Real Maestranza de Caballería de Ronda, the European Policy Centre, and the Network of European Foundations.
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THE CYCLE OF CONFERENCES As part of its efforts to contribute to the creation of a peaceful, democratic and multicultural society in Europe, the Evens Foundation supported two conferences in 2017. First, the Evens Foundation was a member of the Host Committee and co-organizer of the 28th Annual General Assembly and Conference that the European Foundation Centre organized from 31 May to 2 June 2017 in Warsaw, with the central theme “Courage to Re-embrace Solidarity in Europe – Can Philanthropy Take the Lead?”. More than 600 philanthropic leaders and representatives from foundations, not-for-profit organizations, academics and policymakers attended. Apart from thematic conference sessions and multiple side events, three plenary sessions featured speakers from the philanthropic,
political and academic sectors. The plenaries explored:
Brussels. This year’s central theme was “Europe, Yes We Can!”.
• How Polish solidarity, both past and present, has been and continues to be crucial in strengthening fundamental values in politics and policies. • What shifts in attitude and ways of working need to happen for philanthropy to engage in closer collaboration with our many partners in order to foster truly tangible solidarity. • How philanthropy’s contribution to solidarity around the world is best summed up as building bridges, not walls.
The packed two-day program included debates and conferences on topics such as “European City of the Future”, “Relaunching Europe: a Utopia?”, “Culture and Creation in Europe”, “Artificial Intelligence” and “A New Vision for European Youth”. For the almost 1,300 participants, it was a unique occasion to listen, debate and reflect on the European Union of the future. The speakers included politicians, writers, academics and others, including Margrethe Vestager, Cédric Villani, Ivan Krastev and Chantal Mouffe.
Next, the Evens Foundation supported the “Brussels Days”, an initiative of L’OBS, Le Soir, De Standaard, the Goethe Institut, the European Commission and BOZAR, Centre of Fine Arts, which took place on 30 November and 1 December 2017 at BOZAR in
The Evens Foundation took the opportunity to bring its 2015 Arts Prize laureate, Artway of Thinking, to BOZAR to perform its “The ARTbeat of Europe”, in which the audience participated in an aesthetic experience that explored the dimension of empathy.
© copyright EFC
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THE ARTS PRIZE The Evens Foundation Arts Prize, awarded every two years to a European artist, supports artistic initiatives that help us rethink contemporary European realities and envision new perspectives for shaping our common world. The winner of the Evens Arts Prize 2017 was selected from a total of 16 candidates working in disciplines ranging from writing and theatre to visual arts and film. The international jury of seven experts in the field of art and culture awarded the prize to Els Dietvorst, a Belgian visual artist and filmmaker who lives and works in Duncormick, County Wexford, Ireland. While mainly a filmmaker, she also uses drawing, writing and sculpture. Her work has been shown and supported by art institutions and festivals such as the Kaaitheatre, Brussels, Kunstenfestivaldesarts,
Brussels, and Museum of Modern Art, Antwerp, and has been shown in New York, Utrecht, Casablanca, London and Vienna. In honor of the laureate, a festive prizegiving ceremony was organized in Bozar, Centre for Fine Arts, in Brussels on 29 May 2017. Speeches by Paul Dujardin, CEO and Artistic Director of Bozar, and Bart De Baere, General and Artistic Director of M HKA, Antwerp Museum of Contemporary Art, were followed by the screening of Els Dietvorst’s “The Rabbit and The Teasel”, a modern rural drama. After the screening, friends, family and fans of Els Dietvorst were invited to raise their glasses to the 2017 Evens Arts Prize laureate.
THE SCIENCE PRIZE A team of researchers from London and Brussels including Prof. Dr Patrick Haggard (University College London), Prof. Cleeremans (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Dr Caspar (Université Libre de Bruxelles) and Dr Christensen (City University London) were awarded the Evens Science Prize 2016 for their research into how coercion changes the sense of agency in the human brain. Together with the laureates and the British Academy, the Evens Foundation organized a Scientific Meeting and Prize Lecture on the occasion of the Evens Science Prize Award Ceremony on 6 July 2017 in London. The lecture and prize-giving were preceded by a half-day meeting of a small group of experts, working in neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, politics and
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law. Each speaker approached the problems of personal autonomy from their own disciplinary perspective, but the meeting drew out far-reaching implications of their thinking on how we understand ourselves, as individuals and as societies. The project was coordinated by Strefa WolnoSłowa Foundation, Warsaw and run in collaboration with kunstZ (Antwerp), Cantieri Meticci (Bologna), Cie Check Points (Paris), Teatr Powszechny (Warsaw), Università di Bologna, Institute of Literary Research (Warsaw) and supported by the European Commission – Europe for Citizens Program. The Evens Foundation was the main partner and supporter of the project.
WHAT’S YOUR ID? POLAND The Evens Foundation continued in 2017 to support the “What’s your ID?” project, part of its efforts to contribute to the rebuilding of the EU identity and to highlight the importance of EU integration. This project consists of workshops for youngsters and adults that focus on European values. It was inspired by the film “I am Europe” by Jef and Margot Vingerhoedt, produced by the Evens Foundation. The workshop materials are available for use free of charge, in English, French and Polish, on the Foundation’s website and via partners’ websites. Through academic sessions, multigenerational debates, school meetings, trainings and film workshops, the project reached more than 3,000 direct participants in Poland in 2017.
YOUNG ART REPORTERS De Veerman, one of the laureates of the 2003 Evens Prize for Intercultural Education, was one of the Evens Foundation’s earlier partners. At the time, they were a fledgling organization, founded in 2000 with the aim of developing, implementing and disseminating art-educational projects. In 2017, this now more established Antwerp-based organization reached out to the Evens Foundation once again, along with their Brussels partner Kunstenfestivaldesarts.
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In 2017, they initiated Young Art Reporters, “an open invitation to youngsters to see the festival as their playing ground, to express themselves and experiment with different media”. It starts from young people’s strengths and own interests in order to fully immerse them in the challenging artistic program of the festival. The Evens Foundation decided to support De Veerman in their preparation of the 2018 edition of YAR, so that the initiative can be scaled up and best practices can be shared with other partners in Europe in the future.
EVENS FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS
THE TEAM
PUBLISHED BY
Corinne Evens, Honorary President Yolande Avontroodt Angelique Beres Monique Canto-Sperber Jacques Ehelberg, untill June 9th 2017 Jonathan Evens Daniel Kropf Alicja Pacewicz Ernest Van Buynder, untill June 9th 2017 Xavier Vidal
Antwerp Greet De Wilde, General Program Manager Marjolein Delvou, Program Manager, Peace Education Eva Van Passel, Program Manager, Media Caroline Coosemans, Office Administrator
The Evens Foundation © 2018 Evens Foundation www.evensfoundation.be
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Monique Canto-Sperber, Chairwoman Corinne Evens Xavier Vidal
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Paris Anne Davidian, Head of office France Warsaw Joanna Krawczyk, Head of office Poland Magdalena Braksator, Project Manager
GRAPHIC DESIGN Wils & Peeters Graphic Design
CONTACT DETAILS ANTWERP OFFICE
PARIS OFFICE
WARSAW OFFICE
Stoopstraat 1, 5th floor B-2000, Antwerpen T +32-3-231 39 70 F +32-3-233 94 32 antwerp@evensfoundation.be
7, rue Charles V F-75004 Paris T +33-1-44 54 83 90 F +33-1-44 54 83 80 paris@evensfoundation.be
Ul. Chmielna 21m. 20 00-021 Warszawa – Poland T/F +48-22-692 49 21 warsaw@evensfoundation.be
www.evensfoundation.be