Art for Social Change (AFSC)
www.artforsocialchange.org

Art for Social Change (AFSC) was initiated by the European Cultural Foundation in 1996 as a response to the activities of a number of cultural institutions and individual artists in Europe. Although these artists were still doing the one thing in which they felt competent - making art - the uniqueness of their work was that they were doing it TOGETHER with young people. They were not making art FOR young people or simply using them for their own artistic ends. Nor were they taking on the role of the social worker, using art as a therapeutic or educational tool. They were genuinely collaborating with young people, going through a process of discovery where everyone was treated as an equal partner in the artistic creation process.
The role of the Art for Social Change programme from the beginning was to support this kind of work, investigate its methodology, evaluate its effects and establish training schemes for all those artists who wanted to become involved. The AFSC team decided to prioritize the programme in those regions of Europe where social and political turmoil was making it increasingly difficult for young people to make a meaningful contribution to society.