Blended Mobility for Seniors
17-22 October 2022
Newsletter 4
From October 17th – 22nd 2022, Greek partner “Roes Cooperativa” hosted in Athens the Blended Mobility for Senior Learners. Participants over 55 years old, from 5 different countries, gathered to explore various art activities, and in this way increase their cultural awareness. The seniors had the opportunity to integrate and spend some truly creative time in a multicultural environment.
Facilitators conducted each activity according to the developed learning materials from the programme implementation guidelines. The aim was to provide a rich artistic experience and create an inclusive, safe space that would meet seniors’ needs. Tools and materials were used according to seniors’ interests, language skills, expectations and cultural differences.
Each day of the mobility was dedicated to a different type of art: music, dance, theatre, and creative writing. During the workshops, seniors had the opportunity to express their feelings and thoughts, show their emotions and observe different points of view. Through the whole week seniors faced many challenges and tasks that opened them up to new international acquaintances and other cultures.
All types of art were interlinked. Through theatre they worked with symbols, memories and biographical learning. It lets seniors to freely express themselves, play the role and observe the perspective and view of other participants. Music improved their musical memories and social bonding. Dance helped seniors to express their movement, work with the rhythm, interact in teams and communicate in verbal and non-verbal ways. Creative writing gave them space to show their thoughts, brought up the most hidden elements of the imagination and made them feel like poets.
Besides the workshops, seniors were visiting a lot of greek cultural museums and cultural institutions like: Stavros Niarchos Cultural Foundation, Museum of Cycladic Art and Acropolis. Those places also brought them closer to the foreign culture and art. Elderly also exchanged a lot of traditional aspects of their culture and country, and prepared local souvenirs for each other.
At the end of the inspiring week, trainers and the whole group reflected and evaluated the whole project. The positive and negative aspects of the workshops and all of the activities had been presented by the participants. Thanks to that kind of action, the mobility results can be reshaped, adopted, applied or improved in further activities connected to the seniors’ art events and projects.
