ForwArt, Tilburg

The UIA project ForwArt explored culture’s role as an agent for social transformation. Involving various cultural institutions and social services in the ethnically mixed, deprived area of North Tilburg, the project created a cultural ecosystem to help local youth express their inherent culture, improving their wellbeing, sense of purpose and social status. Supported by more responsive public services, the project set out to change social dynamics and reduce crime in the area.

ForwArt  was conceived to respond to the socio-economic challenges faced by youth in North Tilburg. Young people from North Tilburg had limited perceived life opportunities and were not reaching their full potential in education or talent development. North Tilburg is the city’s district with the highest proportion of residents who have a low level of education (43.5%, compared to 35.8% for the city overall). Street culture dominates youth behaviour from the age of 8, while criminal activities undermine neighbourhood social structures, and exposure to criminal behaviour is high. Public service providers, such as police, youth workers, and housing association staff, had been struggling to reach out and engage with young people.

ForwArt used art for positive social transformation by changing the lives and aspirations of local youngsters, offering them wider perspectives, positive role models, and alternative pathways to those leading to criminality. Through talent development and a series of performances, the project explored, discovered, engaged, developed, supported and exhibited talent from the fringes of society, with participants’ status shifting from outcasts to role models.

ForwArt also created permanent art expressions, to make the urban texture welcoming and open for individual expressions of culture and identity. Reflecting the identity of people living in North Tilburg, new art became an everyday experience. Various art products were co-created – such as mountable sculptures, murals, graffiti, and internal corridor designs – to which people can easily relate. The youth workers of R-Newt, an organisation that builds on youngsters’ talent through performing arts actions and training, made the case for transparency in cultural organisations that can empower youngsters and give them a voice and ownership of their cultural projects.

Besides nurturing talent and improving wellbeing through offering young people self-exploration and identity development through cultural expression, the project used the power of art to support public services in the area. Art engagement helps housing association staff, debt counsellors, youth workers, police, integrational schools and others to change the way they provide youth services, and help bury the empathy gap between two different worlds.

Tilburg’s approach to tackling youth delinquency through art activities introduced a veritable innovation in social welfare policies. Its broad partnership, involving different branches of art and public service providers, with the clear goal of offering new perspectives through art, culture and identity building, is set to inspire other cities across Europe.