DRIS – Co-creating intercultural societies: a focus on racism and discrimination is a European project funded by Creative Europe.
With Interarts (Spain) as leader and ITZ as partner (Germany), ECCOM works to increase understanding and respect for cultural diversity through intercultural dialogue.
Rome, Barcelona and Berlin are characterized by difficult relationships between multi-ethnic and multicultural communities, intense migratory flows and strong discriminatory and racist tendencies. DRIS focuses on these three cities to foster the interaction and integration of these vulnerable communities with the local ones. Hence the need to support networking between professionals and institutions operating in sensitive areas of the city and to design training activities on the themes of intercultural and interreligious dialogue, audience development and engagement, so that cultural institutions and organizations take the role of “contact areas”, a space for discussion and mutual learning, and facilitate the participation of migrants in the social and cultural life of the city.
The project also aims to improve the skills and opportunities for different minorities of migrant origin to collaborate with public and private cultural and social organizations, to co-create intercultural projects and artistic products that convey counter-narratives, avoid negative stereotypes and spread the value of cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue as resources against discrimination and for peaceful relations. For the same purpose, mobility exchanges for 15 migrant artists and the promotion in Europe of 3 transnational artistic co-productions are planned.
DRIS shares and pursues some of the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: it promotes lifelong learning for all; empowers migrant women to achieve gender equality; works to make cities and institutions more inclusive, resilient and sustainable; and facilitates new alliances between professionals from different sectors and countries.