EN-Fitram

The Assembly,

1. Noting the significant increase in violence in urban communities and schools, traumatic war situations, mass migration, interethnic, intercultural, interfaith and intercommunity aggression, and conflicts between gangs in individual neighbourhoods.
2. Believing that direct approaches to tackling such violence either through tighter law-enforcement measures or attempts at persuasion often meet with opposition, increased violence or avoidance of the measures.
3. Noting the alarming increase in tensions, cases of depression and suicides in communities, businesses, institutions and prisons, depression and general apathy among residents in retirement homes, excessive levels of prescription of medicine in hospitals, the suffering of the homeless and people on income support who have no future or means of defending themselves, drug addicts descending into hopelessness, victims of paedophilia, rape and incest, and victims of natural disasters, vandalism, damage to property and other similar offences, etc.
4. Believing that letting people voice their suffering relieves them for a short period but is not enough to overcome the suffering, as it is too intense.
5. Noting also the precarious existence of artists of all kinds and entertainment-industry contract workers who are unemployed or in retraining, the desire of retired teachers and civil servants to continue working, the problems of overworked carers, social workers and police officers, unemployed psychologists, and senior citizens who wish to remain active, etc.
6. Believing that employing artistic mediation can be an indirect means of addressing these individual, group or societal problems.
7. Defining artistic mediation as support for individuals and/or communities based on introducing them to some form of art and enabling them to reach their creative potential and express themselves in an artistic approach leading to actual creative activity, in such a way that individuals subject to suffering, traumas and violence (external and/or internal), exclusion, existential, physical or psychological difficulties or disabilities start engaging in productive artistic activity that channels their suffering.
8. Noting that presenting oneself as an artist or presenting some form of art, regardless of the function of the person presenting it, is often more readily accepted than the assistance normally offered by professionals, especially if they present themselves as psychiatrists, psychotherapists or psychologists, but that, conversely, merely being (or describing oneself as) an artist does not guarantee the ability to provide the necessary assistance or support.
9. Underlining that artistic mediation (visual arts, theatre, sound and music, literature, etc) has been used increasingly for many years without any regulation or detailed codes of conduct or ethics.
10. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers
    1. invite member governments
       1. to have the concept of artistic mediation officially recognised according to a precise definition in appropriate regulations;
       2. to encourage the preparation of studies, dissertations and theses on the subject of artistic mediation
       3. to set up bodies to evaluate this innovative practice.
    2. draw up harmonised European criteria for the approval of artistic mediation schools which could include the points appended below.

Proposed criteria for approving artistic mediation schools

• school must be over 10 years old
• 70% of teaching time by teachers who are artists with at least five years’ experience of artistic mediation
• 30% by carers, social workers, educationists, anthropologists and sociologists, art historians, etc
• courses lasting at least 400 hours, not including work placement in care, educational or sociocultural settings
• the curriculum must be divided between experience-based workshops, theoretical courses on the principles of and arrangements for artistic mediation illustrated by case studies, and introductions to the relevant relationships
• role playing as artistic mediators
• work placement of at least 400 hours, plus supervision of practical work
• certificates and diplomas to be awarded by a mixed panel of teachers from the school and outside figures with recognised experience in the relevant field, with these outside figures’ votes carrying most weight
• certificates and diplomas to be based on the candidates producing dissertations not only demonstrating their knowledge but also illustrating practical work they have done with examples backed by comments, as well as sections setting out more personal insights
• commitment by the candidates to accept supervision of their work on a regular basis in the five years following the award of their diplomas or certificates.