CAS Arts and International Cooperation
How can art contribute to social change in crisis regions? What expertise do organizers and artists need for artistic collaborations in fragile contexts? Based on these questions, artasfoundation has developed a curriculum for the postgraduate course (CAS) Arts and International Cooperation at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). This course, which is also led by artasfoundation, is taught by experienced international practitioners from the fields of art and project management, as well as by researchers from Switzerland and abroad.
The focus of the curriculum is on theory and practice in the fields of contemporary art, international cooperation, humanitarian work and peacebuilding. On the programme are presentations and exercises, as well as a study trip to examine art projects carried out in conflict regions.
The programme is part-time and consists of four modules. It is aimed at those who are active in international cooperation and would like to expand their expertise in designing and organising art projects, as well as experienced artists and curators who would like to deepen their knowledge of international cooperation. It is also aimed at artists, curators and organisers from fragile contexts who wish to involve international partners in their projects.
A new edition of the course started in 2023.
CAS Arts and International Cooperation 2021
For the third edition of the part-time further education course with a newly revised curriculum, a new co-director has been appointed: the Syrian cultural manager Rana Yazaji, who will lead the course together with Dagmar Reichert. Within the topic Arts and International Cooperation: Collaborating in Fragile Contexts and in Processes of Peacebuilding, the course focuses on the cooperation between people from the Global North and the Global South as well as on the relations between the needs of artists and the procedures of organisations that mandate such art projects.
This time, 16 students from ten different countries took part in the training, some of them artists themselves, others curators or cultural managers. A big part of the learning in the course resulted from the exchange between their different perspectives, cultural backgrounds and experiences.
However, given the corona pandemic and the prevailing travel restrictions, the diverse backgrounds of the participants also posed an organisational challenge. Two modules of the course were taught in a hybrid format, i.e. on site and broadcast on the internet. Even the study trip had to be postponed, but it could finally take place in Beirut in February 2022. There we impressively experienced how cultural workers and NGOs try to continue their work in the difficult situation of the country. In the final theses, the students combined what they have learned in the course with their own work background. The course ended in June 2022 with a short presentation of the participants theses and the handing over of the diploma.
Place and year
Zurich, 2021–2022
Participants
Louise Bozelek (Basel)
Asida Budba (Moscow)
Alechandro Duque (Medellín, Colombia)
Julien Fehlmann (Porrentruy)
Joelle Gehrig (Herrenschwanden)
Gregory Jean (Port-au-Prince, Haiti)
Lorenz Hegi (Lenzburg)
Nadja Köffler (Munich)
Elisabeth Kraus (Leipzig)
Myriel Meissner (Lucerne/Mostar)
Yaroslav Minkin (Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)
Zain Saleh (Berlin)
Stefanie Schüpbach (Bern)
Ximena Sedano (Bern)
Shery Sidhom (Cairo)
Joya Sfeir (Lebanon)
Lecturers (1. module)
Erik Altdorfer, theatre (Zurich)
Mudar Alhaggi, theatre (Berlin)
Dan Boyden, The Change Collective, theatre (London)
Nicola Dahrendorf, human rights (London)
Kilian Haselbeck, dance (Zurich)
Meret Schlegel, dance (Zurich)
Angela Stoecklin, dance (Zurich)
Programme director
Dagmar Reichert (artasfoundation, ZHdK)
Rana Yazaji (researcher, cultural manager)
Representatives of ZKF
Sandra Frimmel (artasfoundation)
Bettina Ganz (Zurich University of the Arts)
Partner organisation
Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), Advanced Study Centre
CAS Arts and International Cooperation 2019
After an initial course module in Zurich in January 2019 with an international group of participants, the CAS participants undertook a one-week study trip to Lebanon. They visited organisations in Beirut, Tripoli and the Bekkaa Plain that work with art for/by people in refugee camps or build bridges between religious or political groups in sensitive areas. Thereby, consequences of the ongoing civil war in nearby Syria were a recurrent topic. For the third module in September, the participants had grown together in a lively and manifold group so that discussions on art and peacebuilding could be pursued on a higher level thanks to new common points of reference. For the final stage of the course, mentors accompanied the individual thesis works. They were presented in February 2020. We are happy to congratulate the sixteen new graduates of the course!
Place and year
Zurich, Lebanon, 2019–2020
Participants
Abdin Doaa (Cairo)
Ackermann Theresa (Zurich)
Agrba Nasta (Sukhum/i)
Ammann-Wieland Regina (Bern)
Assilbekova Bates (Nyon)
Azimli Nazaket (Baku)
Berger Poladian Michal (Aarau)
Disch Sarah Lena (Zurich)
Engel Beate (Bern)
Fusu Mihai (Chisinau)
Hauser Gabriel (Bern)
Homann Sinje (Zurich)
Lasrado Tara (Zurich)
Phillips Sarah (Harrisonburg)
Rastelli Gianpiero (Geneva)
Stäubli Anna (Bern)
Welti Franziska (Winterthur)
Lecturers
Günther Bächler EDA (Bern)
Rudolf Batliner, NADEL (Zurich/Vaduz)
Marcel Bleuler, artasfoundation (Zurich)
Tobias Eisenring, FIBL (Frick/Basel)
Iris und Heimo Ganz (Basel)
Regula Gattiker, Helvetas (Zurich)
Carole Guertler (Zurich)
Hanane Hajj Ali (Beirut)
Maja Leo, artasfoundation (Zurich)
Dagmar Reichert, artasfoundation/ZHdK (Zurich)
Manel Salas Palau (Barcelona)
Celine Yvon (Geneva)
Géraldine Zeuner, DEZA (Bern)
Programme director
Marcel Bleuler (ZHdK)
Dagmar Reichert (artasfoundation, ZHdK)
Partner organisation
Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), Advanced Study Centre
CAS Arts and International Cooperation 2017
The first year began in January 2017 with a three-day module in Zurich and continued in April with a study trip to Georgia and the region of Abkhazia¹, which was separated from Georgia during a civil war. Seventeen students took part in the further education course and fifteen of them completed their diploma thesis with a certificate in February 2018.
Place and year
Zurich, Georgia/Abkhazia, 2017–2018
Participants
Simoen Büsch-Küng (Bern)
Avital Cohen (Muri)
Emilie Florenkowsky (Berlin)
Vera Gujer (Winterthur)
Hlaing Hnin Ei (Rangoon)
Olivia Jaques (Linz/Zurich)
Philip Matesic (Zurich)
Mariana Matveichuk (Kiev)
Shoghakat Mlke-Galstyan (Yerevan)
Efa Mühlethaler (Bern)
Abdullah Qureshi (Lahore)
Andrea Saemann (Basel)
Iva Sanjek (Zurich)
Marcel Schwald (Basel)
Caroline von Schulthess (Rifferswil)
Illia Yakovenko (Kiev)
Mara Züst (Zurich)
Lecturers
Rudolf Batliner, NADEL (Zurich/Vaduz)
Marcel Bleuler, artasfoundation (Zurich)
Asida Butba, SKLAD (Sukhum/i)
Tobias Eisenring, FIBL (Frick/Basel)
Rebekka Fässler, Stiftung Corymbo (Zurich)
Regula Gattiker, Helvetas (Zurich)
Tamara Janashia, Culture Management Lab (Tbilisi)
Dani Kouyate (Uppsala/Ouagadougou)
Michelle LeBaron, University of British Columbia (Vancouver)
Maja Leo, artasfoundation (Zurich)
Lali Pertenava (Tbilisi)
Dagmar Reichert, artasfoundation/ZHdK (Zurich)
Wato Tsereteli, Center for Contemporary Art (Tbilisi)
Celine Yvone (Genf)
Géraldine Zeuner, DEZA (Bern)
Programme director
Marcel Bleuler (artasfoundation)
Dagmar Reichert (artasfoundation, ZHdK)
Partner organisation
Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), Advanced Study Centre
Financial contribution
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)
¹artasfoundation would like to underline that its use of names and titles particularly in regards to conflict regions should not be understood as implying any form of recognition or non-recognition by the foundation or as having any other political connotation whatsoever.