[TURKISH TEAM]
The topic of performing art works with young people was discussed. Aylin Vartanyan’s work was brought up in this context as a potentially useful source for us in the OUYE project. To get a better idea of Aylin’s work on expressive arts, participants were suggested to watch an interview with her on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00455JlPpS8). We decided to organize an online workshop with Aylin in the upcoming days to learn more from her about the various applications of expressive arts.
We continued our reports and presentations by an overview of sociology of education for a better understanding of different sociological perspectives on education. YU team prepared a short report and gave a presentation on sociology of education. After the presentation, a discussion was held on the functions of schools and education, and the lack of equal opportunities in education due to socio-economic and political factors.
We aimed to explore “expressive art” and organized a workshop with Aylin Vartanyan on expressive art. Aylin has been a faculty member at Bogazici University since 1994. Since 2006 she has been an active member of the Bogazici University Peace Education Application and Research Center, organizing conferences, preparing curricula and facilitating workshops for educators, counselors, students and NGO workers on conflict transformation from an expressive arts perspective. Currently, Aylin is pursuing a doctoral degree at the European Graduate School in the Expressive Arts for Social Change Program. Her subjects of interest are gender and postmemory, conflict transformation, Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed practice and narrative transformation through the arts.
Before the meeting, all participants were informed that they should attend the meeting with crayons. The meeting started with Vartanyan’s short presentation on Expressive Art. Then, an expressive art workshop was held, and all participants were encouraged to express themselves via writing, painting, music, and dance.