Our home in Athens
The boat art center
Building a home
Even though we have been creating for months for months, there is something missing for our collective, as well as for many more people who live in Athens. It feels like we are carrying our house around, looking for a place to call home. There is a word in Farsi , غربت ‘ghorbat’, and Arabic, الغربة, ‘al ghorba’ which can be translated as ‘homesickness’, a nostalgia for the motherland, the unpleasant feeling of being ‘foreign’, and the pain of ‘not belonging’. Despite displacement, constant mobility, and adaptability we want to mend this feeling of ‘ghorbat’/’al ghorba’ for ourselves and the communities we live in. For this reason our next step is to create The Boat Art Center in Athens, Greece. The Boat Art Center will be an artistic, social, and cultural hub that creates a safe and inclusive space for opportunity, healing and community building.
Project description
The Art Center will be an artistic, social, and cultural hub that creates a safe and inclusive space for opportunity, healing and community building. It will consist of an open hall (resembling a dance hall) that can host various workshops and classes (including theater, dance, etc.), an area for musicians in the form of a music studio and a general area for people to connect, exchange and work on their art. Within our art center home the collective will be able to continue, professionalize and strengthen the current activities and projects such as the filmed performances, classes, activism and advocacy filmed performances, classes, activism and advocacy. It will also allow us to expand our activities to various classes, develop live performances, films, studio work and more and open up to broader workshops and events involving different communities across Athens and international artists. Through this art center, we want to give a space to and support current students to and support current students and community members in becoming teachers themselves. The Aims of the Art Center are: To create a safe space of opportunity for all. The art center is for anyone who may not have had the chance or been in a situation where they could explore the arts or practice their art. To build a community of learners and educators. The Art center is a space to unify communities to learn, create and build together. Through collaborative learning we will train and provide the space for flourishment of future teachers, who can pass their knowledge and passions further. To share the psychological benefits of artistic expression. To strengthen and positively impact people's mental wellbeing. To be able to provide opportunities of economic empowerment for refugees, asylum seekers, and locals by working with community members to manage sustainable resources for our projects.