BAR – Students and teachers of Secondary Vocational School Bar and Contemporary Art High School from Tuzla organized a theater play in the Cultural Center Bar on Wednesday, October 25, with the aim to highlight joint values and display achievement of this exchange program between Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina through art form. The theater performance was organized as one of the final activities within the exchange “To the heart through art” (Do srca kroz umjetnost), which these two schools implemented as part of the regional program RYCO Superschools.
Secondary vocational school Bar is one of 7 schools from Montenegro that participate in the second cycle of the RYCO Superschools program, and with a partner school from Bosnia and Herzegovina, it organized two youth exchanges, in Tuzla and Bar. Apart from connecting the scenes of the play, usage of music, costumes and scenography, sightseeing provided along with pedagogic workshops based on drama, this exchange also focused on the topic of connecting a group, mutual trust, searching the identity and ways of building peace in the community.
The mentioned partnership holds the title of long-term partnership, supported by RYCO Superschools project for a second year in a row, due to outstanding results achieved in terms of program, partnership relation, innovativeness in approach towards dealing with the question of peace and intercultural dialogue.
The event was officially opened by H.E. Peter Felten, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Montenegro, Mr. Riccardo Serri, Deputy Head of Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro, Mr. Edin Koljenovic, Head of the RYCO Local Branch Office in Montenegro, Mr. Srđan Lekić, Secretary of the Culture Secretariat of the Municipality of Bar.
H.E. Peter Felten, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Montenegro pointed out that RYCO fills a “gap in the market” with its programs that aim to provide young people, pupils, students with the opportunity to get to know each other, exchange experiences, as well as to they learn, work and create together.
“Young people have the strength and energy to encourage the process of reconciliation, growth and prosperity which are very important in the Western Balkans. Supporting young people is a direct investment in fairer, more tolerant and prosperous societies. The EU will continue to support young people in creating positive changes in their communities with their innovative ideas and fresh energy”, pointed out the Deputy Ambassador of the European Union in Montenegro, Mr. Riccardo Seri.
Mr. Edin Koljenović, Head of the RYCO local office in Montenegro, said that the RYCO Superschools are a great example of cooperation between secondary schools and young people in the region. Within two cycles of the implementation of the Superschool program, 160 schools, over 2,500 young people and 320 professors were directly involved in the realization of the RYCO mission through projects aimed at promoting the ideas on which RYCO is based and cooperation in the Western Balkans region.
Mr. Srđan Lekić, Secretary of the Culture Secretariat of the Municipality of Bar, expressed his satisfaction with the implementation of this important project in Bar and expressed his support for the implementation of such projects in the future.
During the drama workshops, through process drama, young people from Tuzla and Bar identified the common causes of passivity and hesitation of young people towards assuming an active role in creating changes in the Balkans. By engaging dramatic situations and giving young people the opportunity to express their views from the stage, a clear message was sent about what the young people of the Balkans want to be and with whom they want to build the future.
“We learned a lot from our peers about self-organization and self-initiative, we learned to gather ourselves and create something new. We have a desire to change things in our environment that do not suit us, and we also propose new ones. We learned to spot if there is a problem in our area and what is more important to report it and propose solutions”, said Jovan Joksimović, a student of the Secondary Vocational School in Bar and a participant of the Superschool program.
Professor of the Secondary Vocational School Bar and coordinator of the Superschools project, Ms. Ivana Kovač, emphasized the affirmative influence that the Youth Theater of Tuzla, as a kind of mother of the Contemporary Art School, has on young people and the local community.
“That encouraged us to create a similar place in Bar, which would be a “place of safe growing up” for our children and youth, as their slogan reads,” concluded Ms. Kovač.
