MCH is pleased to announce Professional Exchange Program 2022, a Peer-to-Peer Professional Exchange space for art and culture practitioners who work at the intersection of art and society in Mekong Region and Taiwan. The program has been devised by MCH team after two very different earlier chapters of the program. We would like to share this OPEN CALL for participation with you and hope you would also like to generously share to more of your peers and networks.
Some background of this program might be interesting for you to get to know this program: I am lucky to have worked with different versions of MCH Professional Exchange Program. Therefore, I have heard how art and culture peers from the region expressed the eagerness to learn from other peers from different local contexts and expertise. Early version was based on in-person work and research placements between a host and a participant. When the COVID pandemic came along, we had to adapt. In 2020, our Professional Exchange participants handled their activities online. Of course it was missing some of the aspects we can only really get in-person, but we were pleasantly surprised by how valuable it still was from the peers’ feedback. While some of the aspects are missing, some others benefits are gaining and valuable to have online exchange between experienced practitioners.
In 2021, MCH sent a short survey (key findings from the survey) to our Fellows network to find out their main priorities in terms of issues they want to work on and the skills they want to learn, as well as the skills they feel they could share with others. The feedback from our Fellows contributed to the priority topics for the Professional Exchange program in 2022.
Topic A: Project development and management of art / cultural projects
Topic B: Workshop design and facilitation of engaging communities into art projects & art making process
Topic C: Ethics in socially-engaged and community-based art projects
Each topic will be explored by one small group and the participants will engage in 3-5 online gatherings with each other to share their local knowledge, on-the-ground practices and real projects as case studies. There will be a Peer Facilitator supporting and guiding the conversations. And at the end of the Exchange each group will produce a simple document which will allow the learning to be shared to a wider audience.
If you are interested in joining this program, please click HERE below to learn more. The program is open to art and culture practitioners from MCH’s priority focus countries: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Again, thank you for taking your time to read this email and please share this to your networks that you think they might like to know about this program.