In 2016 and 2017, The ROOTS & ROUTES Peer Coach Academy ran as a nationwide project: young artists from Baden-Württemberg, Berlin, Hesse, Munich, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony trained as junior lecturers for cultural and media education youth work.
Dance as you are! In the fall of 2021, young people between the ages of 14 and 18 can participate free of charge in a street dance and theater project with proven RRCGN instructors Elisa Giovannetti and Yasemin “Joya” Saat.
The hip-hop network in the Cologne-Nippes district has been organizing a workshop phase every fall since 2001, during which there are dance, music and graffiti workshops in various youth centers and schools. RRCGN has been active in the network since 2015.
In the OASES project, partners from 10 countries are working together on the question: How can youth encounters be designed to empower participants to unleash their creative potential; to create artworks in transnational collaboration around themes of shared meaning; and to effect change in their local environments and in a globalized world?
In October 2020, 18 members of the iJuLa youth curatorium set off from Cologne to Heek: At the 10-day iJuLa Kick-off Academy, ideas for offers, workshops and events in the future iJuLa space were developed.
The annual fall break workshop week “ROOTS & ROUTES goes Bergisch Gladbach” took place in 2020 linked to the project “iJuLa – intersectional youth labs in the Veedel”. Along the theme “Hip-Hop for Democracy”, 29 young people dealt artistically with the topic of “fear”.
After a four-year break, the ROOTS & ROUTES Peer Coach Academy finally took place again in 2021 – this time as part of the project “iJuLa – intersectional YouthLabs in Cologne”. 20 young artists took part in the block seminar phase in Heek.
As a full member of the international ROOTS & ROUTES network, RRCGN regularly participates in transnational projects multiple times a year, that serve to further develop the network and its methods and approaches, as well as international youth work with artistic approaches more generally.
Although RRCGN has a focus on international exchange work, it is also permanently active in local projects in Cologne and the surrounding area. Step1 projects are aimed at young people who want to take their first steps in trying out an art form.
ROOTS & ROUTES is an international network; RRCGN sends groups of young artists to projects of our network partners several times a year.
Since 2008, partner organizations in the international ROOTS & ROUTES network have jointly developed a concept and curriculum for a cultural peer coach training; for young artists from performing arts and media who would like to pass on their competencies to peers and younger people as peer coaches.
The iJuLa project opens spaces in Cologne, in which artistic work on intersectional and queer topics can take place. We invite young artists to create these spaces with us and fill them with life and ideas.
38 young adults from 6 countries met for 2 weeks on Baltrum and developed visions of the future in small, internationally mixed working groups, projecting the risks and opportunities of current developments into the future.
The Instagram platform “Kontaktlinse” (German for “contact lense”) offers a space for artists from Cologne to present themselves and their art. Regardless of the art form, genre or professional standards, people with a creative passion are portrayed here.
For a two-week period, 40 young artists from different countries further developed the working methods that were developed during the previous project in 2017. Coached by professional artists, an interdisciplinary stage performance was created.
Young people from urban dance scenes are confronted with big questions: how can artistic career aspirations be realised, how can their own talents and abilities be further developed? The dancers, choreographers and dance instructors Daniela Rodriguez Romero and Bahar Gökten from nutrospektif bring in their own experiences to accompany the participants within these exciting fields.
From June 29th to July 16th, 30 young artists from Cologne (Germany), Florence (Italy) and Larissa (Greece) jointly worked on the themes of “proximity and distance” – “communication and isolation” – “physical and virtual encounter”. But not at the same place – because of COVID-19, this was the first RRCGN international youth exchange where the participating groups stayed in their respective countries and worked together via online communication.
45 young musicians, dancers, graffiti and media artists from London, Rotterdam, Liverpool, Cologne and Bergisch Gladbach live on stage: together they create the stage show “Who am I?
This two-year transnational project, together with 7 partner organisations from Europe, combines artistic methods and language learning.
The project brought together 7 partner organisations from the international ROOTS & ROUTES network over a period of 14 months to create fertile environments for non-formal adult education. Methods were collected to raise awareness and counter prejudices and stereotypes through artistic activities.
Perspectives from young artists from 10 countries came together to discuss their ideas and wishes and to make art out of them. They were accompanied by an artistic core team around the renowned break dancer and choreographer Youngung Sebastian “Jaekwon” Kim.
This project brought together 30 young musicians and dancers from Germany, the Netherlands and France for a creative exchange between big band, marching band and hip-hop.
The project provided a framework that encouraged young artists with different sexual orientations and gender self-definitions to reach out to other young people with strong messages for queer equality, inclusiveness and non-discrimination. Young people were supported in analyzing discriminatory actions and language, and in countering them with artistic means, advocating for queer rights, visibility and recognition.
“Mind Ur Step” brings together eleven professional urban dance artists in an international dance production. The project aims to bring together the urban dance scene and established theatres.
“LevelUp!” was an artistic-pedagogical training week. 18 young artists learned methods and approaches for their own cultural-pedagogical work from well-known coaches like Melbeatz, Mamadee and Niels “Storm” Robitzky.
In the project DACRO – Dance Meets Acrobatics, an interdisciplinary dance theater piece with aerial acrobatics was developed over a six-month period with weekly training and rehearsal sessions and performed on July 1 as part of the festival “Füreinander Miteinander” in Cologne-Mülheim.
In our society, recognition is often awarded on the basis of material wealth, formal education, German language skills and appearance. We invited young people to reflect on the topic of “recognition” and to work on it artistically.
In this two-year transnational project, 8 partner organisations from all over Europe and Tunisia worked for social cohesion and against discrimination, racism and Islamophobia.
Young artists from the most different corners of Europe came together to create art from their ideas and wishes. Music, dance, media, drama and poetry were combined in a transdisciplinary way and in international exchange, a joint performance was created that opens up views of a possible Europe of the future.
What happens when a puppeteer from Athens, a drummer from Rotterdam and a filmmaker from Cologne develop a project together? Along with 30 to 40 other young artists from all over Europe (and beyond)?
20 young musicians and dancers from Istanbul travelled to Cologne to meet and exchange with young german artists through dance and music during a one-week workshop. Joint musical pieces and choreographies were developed and a transcultural dialogue was encouraged.
Young artists from 9 countries came together on the North Sea island of Baltrum to develop short films, songs, music videos and small live performances on the theme of gender.
At “ROOTS & ROUTES goes Bergisch Gladbach”, 47 young people aged 12 to 18 produced songs, choreographies or video clips on the topic of the welcome culture for refugees.
In the project “OnGea! ONline GEAr enhancing Youth Work” we develop digital tools for youth work. The OnGea system is made available as an open source tool free of charge for other youth work organisations and networks.
In August 2015, a new festival for urban media art was launched in Cologne, to be followed by others every two years: international, transdisciplinary, multi-layered, inspiring. Taking place in Cologne’s Südstadt and bringing together young artists from Cologne and all over Europe.
With the support of professional coaches, young media artists from 7 countries dealt with the topic of “war, peace and media” in interdisciplinary and international small groups.
“LevelUp!” was an artistic-pedagogical training week. 18 young artists learned methods and approaches for their own cultural-pedagogical work from well-known coaches like Melbeatz, Mamadee and Niels “Storm” Robitzky.
In this project, which lasted three years, young artists from Germany, Italy and Lithuania dealt with racism and discrimination and developed public artistic statements on the subject.
For the very first project of our association, 48 people from 8 countries travelled to the North Sea island of Baltrum: In the cold November wind, films, songs and performances for an open Europe were created.
This transnational project, which lastet for two years, had the goal to improve the career opportunities and competences of young artists and creative professionals. In this context, an info sheet on the topic of “Legal status forms for artists in Germany” was also produced.
Since the very first international exchange organized by RRCGN took place on the North Sea island of Baltrum in November 2014, we have been here almost every year: Between sandy beaches, autumn storms and the Wadden Sea, young artists work in internationally mixed small groups on joint thematic productions.
From October 2020 to March 2021, 15 young people between the ages of 11 and 18 from Cologne dealt intensively with the topic of failure. In the joint examination with this topic, an exciting online theater performance was created.
