Young people from Scotland and Zambia are coming together in Lusaka this week to share their experiences of working on community-focused arts projects.
The Scottish participants include members of the youth information services Hot Chocolate Trust in Dundee and Y-Sort-It in West Dunbartonshire, and Scotland's National Youth Arts Advisory Group. In recent months they have been working together to co-design a programme for their visit, alongside their counterparts from Lusaka-based Circus Zambia, Barefeet Theatre, Modzi Arts and Global Platform.
Now, as the young people connect in person for the first time, they will share their knowledge and skills by taking part in a range of creative practices, such as mural art, street theatre and circus skills. They will also be creating all of their own digital and social media content, and documenting their experiences by taking over the partners' digital channels and using the hashtag #ScotZambXchange.
The project has been enabled and facilitated by the British Council in Scotland and Zambia, working in partnership with Creative Scotland, Young Scot and the individual youth organisations. The aim is to allow young people from both countries to make new connections through the arts, and to bring a youth-led perspective to the partners' work in this area.
Designed as a legacy project from British Council Scotland's work to bring an international focus to Scotland's Year of Young People in 2018, the visit intends to enable the sharing of knowledge and experience of youth-led community arts practices in Scotland and Zambia - an area of focus that is well-established in both countries.