At 2016 year in collaboration with our partners in Lithuania and in United Kingdom we implement the project „Padainuok man labanakt“/„Sing me to Sleep“.
The project takes place at the social integration and support centre „Betanija“ in Vilnius and at the homeless center „The Booth Center“ in Manchester. The project aims to draw attention to the issue of homelessness in Lithuania. The image of homeless people in the society is full of stereotypes, and the visibility of their situation is fragmented. It is not surprising that the homelessness itself in Lithuania has a very narrow definition, set in 2001 by the Lithuanian Government Department of Statistics: homeless people are „those with no permanent place of residence and without the funds to purchase or rent even basic housing“ (Lietuvos Statistikos Metraštis, 2013).
In the international context it is marked the homelessness is a much more complex issue. It is also be a form of social exclusion; in other words homelessness may include those who are socially and economically marginalized from society: a person appear homeless when he or she experience stigmatization, solitude, the sense of powerlessness to change the life conditions and the complex situation, has no voice in the society.
The project „Sing me to Sleep“ aims to announce that the arts and creative art activity gather people and helps to build the links, it offers a way to communicate, to express yourself, it empowers a person to be seen and feel a part of the society. The right to participation in cultural activities applies to all people.
Project „Sing me to Sleep“ is a process of collaboration and co-creation, listening and conversation. In the project individuals who face poverty and homelessness are invited to share their experiences and their stories through various means of self-expression. The project „Sing me to Sleep“ is a conversation between the cultures and marginal situations in which people appear.
The results of the project will be presented in the exhibitions in Vilnius and in Manchester in the end of 2016.

Creative team of the project: Ieva Petkutė, Eglė Gudonytė, CIC „arthur+martha“.

More about the project in United Kingdom:
arthur-and-martha.blogspot.com/
www.facebook.com/arthur.martha.cic/

Stick Performance_2016_NDG
More about exhibitions in Vilnius and Manchester
Eglė Gudonytė photos