Menthor Cultural Foundation - Romania

Established in 2000, the Menthor Cultural Foundation is a non-governmental, non-profit, and a-political organisation that uses art to educate and inspire dialogue among people living in various challenged environments (such as orphanages). A staff of trainers composed of artists, actors and philologists offers various cultural opportunities and activities for children and young people in Constantza, Romania. The objectives of the Foundation, whose slogan is "Menthor - for an open society", are to:

• offer viable cultural alternatives, such as plays and art galas
• attract artists and specialists from various fields into programmes and projects aimed at social change
• introduce elective courses related to the arts and communication into the school curricula
• help integrate disadvantaged children and young people into society.

Main Communication Strategies
Menthor's central activity is local theatre for young people. Specialists in the fields of theatre, visual arts, dance, music, linguistics, pedagogy, and social care facilitate the participation of children and teenagers from orphanages in brainstorming sessions and drama workshops. A key strategy underlying these activities is encouraging children to work in teams and discuss their problems openly and efficiently. The outcome of these workshop is the participatory production of plays. Some of these plays are produced in conjunction with The European Cultural Foundation's Art for Social Change - Play Against Violence (PAV) Programme (offered in partnership with The Red House Centre for Culture and Debate - click here for a Programme Description). For example, in 2001, "Short Stories About Me" was produced as part of this project. At the time of this writing, Menthor is working on "The Dream of Ration Creates Monsters", a PAV project.

In 2001, Menthor participated in the Act together/Act for Democracy programme. Sponsored by the Concept Foundation, this initiative was designed to stimulate youth participation in cultural and civic processes and to expand democracy-building processes. More than 200 members of youth groups in Romania and Serbia participated in workshops hosted by the Center for Drama in Education and Art (CEDEUM) (in Belgrade), the Belgrade Centre for New Theatre and Dance (CENPI) (in Belgrade), and Menthor (in Constantza). The workshops used theatre to enable participants to share common experiences and develop a set of democratic approaches to deal with conflict. The project focused on increasing the multiethnic and multicultural involvement of different minorities (such as Roma, Hungarians, Tatars, and Russian Lipovans) from both countries and encouraged the development of programmes stressing tolerance and diversity. The project resulted in the formation of a regional network of youth, NGOs, government officials, and artists that supports regional exchange and cooperation in the social and cultural fields.