VR Theatre – Senior Outreach and e-Engagement Training
During the last week of June, we hosted in Brussels the training “Senior Outreach and Cultural Engagement” for the VR Theatre project.
Together with our partners Matera Hub, Chicken Shed, NARA, BodiSvetloba, S.A.F.E. project, and NGOnest, we discovered more about the challenges and opportunities connected to digital technologies, especially Virtual Reality, and how to design, create and implement cultural activities that can be accessible, innovative, and foster social and digital inclusion for senior citizens. The training adopted participatory theatre methodologies – community-based interactive theatre were actors and non-actors collectively create a theatrical performance – to create an inclusive learning and experimentative environment.
We learned from our participants’ experiences and had the opportunity to gain insightful perspectives from Brussels-based theatre companies and cultural centres Les Polymorphistes, Theatre des Tanneurs, Collectif Atta and Bruegel Cultural Center. We also exchanged practices on senior engagement, active participation and their specific challenges and needs with Brussels Ouderenplatform, Samen Toujours, Action et Recherche Culturelles – Régionale de Namur ASBL and learned from the Digital Ageing research project by Werner Schirmer at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).