Art Encourages Courage in Bolivia

February 18, 2021

For six years, we have supported the aid project Teatro Trono of the COMPA Foundation (community of art producers). Children and teenagers in El Alto, a suburb of the capital city La Paz in Bolivia, are empowered through educational theater work in their personal development.

Their daily lives are marked by poverty, discrimination, and violence. Positive experiences in theater and dance training help them to handle difficult situations with greater confidence. Artists and educators assist the children in developing their own artistic productions and choreographies. At festivals, such as the specially developed Pocket Festival, the proud young artists present their works to the community.

Last year posed a significant challenge for the educators to transfer this artistic work, which usually takes place locally, into the virtual space of the internet. As a result, the “Virtual Creative School” was born. It allows the children, even from a distance, to be in the middle of the action and develop their creative projects together with others.

Especially during the crisis of 2020, it has become evident how important art is for all of us and the power it has to strengthen children in extreme situations.