Project duration: 2021-2022

The aim of the project was to promote understanding of the importance of democracy and human rights for maintaining peace and cohesion in the European Union, and to develop methods of teaching democracy and human rights to teachers, youth workers, artists and interested people across Europe.

The project enabled young Europeans between the ages of 13 and 16 to creatively explore the issues of democracy and human rights and their importance for freedom and equality.

  • For this purpose, they learned about the thematic background in school lessons and explored their personal environment in the further course of the project.
  • They processed the insights gained in short puppet theatre performances, which they performed in official buildings in front of their families, peer group, politicians and other interested parties.

The artistic methods of puppet theatre helped them to express controversial issues, to get to the heart of what is difficult to say and to bring relationships into new contexts. The methods for the topic-related work with the young people were taught to the participating teachers and artists by Zentrum polis and developed together with the participants. For this purpose, a workshop lasting several days was held in Vienna with representatives of the participating partners from four countries. The project took place in Budapest, Belgrade, Ravne na Koroskem and Vienna. Due to the broad mix of participating schools, pupils from different social backgrounds are reached.

The teaching methods developed in the project are available for further use free of charge after the end of the project. They are passed on through the networks of all participants and thus find wide dissemination.

Documentation and results


Project Lead: Puppet Theatre LILARUM, Vienna, Austria

Project Partners in Austria

New Secondary School Hainburger Straße

polis – The Austrian Center for Citizenship Education in Schools

Project Partners in Slovenia

Zadruga Zraven

Srednja šola Ravne

Project Partners in Serbia

Little Theatre „Dusko Radovic“

Osnovna škola „Ilija Bircanin“

Project Partners Hungary

Interplay Hungary

Keleti István Elementary School for Art


Funded by: