Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin, one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century, created the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation AISBL in Brussels in 1991. The mission of the IYMF is to remind political, cultural and educational institutions of the central role of art and creativity in the whole personal and societal development process. Taking Yehudi Menuhin’s humanist legacy as a source, it initiates artistic projects that give a voice to all the cultures in Europe.

The International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation proposes to share the voices of artists, music, culture and nature by training cultural ambassadors who will be able to express themselves creatively on stage with the help of modern media. To this end, the Foundation consults experts from these cultures, prepares the materials in order to transpose messages into images and conveys them during multicultural performances and concerts held in various places in Europe.

ACE

The platform ACE – Assembly of Cultures of Europe was initiated in the early 1990’s, as Lord Menuhin’s wish was to support the presence of cultural minority groups in Europe.

“…The ACE, however, is convinced that the European Union has an essential role to play in preserving the characteristic variety of its cultures whilst building its unity on common values, common goals and common needs. The European Union must act as the GUARDIAN OF THE CULTURES OF EUROPE, giving them the certainty of survival, the possibility of having direct access to each other and the opportunity to voice their own opinions. …”

(Extract from the working document of the 2nd meeting of the ACE, Lisbon, 1998)

The aims of the ACE include:

•    To gather the European cultural groups and to promote dialogue amongst them for a better understanding of their identities and common or parallel problems.
•    To promote the European integration of all cultural groups, respecting their continuing diversity and specificity as autonomous groups within the protection and the listening body of the European Union.
•    To allow the cross fertilisation of the European cultural groups through mutual contacts and sharing of cultural activities.
•    To become an interlocutor between the European Organisations (EU, Council of Europe and OSCE) and the European cultural groups.
•    To defend and protect the right to be different against any form of assimilation.
•    To improve the implementation of the existing international documents and standards on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and Responsibilities.
•    To play the role of moderator in bilateral talks at the request of the interested parties.
•    To promote studies and to support cultural projects of the voiceless and poorest European cultural groups, especially those on the way to disappearance.

(Extract from the statutory document “Open Assembly of the Cultures in Europe”)

The finality of this Assembly is to give a voice to the voiceless, to all cultures of Europe, and thus to become the interlocutors between the European Union and the European cultural groups.

• Sharing all voices

A 3 years project

Sharing All Voices contains three different themes, one for each year, from 2008 to 2010:

Moving Voices 2008
In 2008, the theme chosen was nomadic cultures. Artists from various cultures and disciplines got together to explore from a creative angle how they could be the ambassadors of nomadic spirit and how they could express the richness of nomadism in the cultural field.
Green Voices 2009
In 2009, the theme chosen is environmental awareness. Artists from various cultures and disciplines get together to explore from a creative angle how they can be the ambassadors of the Green spirit and how they can help to communicate environmental values.
Islands’ Voices 2010
In 2010, the theme will focus on the interaction between urban and island cultures.

• Voices for tomorrow

Context:

 The programme « Voices for Tomorrow » is financed by the DGEAC under the line « Ambassadors of the Cultures of Europe » for the years 2011, 2012 et 2013. This is a structural funding which allows the International Yehudi Menuhin to consolidate its long-term projects and to deepen its fields of activities in the context of integration and creativity.

Overall objective:

Reinforcing and disseminating throughout Europe the mission of the Artists-Ambassadors for Cultures of Europe, spokespeople for the values of the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation/IYMF (creativity, integration, sharing, respect for diversity, transmission) and their artistic methodology based on interdisciplinarity, improvisation and interculturality in order to give a VOICE to the cultures of Europe and foster the integration of vulnerable groups through the practice of art.

Specific objectives:

• Training more artists to carry out the mission of ambassador for cultural diversity and European traditions, according to the “Sharing all Voices” artistic methodology so that they can become bearers of the European values promoted by Yehudi Menuhin.

• Supporting artistic and multidisciplinary actions aimed at integration through the practice of art by reinforcing the work of the projects promoters belonging to the European network of the IYMF

• Boosting the artistic creativity, intercultural dialogue and mobility of European artists on the theme “integration and creativity”.