About MELT
“Tradition is not the adoration of the ashes, but the passing of the flame” – a proverb that could well have served as the motto of the EU project MELT – Migration in Europe and Local Tradition. For almost two years, six partners from different countries joined forces with the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union and raised and pursued the question to what extent migration has an impact on local traditions within Europe. Wherever traditions and migration meet, as is primarily the case in urban centres, culture is the leaven which sets processes of change in motion, promotes creative growth and generates new ideas. more…
The Concept
Migration in Europe and Local Tradition (MELT) is a European project that strives to discover and celebrate the diversity of local communities, to give visibility to their inherent creative potential, and to foster transnational exchange and mobility of cultural players as well as intercultural dialogue and international collaboration. The exchange takes place at different levels and involves professional artists, amateur artists (“community artists”), cultural facilitators and community members working as volunteers in the cultural sector. The creative process and its various activities develop in five phases which are headlined “discovering”, “experimenting”, “giving visibility (I)”, “melting”, and “giving visibility (II)”. more…
The Results
The approach of the MELT project was to provide new impetus for intercultural dialogue and to promote international cultural cooperation. MELT was successful in giving visibility to the potential offered by this diversity of cultures in city neighbourhoods by organising many, and many different types of, events. What MELT has achieved is a broad range of interconnections established through exchanges between artists at international multilateral level. In this, more was achieved more than originally planned. Friendships developed that will continue after the project's closure. If asked to do the project again, the partners would answer unequivocally with yes. MELT was a joint paean to diversity, in which the protagonists joined in a spirit of enquiry and curiosity with the deep need for mutual understanding. more…
Key Definitions
Migration
Migration today takes place on all continents and in the majority of countries and societies. Migration may be voluntary or forced: the reasons may be economical, political, social or cultural. The mobility of migrants has implications both on the place they leave and on the place where they settle. Both places change, and both may profit or not – or both at the same time – from migration. more…
Local Tradition
Local tradition in our understanding encompasses all spheres of social and cultural life, are usually based on a definition of “home”, and are generally linked to specific places, though it must be said that nomads too have local traditions, which may then rather be associated with a social group. At the same time they contribute – to a greater or lesser extent – to a process of exclusion (“the others”). Local traditions hence oscillate between inclusion and exclusion, between openness and restriction, between the public and the private. more…