In a late summer atmosphere, the participating cooperation partners and participants of the model project "WIR sind DA: Darmstadt für Neubürger:innen" met at the Hoffart Theatre. Music school and administration director Katharina Weiß and composition lecturer Arne Gieshoff were there on behalf of the Academy. Over food, drink and good conversation, they toasted what had been achieved so far and developed new perspectives. Mayor Hanno Benz emphasised the importance of the project for a lively and open urban society. Marie Guerdan, deputy chairperson of the FDP parliamentary group, was a guest. The cello quartet of the AfT (Franz Barocka, Endrit Berisha, Mira Voll and Yosmari Rodriguez / class Romain Garioud) framed the event together with two musicians from Soundkitchen.
As part of the cooperation between Akademie für Tonkunst and PaSo gGmbH, participating new citizens had the opportunity to develop a joint musical narrative together with composition lecturer Arne Gieshoff through sounds, noises, language and their own stories.
The model project "WIR sind DA: Darmstadt für Neubürger:innen" is implemented within the framework of the Hessian state programme "WIR - Wegweisende Integrationsansätze Realisieren" and in cooperation between the Office for Diversity and International Relations of the City of Science Darmstadt and PaSo gGmbH. PaSo gGmbH is a non-profit organisation in Darmstadt that works with the homeless and asylum seekers and implements participatory integration projects in Darmstadt.
The aim of the project is dialogue and encounter at eye level between all participants to strengthen equal participation and integration in the thematic areas of city history, environment, nature and climate protection, sustainability, economy as well as art and culture. The model project is aimed at Neu-Darmstädter:innen, i.e. all people with a history of flight and migration who have come to Darmstadt in recent years.
