On the 25th of January, Loraldia and the Culture department of the University of the Basque Country announced the initiative “Sormen Ola”, which consists of a workshop program aimed at young people between 16 and 29 years old, which seeks the transmission of Basque culture.
The program will be held once a month, on Saturday mornings and in the format of intensive sessions, at the Bizkaia Aretoa of the UPV/EHU. Thus, people who do not have time during the week or who could come from outside Bilbao will also have the opportunity to do so.
The topics will be monographic, in which different fields of creativity will be addressed between January and May: dance, music, performing arts, literature, audiovisuals and words and images. And offered by reference and experienced professionals such as Jon Maya, Patxo Telleria, Joseba Sarrionandia, Paul Urkijo or Miren Amuriza, among others.
At the initiative of EHUkultura (The department of culture of the University of the Basque Country), registration will be free for students of the Bizkaia campus. The cost of each session for the rest of participants will be 15 €.
Gazte Initiative
Loraldia started a year ago the Loraldi Gaztea initiative, from which Sormen Ola was created. Loraldia Gaztea aims to disseminate the transmission of Basque culture among young people, to foster a love of culture among this generation, to put young people in contact with leading cultural professionals and to promote creativity and imagination.
The first initiative in this line was Udako Ola, developed last summer, a creative residency for young creators.
During this stay, 12 young people had the opportunity to work for 6 days with specialized professionals of reference in different fields of creativity and learn and experience what it is to be creators through experimentation.
Amaia Ocerin (from Loraldi), Gorka Moreno (vice-rector of the Bizkaia Campus of the University of the Basque Country) and Patxo Telleria (creator and one of the professionals who will offer the sessions of Sormen Ola) united in the presentation of Sormen Ola
As Amaia Ocerin explained on behalf of Loraldia: “Loraldia is firmly committed to the transmission of our culture. And one of the audiences on which we must undoubtedly place more emphasis is on the younger generations. They are and will be the new creators and consumers of culture in the present and future. We intend to offer them training and preparation, an opportunity to experiment and a space where they can enjoy the latest cultural proposals and offer their own creations”.
Gorka Moreno stated that, “the Sormen Ola project is a clear example of collaboration with society in which our students actively participate in cultural creation in different areas”.
Finally, Patxo Telleria said that “this type of initiative is absolutely necessary. Young people who want to become creators need to train and experiment. The experience we had last summer was very enriching and the people who will work professionally in the future will emerge from projects like these”.