Atlas of Inclusion. Performing Arts, Intercultural Dialogue and Audience Development

This chapter aims at exploring how the different activities realized during the project Atlas of Transitions, and particularly during the two festivals (Right to the City and Home) held in 2018 and 2019 in Bologna, focused on arts as a form of resistance and social inclusion that aim at facilitating intercultural dialogue among migrants and host communities, as well as promoting cultural diversity within Italian society. More specifically, moving from the four different types of audience development in the arts, identified by Kawashima (2006), we analyze how this project aimed at nurturing change and awareness about actual social issues, linking the artistic, civic, and political sphere. Finally, reflecting on how Atlas’ communication strategies and performative practices were planned to encourage mutual interaction between Bologna’s inhabitants, including locals and newcomers, while empowering their participation in cultural activities, we shed light on the capacity of participatory arts to resist, rework, or disrupt the lines between possible and ‘impossible citizens’