More than a hundred citizens from the parishes of Arnoso Santa Maria, Arnoso Santa Eulália, Jesufrei, Lemenhe, Mouquim, Nine and Sezures shared their experiences, habits, traditions, as well as their skills in music, to develop, together with the artistic entity Ondamarela, a community concert that will take place on November 21, at 18h00, in the Parish Hall of Mouquim, county of Vila Nova de Famalicão.
The musical project, part of the program Há Cultura | Cultura Para Todos, developed by the City Council of Vila Nova de Famalicão, started in September 29th, with exploratory sessions that involved more than a hundred citizens of the parishes, in which the community shared rituals, stories, experiences and other material and immaterial elements of the territory.
"From the work that I have been following, I am sure that it will be a decentralized cultural show with great involvement and quality", says Jorge Amaral, president of the Arnoso Santa Maria, Arnoso Santa Eulália and Sezures Parishes Union, and current president of the East Valley Inter-Freguesias Social Commission (CSIF).
"We feel that our work is to give prominence to people" comments Ricardo Baptista, artistic director of Ondamarela. "We are very happy to be able to do this (...) create artistic objects with the community." Regarding the working process, which follows a creative line based on improvisation and the individual talents of each participant, Ricardo Baptista says that "if you are really working from what people want to say, have to say from the sound they make, the words, the protests, from what they want to do, you get incredible results".
"I'm really looking forward to the final result (...) it's going to be very good for sure", smiles young Andreia Pinho, from Mouquim. "The fact that we can bring together the young and the old, and all together do something in the community, something that we had never done before, is an added value for all of us".
"I like to participate in these acts, because I meet more people and gain knowledge" refers Alberto Freitas, from Nine. "We will present to the public themes from the seven parishes of the Eastern Valley", he comments. In relation to the musical quality and the talent of the participants, the octogenarian has no doubts: "our municipality is well served by music".
It is recalled that Ondamarela is an entity dedicated to the development of artistic, social and educational projects inspired by people and places, having been awarded the Access Culture Award 2019 - Social and Intellectual Access. In 2019, in a partnership with the City Council of Vila Nova de Famalicão, Ondamarela carried out the artistic direction of the "Aldeias em Festa" project, also integrated in the "Culture for All" measure, as a pilot action. Through exploratory sessions with communities from the parishes of Bairro, Carreira, Bente, Delães, Ruivães and Novais, it built a show with half a hundred participants, presented on 22 September 2019 in the auditorium of the Castro Alves Foundation, in Bairro.
"Community Concert" is an artistic action developed by Ondamarela, in partnership with the community of Vale do Este, which is part of the project "Há Cultura | Cultura para Todos", promoted by the City Council of Vila Nova de Famalicão and co-financed by North 2020, through the European Social Fund (ESF).