Associação Yehudi Menuhin Portugal

National Network
البرتغال
Address

R. António Maria Cardoso, n.º 68
1249-101 Lisboa
البرتغال

Telephone
+351213466722
Fax
+351 213 428 250
E-Mail
geral@aymp.pt
E-Mail (2)
menuhinp@cnc.pt
Mobile Phone
+351919972436
Organisation Type
Non-Governmental Organization
Year of Establishment
2000
Fields of Activity
  1. Arts
General Information

The Association Yehudi Menuhin Portugal (AYMP) is a non-profit cultural Association, was founded on January 27, 2000 and is affiliated to the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation.
The AYMP works with socially disadvantaged population groups and in which the presence of a population from minority cultures is significantly noted.
AYMP has been developing, since its foundation, various activities and projects, namely, the MUS-E Portugal. AYMP has also been developing several training activities for adults: teachers, other education professionals, artists and students' families and others.
The Association was founded under the impulse of Helena Vaz de Silva, at the time president of the Centro Nacional de Cultura, and since its constitution, AYMP has its headquarter at the CNC. The other main partners involved in the AYMP's projects/activities, in addition to the Portuguese education ministry, have been the Schools (Agrupamentos de Escolas) and the Municipalities of the different cities where MUS-E Portugal has been developed: Évora, Leiria, Lisbon, Matosinhos, Porto, Odemira, Oeiras and Vila Nova de Gaia.
In addition to the quotas of individual, collective and benefactors’ associates of AYMP, the Association was financed by the Ministry of Education and has been financed by the municipalities in which the MUS-E project/ program is present. Also has received the sponsorship of several institutions.

Mission and Objectives

The Association Yehudi Menuhin Portugal (AYMP) aims to pursue objectives of artistic character, formatives and of social integration, promoting the arts as a means of preventing violence, development of tolerance and sense of citizenship, according to the ideals of Yehudi Menuhin and the principles of the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation.
AYMP promotes, among other activities, the MUS-E Portugal.

Main Projects / Activities

The main project / program of AYMP is MUS-E. The MUS-E initiative was created by Yehudi Menuhin in 1993, together with Werner Schmitt, IYMF Vice-President, and Marianne Poncelet, IYMF Executive Vice-President. It is based on a concept of music education developed by the Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist and teacher Zoltan Kodály (1882 - 1967). Kodály believed that music should be part and parcel of daily education and accessible to all. Yehudi Menuhin broadened Kodály’s concept to incorporate all creative arts spanning all cultures. Since 1993, MUS-E Associations in various countries have built up a wealth of experience in implementing the use of creative arts in traditional primary school curriculums, working particularly with children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
In its present form, the program MUS-E is targeted at primary schools, mainly in Europe, which are facing the challenge of educating a growing multicultural group of children, many of whom come from migrant or disadvantaged families and are at risk of social exclusion or other societal problems. In the presence of classroom teachers, professional artists actively engaged in MUS-E introduce and share various forms of art (singing, dance, music, movement, drama, visual and multimedia arts,...).
Thanks to this collective work, the MUS-E programme encourages dialogue and togetherness, while awakening children’s sense of creativity, empathy and resilience.
Three fields of activity are interconnected in the MUS-E programme:
- Artistic
Art is all too often given minimum attention in the school curriculum, but it is a powerful tool to awaken and stimulate children’s curiosity for learning.
The MUS-E programme is a meaningful, effective and unique addition to existing music and art classes offered by schools.
- Pedagogical
MUS-E’s artistic approach to school education helps children to enjoy school as a place to learn and socialize. lt also helps teachers to discover an additional teaching strategy focussed on every child’s needs, abilities, leveI of development and cultural background. MUS-E activities are based on the premise that children have their own way of processing knowledge and culture, 50 that if schools are able to leverage this, they become key social agents. The partnership between teachers and visiting artists enables the teacher’s function of helping children in their quest for knowledge, overcoming the idea that the teacher is the only gatekeeper of knowledge. Moreover, teachers can use the MUS-E experience and practice to support teaching other subjects on the school curriculum.
- Social
The schools benefitting from the MUS-E programme are mainly located in lower income districts with few cultural stimuli and /or high concentration of diverse backgrounds. By triggering children’s creativity, their capacity for resilience to adverse social circumstances is strengthened. MUSE optimizes the creative resources of the children and families, and the wealth of their cultural diversity.

Over the years, MUS-E Portugal has been recognized as a Cultural Interest Project by the Ministry of Culture / Portuguese Secretary of State for Culture.

How can you contribute to the Network in your country?

As the AYMP has the objective, non-profit, to pursue exclusively artistic, educational, cultural, training and social integration purposes, with a view to promoting the arts as a means of preventing violence, developing tolerance and the sense of citizenship, AYMP could contribute to the Network, according to AYMP statutes, namely:

a) The carrying out of artistic, educational, cultural, training and social integration activities, with a view to promoting music and other arts as a means of preventing violence and as a means of developing tolerance and a sense of citizenship, according to the teachings of Yehudi Menuhin and the programs of the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation.
b) The development of artistic education in the educational system and in Portuguese society, namely through the implementation and development of the MUS-E project of the International Foundation Yehudi Menuhin, in order to provide children and young people with the knowledge and mutual respect of different cultures;
c) Cultural promotion, in collaboration with public and private entities and bodies that pursue the same aim;
d) The development of music and other arts in the broader sectors of the population, through public events;
e) The promotion of activities aimed at promoting the educational, social and cultural integration of disadvantaged children and young people;
f) The creation of educational, artistic and cultural cooperation networks that help to achieve the association's objectives, at regional, national and international level;
g) The organization of seminars and conferences to study and expand the activities and initiatives of the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation, always on the basis of a human climate of trust and goodwill and intercultural solidarity;
h) The adoption and promotion of initiatives in favor of tolerance, dialogue and solidarity between different peoples and social groups, for the improvement of the interior environment - spiritual, moral and conceptual - and exterior, in order to elicit a global response to dehumanization of current societies.

Why do you want to join the ALF Network?

To contribute to the Network of Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation promoting the Dialogue between Cultures.

معلومات إضافية
Contact (1) Full Name
Maria Leonor C. C. Cambournac
Job Title
Coordenadora Nacional do MUS-E Portugal
Head of the organisation
Guilherme d'Oliveira Martins (President of the board)