Target group
Tutti Fratelli is a social artistic organization which makes performances with dance, drama, singing,… Everybody is welcome in this artistic place, but Tutti Fratelli works essentially together with minority groups, such as psychiatric patients, people who live in poverty, people with a migration background, people with disabilities,… Assisted by professionals and artists, they try to make a great stage performance. The players in a theatre piece are called ‘fratelli’.
The organization shows to the society that vulnerable people really are capable of acting, pretending to be someone else in a different environment, despite what many people think.
“Tutti Fratelli is een huis voor velen, een artistieke vrijplaats, met aandacht voor de schoonheid van het onvolmaakte en voor de meest kwetsbaren.” = Tutti Fratelli is a house for many people, an artistic free environment, with attention for the beauty of the incomplete and for the ones who are the most vulnerable.
History
In 2003, Reinhilde Decleir directed a play with people in poverty from the platform APGA (Antwerps Platform tegen Generatiearmoede). This platform was a collaboration between several organizations that work with this target group. Right now the network is called STA-AN (Samen Tegen Armoede – Antwerps Netwerk). At first, Reinhilde didn’t want to collaborate in this project when the coaches asked her to. She feared her target group wouldn’t like didn’t want to perform or to act. Eventually, she said ‘yes’ to the challenge, a choice that would change her professional life completely. By working with this group, she was confronted with poverty and the consequences it has in the life of someone. The play was called ‘Men zegge het voort’-‘Noordpijn’ and was a big success. They would only perform this theatre piece once, in the Bourla theatre. The attendance was much more than expected: the whole theatre was full of people. This was not the ‘regular’ public of the Bourla theatre, it was the family and friends of the players who really wanted to see their beloved ones performing.
One year later, in 2004, there became a sequel on the piece, named ‘Men zegge het voort’- ‘Entre nous’, with the approval of Luc/Luk Perceval. This man is an actor and director and founder of the Toneelhuis, a theatre company. The collaboration between the Toneelhuis intensified when Josse de Pauw, became the the artistic leader of that organization. The Toneelhuis even included the project of Reinhilde Decleir in their repertoire. In 2006, some other productions, based on Shakespeare, arose, like ‘The Best of Shakespeare’. At first, Josse de Pauw wanted to add professional actors and dancers, but Reinhilde disagreed with this. She insisted that the name part should stay for her group, that kept getting bigger.
Because of the big success these performances gained, there was decided to found a new organization: Tutti Fratelli vzw.
The target group Tutti Fratelli worked with, expanded bit by bit. Now, everyone is welcome, but there is still an emphasis on working with minority groups, people who don’t always get the chances they deserve. (DWARS BRON + TUTTI FRATELLI)
In general
The subsidization of artistical institutions in Flanders is not obvious at all. The organizations get their money from different sources. The biggest lender is the Flemish community. (For the organizations of Antwerp?) The city of Antwerp also has its own resources. There are the so-called structural grants (a fixed grant from the city) and project grants (for individual projects).
In 2012 there was a great deal of ambiguity about the subsidies, which caused many unrest in various cultural organizations and also at Tutti Fratelli. They were afraid to lose their financial support, which would cause a huge financial problem.
Initially (2007???), Tutti Fratelli received 7 000,00 euro structural grants from the Department of Culture and 12,000 euros from Samenleven. In 2012 (?) this has changed to 20,000 euros structural grant from Culture and 6,000 euros from Samenleven. This amounts to an increase of 5,000 euros. In addition, they might receive a one-time investment subsidy that year.
https://cjsm.be/cultuur/sites/cjsm.cultuur/files/public/v1_verslag.pdf en http://www.kunstenenerfgoed.be/nl/wat-doen-we/uitvoering-van-het-kunstenbeleid
The actual financial situation (andere bronnen dan hierboven, spreken elkaar op bepaalde punten wat tegen, maar ik denk dat het zo is)
– At first, Tutti Frattelli received € 7.000.00. They got the same letter any organization received, containing the message that for all social artistic operations, the subsidies would be reduced to zero. Then, the subsidies would be reshuffled. Now, after that redistribution, they receive three times the amount they got at first: € 21 000.00. (stond zo in dat worddocument ; ik denk dat echter het zo is (maar ben niet zeker): ik denk dat de herverdeling en de verdrievoudiging enkel slaat op het deel van Cultuur ; in het begin ontvingen ze 19000 van Cultuur en samenleven samen, in 2012 werd beslist dat ze 26000 zouden krijgen (zie boven, komt uit http://dwars.be/nl/artikel/its-all-about-money?language_content_entity=und) – vraag me niet hoe ze van 19000 naar 26000 bij een verschil van 5000 komen, ik vermoed ongeveer 20000 naar ongeveer 25000???) – ik denk ook dat in dat workdocument de subsidie van Samenleven niet vermeld werd, pfff)
– The Art Decree regulates the support of professional arts in Flanders. Through the Art Decree Tutti Fratelli gets on the Flemish level an amount of € 251 000,00 per year. (250000-260000 – in het ene artikel wordt 251, n het andere 256 vermeld)
Evolution Art Decree:
In 2012 the Minister of Culture was Joke Schauvliege (CD & V). She has published the preliminary advice for cultural subsidies on the internet. Tutti Fratelli was one of Antwerp's projects and cultural centers which then provisionally received a positive opinion for grants on the amount of 215 000 euro for four years. Which was, of course, a great relief as other organizations were not that lucky and lost their subsidies.
So, 2016 was another exciting year. In many grants for cultural homes for the period 2017 to 2021, the former Minister of Culture Sven Gatz (Open Vld) had been cutting. Although the results for many cultural organizations were negative, the news for Tutti Fratelli was positive, even better than before: Tutti Fratelli got € 256 000,00! Which means a growth of 28%!
– For the building the organization gets rent subsidies amounting to € 50 000,00.
However, all these subsidies are not sufficient. So, for example, the organization needs a lot of money to pay the labor costs and the rent of their professional musicians, …
Since 2013, they are looking for new, own resources by setting up a system of benefactors. That is, of course, not easy at all. Above at, this research requires a lot of time and efforts. Naturally, they’d rather invest the time they put in their research work for volunteers and sponsors in the making of new productions and the guiding of their people. They appeal to the involvement of volunteers who engage their free time
On their website, tuttifratelli.be, they explain their financial situations and needs as follows: “Realizing high-quality artistic projects costs money. Money we receive on the one hand through subsidies, on the other hand, through companies and individuals who are fond of us.
The search for resources remains a constant concern with Tutti Fratelli, because they’re working with limited resources. "In other words, with their grants alone, they are not sure. As with many cultural organizations, it remains a hard struggle to survive.
Kind of activities
Tutti Fratelli offers social-artistic workshops in the Center of Antwerp. Everybody is welcome. The less lucky ones are the most welcome people. With the cooperation of artists and other professional assistants, Tutti Fratelli creates theater. The fundamental idea is to start from word, movement, singing and imagination. Results of their efforts? Quality performances shown in large theaters. The organization focusses mainly on the most vulnerable people in our society and on the beauty of the imperfect. The fact that their approach is successful is splendidly expressed in one of the comments in their guestbook. A quote that Tutti Fratelli shares with us through their website: "The actors are fully valued and so they emanate. They surpass themselves and lift each other upwards." (www.tuttifratelli.be)
Examples of activities / projects
Regularly you can admire a performance of Tutti Fratelli. On their website you will find the complete list. Here I discuss a few. http://tuttifratelli.be/producties/
Once a year, since 2012, the organization also opens its doors with the Festival Mirrors of the Soul.
2008 DRIESTUIVERSOPERA
LYSISTRATA – 2009
Comedy of Aristophanes about how women in the ancient Greece, see their husbands leave for war again and again. And here they want to change it.
A SONG – 2010
Here they focussed, as you can imagine by the title, on the singing. They performed songs e.g. of Rocco Granata, Harry Belafonte, Wannes Van de Velde, Johnny Cash, Raymond van het Groenewoud, Ramses Shaffy, Dolly Parton. At each performance, they had a special guest, like Jan De Smet, Helmut Lotti, Rocco Granata, Bart Peeters, , …
HET TEMMEN VAN DE FEEKS / THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (???) – 2011 – A piece of William Shakespeare
(OPERETTEDAGDROOM – 2012
DIEP IN MIJN HART – 2013
TEN HUWELIJK – 2014
IK KAN ALLES DENKEN WAT IK WIL – 2015)
DE MIDDELMATIGE MAN / THE MEDIOCRE MAN – 2015
Tom Dupont directed and wrote, at the request of Reinhilde Decleir, a performance about a man who was choses as the mediocre man. Therefore, the person astonishes his surroundings by wanting no longer to be mediocre.
ADDIO AMORE – 2016
In 2016, about twenty performers were inspired by the refugee crisis and the emotions concerning escaping and being separated. About what it means to escape, forced to lose everyone beloved and everything precious. To have no more family, friends, children, possessions? To leave your home being "someone" and to become a "nobody" afterwards? Undesirable, not welcome.
DE DRIESTUIVERSOPERA / BEGGAR’S OPERA (???) (Bertol Brecht) – 2008 / 2017
An theater play from Bertol Brecht, directed by Reinhilde Decleir. A story about bandits, beggars, villains, … A story about growing up, jealousy, loving, choices, …
This year, they are replay their performance of to commemorate their ten-year existence.
They play it e.g. in the Elizabethzaal (Antwerp), De Vooruit (Gent), De Roma.
Reinhilde Decleir
The director of Tutti Fratelli, Reinhilde Decleir, has known poverty herself when she was younger. Luckily, her parents were aware of the necessity of going to school and study, which isn’t always the case in ‘poorer’ families. Her father had to leave school early to find a job, but did some self-education. Reinhilde and her siblings always studied hard, because they were raised with the knowledge that this was really important to get somewhere in life. This is a big advantage most Fratelli didn’t experience: the realisation that education is really important. People in poverty often have the mentality of ‘I can’t do this’ and share this involuntary with their children. In the organization Tutti Fratelli, they can learn and realise that they are actually capable of so much more. Furthermore, her parents liked culture and theatre, so she got already some impressions at a rather young age. (DWARS BRON)
Reinhilde Decleir is also the sister of Jan Decleir, a famous actor. Reinhilde has already played some parts in Flemmish television shows, like Beau Séjour, Van Vlees en Bloed, Cordon,…