House of Culture is an informal group of enthusiastic students from the Netherlands, which is based both in the Netherlands and in South-Sweden. Our aim is to encourage and inspire youth all across Europe to be involved and to be engaged in art, culture, design, museums and architecture. This aim is supported by creating a platform, where young people can share their knowledge & skills, and where cultural diversity can be promoted and shared. Our main objectives are: - To stimulate the participants to question their concept of art by giving them insights from other countries and cultures. - To listen to and learn from each other; and thereby to promote intercultural dialogue. - To exchange information & experiences and to support intercultural & non-formal learning. - To get an overview of art, its history and the perspectives on art across different European countries.- To enable the participants to back up their opinions and views; to stimulate them to share their views through debates and by writing a short text in which they reflect - in a personal way - on what they have learned in this exchange and how their views of art, and culture in generel, have changed. These exercises will help to increase clarity in spoken and written expression on art and culture. - To be aware of the presence of other perspectives and to understand these. - To make art more accessible to youth and stimulate them to be involved in art & culture. - To promote creativity, imagination and collaboration. The 40 participants are selected through the partner organisations based on their interest in the topics surrounding art and culture and based on a high motivation. Further they are required to have a certain level of English that enables them to exchange experiences and perspectives with the other participating youngsters. However, it should be noted that for participants with limited English extra preparation will be offered by the partner organisations during the national preparatory meetings. The selection itself will be based on interviews between each organisation and the applicants, in which the organisations select their participants based on motivation, and interest in the topic - intercultural exchange with art and culture as the main theme. Additionally, each organisation will maintain a gender balance and create equal opportunities for all to apply. The youth exchange will take place in The Hague. The Hague is chosen for this project for the following reasons: The city is home to well-known museums, such as the 'Gemeentemuseum' and 'Het Mauritshuis'. It further has a great international character and it is close to other big Dutch cities. There is also an existing street-art tour through the city, that enables the participants to explore another side of the concept of art. Also, it has a great hostel, that creates a good atmosphere for the participants to get to know each other and to exchange experiences, ideas, visions and cultures. Most activities during the exchange will take place within the hostel or in a rented venue, that offers space for the workshops, discussions and presentations, a place where the participants are not distracted by outsiders. More information on the context of each individual activity during the youth exchange, can be found in the attachment regarding the project program. This is also where the main objectives of the project are reflected. The methodology we will use is to exchange information and experiences through intercultural & non-formal learning. We will do this by having discussions, debates, presentations, cultural evenings, collaborations, activity in the local context.At a local and regional level, we hope to include the local/regional people as an audience to our presentations, specifically the seminar, so that not only our participants broaden their knowledge and ideas about art, but that the local and regional community can learn something from it as well. At a national level we hope that the participants will use the knowledge obtained during the project to make changes and continu to learn about and engage with art and culture (as part of a national organisation). For instance to set up new projects, with different countries, to further broaden their knowledge. At European and international level we hope to stimulate dialogues between countries and cultures and that the friendships that came to exist during the exchange will continue through, for instance facebook. That way, all participants can keep the intercultural dialogue that started during the project alive and keep exchanging ideas regarding art and culture.