The 2008 Summer Arts Academy was a challenging creative 10-days program of exploration of the urban environment, engaging with people and using various media and artforms. The program of the Academy was build on the theoretical and practical platform of cultural animation. Summer Arts Academy took a form of a creative project lead by cultural animation practitioners & artists Ania Bas and Alicja Rogalska (members of Laundry).

The working languages of the Academy were English, Russian, Belarusian and Lithuanian.

The project was devised by:
• artistic director Julija Fomina, curator of the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius
• SAA 2008 coordinator Katsiaryna Radzko, European Humanities University PR manager
• LitPro project’s staff members
• Ania Bas & Alicja Rogalska

The project started with short visit to Kaunas, where Linara Dovydaityte (from Vytautas Magnus University & CAC Vilnius) did a talk about cultural animation and Kaunas based project: Kauno Stebuklai.

Please visit the project blog for more details.

Photographs by participants of the Academy.

We explored Vilijampole, known as a dodgy district of Kaunas. My group was very reluctant do go there because as they have stated "nothing interesting is there". We have been exploring the district during 2 cold afternoons, gathering materials through talking to people, taking pictures, collecting objects and exploring group own views and fears about the area. Our pre-arranged visits were: a convent and a seminar.

The final work consisted of: a PhotoRain - a photo installation; a short film ‘Vilijampole Witch Project’ - exploring group’s own fears about the area; "Sister Klara from Viliampole" - a slideshow linking visit to Vilijampole with sister Clara met in the convent who is originally from there; an installation created using found objects and a wall of suggestions and possible futures for Viliampole. The group have not had previous experience in creating this sort of work.