Our last visit to Gozdowo on which we could distribute publications that had been the products of Animator project brought one amazing surprise. It seems that our last year actions managed to bring enough attention to the half-ruined but not yet forgotten Gozdowo train station! There are quite a few trains going to Sierpc and to Kutno so the next time we set off to visit this wonderful place it will certainly be by train!
Gozdowo project has provoked a lot of discussions and arguments. How to work with local community? What tools are appriopriate for cultural work with adults? What could we expect from "tutors" - experienced practitioners - participating in the project? What kind of support should we receive from them? How to use Gozdowo project as model activity? What is its connection to education in culture animation? How curriculum in culture animation should be built? All these and many other questions were asked during evaluation discussion that took place in December 2007 with participation of students and graduates of culture animation who worked at Gozdowo.
Meeting about the future of Gozdowo-PROJECT coming soon !!!!!!!!
When: On Tuesday, 11th December, start at 6.30 p.m. room 10, Institute of Polish Culture
What: Disscusing, planning, precising our ideas and talking about possibillities.
Everyone interested invited!!!
Last weekend we were in Gozdowo. In four-people strong team. What for?
Because it is time to continue our ANIMATOR project, time to think what we can do next, what is needed to be done there.
As an effect of our previous talks we decided to concentrate this time on working with the group of elder teenagers – participants of our June workshop and also people from last year project called Guide My Future (June-July 2006).
It seems to be obvious that the most important point is to encourage them to their own activity, to help them in creating something in their own. To show them that they can do exciting and marvelous things.
So, we met with them, and some new people also, on Saturday in our “office space” in the Gozdowo center. Three hours of “brain storm”, inspiring one each other, asking and answering questions. Then – the time of proposals and concrete ideas. And the catchword turned out: the journalist club.
Writing texts, taking photos, film and internet workshop, meetings with interesting peoples, trips to editorial offices… Then film projections for members and their friends, open presentations, exhibitions, events in school… Realising projects concentrated around concrete cases and subjects.
We encouraged our team to write application for the programme MAKE A CONNECTION – it could be their first dotation and first real and serious chance to realize their own project. We were working hard to answer all questions, to find solutions, and to precise ideas. It was important moment for them to see how difficult but how fascinating in fact it is. The text was written down, they had to discuss some pivotal problems and it helped to constitute the essence.
Finally, we didn’t manage to apply… Why? Many reasons – too short time, a little bit too young group, the lack of adult-supporter… But – it isn’t the end. Those meetings were great, and I believe gave them a lot of new counsciousness, infomation and skills. And showed us that there is a lot of energy in them.
And there are a lot of possibilities. So – we have to think what to do, how to help them, how to continue…
The idea for the workshop came from the desire to find an element that remains a link between different generations of women of Gozdowo. Initially during this project I was planning to encourage the girls from the local middle school to record the lullabies performed by their mothers and grandmothers. However in reality my plans were not achievable, because the mothers were not willing to sing.
Eventually girls and boys who showed interest in participating in the project invited me into their homes. Then, with some persuasions, we managed to register (with the help of Martin Villau who was much more acquainted with the digital equipment) the songs that women from Gozdowo used to put their children to sleep with. Some of the songs were recorded in the households I visited during another project involving creating a map of Gozdowo’s emigrants.
Most of the songs I collected appeared repeatedly during the ten days of the project, but there were families who created their own tradition, like the family of the old lady from a nearby village where four generations of children used to fall asleep listening to songs about stranglers and rapists.
The second part of the project was based on creating an improvised recording studio (wholly accomplished by Jacek Sosnowski), in which we encouraged kids participating in the workshop and their friends to perform songs they liked.
At the end we made a compact disc out of all the collected tunes and gave a copy of it to all the people who contributed to the project.
The memory of this feeling connected with exploring a forrest, running away from pursuit of rivals, looking for hidden riddles and arrows left by opposite team…
It is a smell of childhood, present in every memory and imagination. Dream of adventure.
The proposal of project which could be made by our young workshop participants was born in connection of this childish dream.
An idea was both simple and sophisticated: this action had to be done in unturned relation – by children and youth for us and for adults of Gozdowo. Also for other children.
It was a challange and adventure – how to help and encourage them,how to convince that it is possible for them to do something on their own.
Planning, organizing, setting rules, finding interesting places, marking up a route, advertising an action – our democratic process of preparing the game was not easy but fascinating and enlightening. For some of young organizators it was the first contact with this kind of problems and questions and the first ocassion to cope with it.
What it should be about? How we can involve adults – parents, teachers or shop-assistent from grocery? How to plan a route – not to easy but complicated and interesting enough? What kind of tasks should give the game?
First of all we decided that it would be in but also about Gozdowo. There was a map with some points marked – the task of each team was to reach every point and to carry out a task.
The game became a small project – it was created and realized by participants who became animators-begginers.
Each point turned out to be a space of small action – at Krystian’s place competitors had to design logo of Gozdowo, in the small forest, in Wiola’s control-point they wrote a legend of their town, in the other spots the vision of future in Gozdowo was created.
The joy was great – maybe first of all because it was a time of being together – grandparents with grandchildren, friends form school, animators form Warsaw and teenagers from grammar school.
And because it was the first own success, first own project made by our young friends!
A film by Pamela Wells, realised with the kind assistance of Gozdowo Girls and Karolina Pluta. And thanks to Father Sebastian for the soundtrack! Premiered at the ‘Słuchając Gozdowa’ event 1 July, 2007.
We came to Gozdowo by the invitation of IKP as the representatives of VMU to contribute to the animation project, obtain practical skills and experience ourselves that cultural animation is. After some days observation we decided to take part in the project Stacja Gozdowo.
A short guide to Gozdowo in English and Polish.
A film by Pamela Wells and Tomek Korzeniewski.
Premiered at the ‘Słuchając Gozdowa’ event 1 July, 2007.
The project done by Julia Biczysko, Asia Zięba and Agata Pietrzyk was focused on one particular point in Gozdowo’s map: the old train station that had long fallen out of use. We wanted to make this place alive again and learn how it was perceived by people who lived in Gozdowo. What made us even more interested in this place was its location - far from the town centre, transgressing the notions of usability and even propriety.
We set out to work with children first, asking them to draw, cut and spray with paint stencils of trains and all things associated with it. Their works turned out to be an inspiration for us and became a basic idea of a poster promoting Train Station Project.
We placed three pieces of Plexiglass opposite three walls of the train station building. On each of them we made an outline of the building itself, so that one could see it in miniature. Three groups of people (different age groups) used our outlines as a background for their own drawings then. Thus we met three different ways of looking at the old train station.
Apart from all that, our project became one of the elements of the field game when participants were asked to find a hidden sign and draw their own imaginary station on the Plexiglass.