Published by Mark Webster from Staffordshire University in Artist Newsletter June-August 2008 (magazine has 30,000 subscribers in UK). Mark Webster is a community arts teacher and practitioner. He was our guest during the final event on April 26th.

Article page pdf

Promo page pdf

A-N website

Here’s a small selection of photos from the final event in Warsaw on April 26th, mostly between 12 noon and 2.30pm.

Jacek Kauron high school, location of Wonders book launch.Clues in Praga lead to the Bazar…Mentor session, Bambini di PragaMentor session, Bambini di PragaBook launch, Bambini di PragaMentor session, Bambini di PragaMentor session, Bambini di PragaBook launch, Bambini di PragaBook launch, Bambini di PragaOur Lithuanian invigilators…

Watch these wonderful photos taken by Tomek Kaczor and Janek Mencwel on the day of the event (April 26th) in all its many locations on both sides of the Vistula river.

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5 zloty project

During whole 2-year project, in different contexts, during workshops in schools, placement in Gozdowo or searching wonders of the cities and in many other situations, it turned out that sometimes the simple and short idea of the beggining action could be really helpful. …Put the table on the street, prepare one sheet of paper and ask people to draw small drawings -  symbols, connotations with the place/ the district you are in. Collect them, one by one and then you will have almost ready design for t-shirt…
… With piece of paper go to the chosen part of the city. Mark the place where you are in the moment of starting action. Ask the passer-by to direct you to his/her favourtite grocer’s shop/ coffe point/ park/ or pub… or something else. Ask your interlocutor to draw the route on your sheet of paper. Go to this point. Devise the next question ( another one) and ask the next person to draw the route. In one hour you will have the mental map of the neighbourhood…
… Buy the colourful chalk. Choose nice place on the wide pavement. Ask people to write down their favourite words. There will be nice piece of city-poetry soon…
… On the narrow colorful pieces of paper collect people’s answers of  question “What do you dream about?”. Then attach them to the string, string to the kite (you can buy or construct it simply). Then go to chosen high point (could be a balcony or a slope) and organize an action “To liberate dreams!”…

We make a list of  about 30 examples like that. We called it “first contact” actions. Or “5 zloty project” – because all of them are simple and  cheap.

We put short descriptions in small origami-boxes. Then organized a store on Bazar. We invited people to take one box and realize the action (with materials complated at our store). It was a great time of sharing the ideas. Somebody who was firstly the participant in few second was becoming into the animator. Whole area was full of people realizing their own first actions…

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As part of the "5 Zloty Projects" action at Bazar Rozyckiego, Dan Roberts and Pamela Wells co-operated with Katedra Kultury and students from the Institute of Polish Culture to meet people waiting at the bus stop, asking "Where are you going?" and "Where would you like to be going?" Responses were written on small pieces of paper that were hung onto a washing line. These were then moved over people’s head via a pulley that went from the bus stop into the market enclosure. In exchange, participants received a badge and alternative abstract ‘directions’ for their journey.

"If the word “relationship” has been stamped all over the job description at the task level, or the level of specific professional experience, then it should go without saying that it has to be evident in the way in which culture animation-related tasks and initiatives are presented. If the words “contact”, “person”, “relationship”, “bond” and “communication” are at once the primary key terms and the foundation on which the practice of cultural animation has been built, then they should be present wherever the results of cultural animation projects are exhibited. This is why it was hard to envisage an "Animation Initiatives Market" (AIM) along the lines of a "fair", like a book fair, a job fair, a tourism fair, etc. when planning the ANIMATOR project" - writes Małgorzata Litwinowicz.

And this is why the final event of April 26th was not only a platform for promotion of ANIMATOR’s results but - above all - a pilot event testing a model for exchange of ideas in education and practice in culture animation.

Text in Polish

Text in English

The Wonders of Warsaw and The Wonders of Kaunas - two model projects each resulting in a publication that was launched as part of the PoWisle i Po Pradze event on 28th April.

 Click here to download information panels about the Wonders projects.

Young deaf people in Warsaw share their wonders of the city.

This film was created by Brendan Jackson and Paulina Paga with pupils attending the Jakuba Falkowskiego Deaf Institute, premiered at the ‘PoWisle i Po Pradze’ event, in Warsaw on 26 April, 2008.

Presentation to pupils and staffPresentation to pupils and staffScreenshot from filmProjection at final event

Why work with a deaf group? Well, I kept seeing a lot of deaf people on the bus from the centre to Praga, and often would see groups of people signing at Wilenski. Here was a group of people that no-one from cultural animation had any experience of working with.  I wanted to invite them to participate in the project, to use their beautiful visual language of hand movements to tell us about their Wonders of the city and to document this on film for a wider audience. Simple and straightforward, yes?  But how to communicate with this group of people as a non-Polish speaker? I made some drawings of their hand movements on the bus and showed them to the signers. They shrugged and smiled and probably thought I was a little crazy. I needed a Polish speaker with me to explain the idea  – as some of them would no doubt be able to lip-read.  Paulina offered to help and we were put in touch with the Deaf Institute and met with the Director. He agreed to participate and showed us round the Institute. It turned out they had a group of teachers and students interested in film-making – mostly documenting events or making some films to promote the work of the Institute. Paulina met with them for two workshops,  to make a powerpoint presentation about the context of the overall project and to encourage them to think about what they would choose as a wonder and storyboard this. The third session was the actual filming. Ideally, we would have gone to each location that each individual described, but we had limited time with the group. So we agreed that they would each choose a location in the vicinity of the Deaf Institute as the backdrop. The filming session took about 2 hours. They had rehearsed the presentation of their idea and all contributions were filmed in a single take – except one when the group wanted to edit the contribution from Michał. He had about a dozen wonders he wanted to share on camera. They agreed on two at the end.

We had a discussion about whether or not to have any explanation of the signing –  the group decided that there should be sub-titles after each person, in Polish and English  and provided  the text to accompany their signing. The background track is a recording of  the ambient sound in the vicinity of the Institute, with all the sounds of the city in this particular locality.

One or two people attending the event and viewing the film asked us if the group were singing – due to the speed of some of the hand movements. Now, there’s an interesting idea to pursue….

Cuda: With students from - Udział wzięli uczniowie
Instytutu głuchoniemych im.Ks. Falkowskiego w Warszawie
Thankyou to - Specjalne podziękowania dla Pan: Moniki Dobrowolskiej, Joanny Łachety, Małgorzaty Czajkowskiej-Kisil oraz Pana Dyrektora Tadeusza Adamca.

 The video is below but you can also go to youtube and view it full screen.

Dzień pełen wrażeń, działań, opowieści, cudów i wędrówek po Powiślu i Pradze. Oba brzegi Wisły połączone nie tylko liniami autobusów 174 i 162, ale także akcjami animatorów kultury z Warszawy, Litwy, Czech i Wielkiej Brytanii wspólnie prezentujących swoje pomysły na akcje w przestrzeni miejskiej.

Program

Mapa 

Day full of events, activities, stories, wonders and wandering around Powisle and Praga. Both banks of Vistula linked not only with bus lines 174 and 162, but also with actions of cultural animators from Warsaw, Lithuania, Czech Republic and England, presenting their ideas of animating urban spaces.

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Sobota, 26 kwietnia
Bambini di Praga
ul. Jagiellońska 26

Wyjątkowa okazja, aby dowiedzieć się więcej o tym, jak zrealizować własny projekt, o czym pamiętać i czego unikać, od czego zacząć i na czym nie kończyć.

Jeśli chcesz porozmawiać z doświadczonym animatorem kultury, wyślij wiadomość z wybranym nazwiskiem na adres: 1na1animator@gmail.com (do 21.04). Szczegóły i godzina spotkania oraz tematy do rozmowy zostaną ustalone indywidualnie.

Spotkania odbędą się w godz. 13:00-15:00 w księgarni Bambini di Praga.
Jedna rozmowa może trwać maks. 30 minut.

Profile animatorów: http://www.katedrakultury.pl (lub kliknij na odpowiedni fragment obrazka)

1-2-1 with cultural animators: sign up for a conversation with a young cultural animator, graduate of Institute of Polish Culture. Saturday, April 28th, Bambini di Praga, ul. Jagiellońska 26.

More information: http://www.katedrakultury.pl (in Polish)