One month before the ‘Wonders of Kaunas’ started the participants of the workshop (i.e. students from the Art Institute and the Institute of Political Science and Diplomacy at VMU, Kaunas) were asked to pose their questions about cultural animation. Some of these questions hopefully were answered during 5-day investigation of Kaunas city and engaging with local people last week. Some of them remain open to discuss…

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We present introduction into idea of "wonders" workshop - a replicable model of activity in urban space providing exploration of city wonders and miracles as chosen by its inhabitants. The introduction was presented by Brendan Jackson on April 16th at Tarabuk, Warsaw and on October 4th at Kaunas.

English pdf

Polish pdf

Other version of the text was also published in "op.cit" nr 27 (4/2007) - available to download in pdf format.

Spokek Richelieu made a short visit to the West Midlands of England to view theatre activities and cultural animation projects. They visited with Stan’s Cafe and Black Country Touring. They also shared ideas of work of members of the association. View one example of the types of projects that members of Spolek Richelieu undertake…

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Dear cultural animators, friends and participants of cultural animation specialization!

As we work on publication about doing cultural animation; publication which would be a kind of guide for animators and artists doing their first, own projects, we ask You:

ASK A QUESTION you have ever wanted to ask!

ASK about what You have ever wanted to know!

How to work in practice?

How we can realize activities?

What to do in crisis situations? ….

This book could be an answer, full of inspiring examples and space of sharing experiences!

So – if you have concrete questions send it via internet.

animacja@uw.edu.pl

We are waiting!

Cultural Animation Team and “Katedra Kultury” Association

In addition to our main website http://www.laundryline.co.uk/ we have created a Facebook group for Laundry

Our Facebook page is intended to be a more informal place, where people can see and comment on the activities of Laundry and its members.

We invite everyone to have a look. 

I’m posting an essay as a resource for you to download. (It’s only about 12000 words.) The essay - Reflections on creative practice – Artists working in the context of community consultation - formed one part of a substantial report (‘Do You Know What You’re Asking?’) produced at the beginning of this year for Nirex as part of an ongoing discussion about stakeholder involvement in decision-making.

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Guidebooks sometimes provide us with a guide to what we already know. They invite us to admire, but not to be curious. They lead us down certain (well-worn) tracks and perhaps confirm some existing prejudices. (Read more…)

That were two very busy days of workshops. First day we were getting to know each other and looking for as many inspirations as it possible. We started with presentation of Laundry and ę. Then we have 3 meeting on different subjects: Marta Wójcicka form Studio Teatralne Koło was presenting her experience with organizing animation events in post industrial space like PZO on Praga. Her speech was very energetic and one of most interesting message was the question of personal imperative. “You have to believe that your project is good otherwise you would not find partners and sponsors”. Beata Jaszczak from Farbiarnia ( Płock) presented the methods of work with young kids from the backyard. She gave many examples of how  to keep children interested in our work and how to make them authors of their own activities. Last but not least Beata Tokarz from Akademia Rozwoju Filantropii w Polsce make a presentation on seniors problems in Poland. She gave a bunch of information on seniors: what are their main problems and needs. She also shown us examples of polish and European good practice in this issue. We finish first day on the film show in Skład Butelek. Completely tired but (I guess) full of ideas.

The second day started with active workshop “first contact” run by Pamela Wells and Brendan Jackson form the Laundry. Everybody had a chance to do “1 euroJ” project and start the interaction with strangers on the streets. We had 5 interesting ideas of how to make a first contact and what can come out of it….

The very last part “generator of ideas” run by Marta Białek and Piotr Stasik from ę showed up the creativity of all participants. More then 30 ideas for project has appeared! And slowly, slowly there were changing into project…It seems there is a lot of work in front of us and a lot of fun I hope. Pleas feel free to leave any comments on our workshop………  (Read more…)

A long long time ago, in a universe far far away, I was a student. I struggled a lot with my teachers but they were fabulous enough to allow this. They put up with my constant questioning, my constant challenging, my constant misbehaviour. One day, one of the other students came up to me and said, “I was having a tutorial with Tony and he said I should talk to you about safety nets.” I said, “What?” (Read more…)

"Katedra Kultury" Assocciation was founded in 1997 by employees, students and graduates of the Institute of Polish Culture. From the beginning of its existence the main activity was to cooperate with the Institute in conducting the Cultural Animation specialization and organizing workshops and internships for students. This cooperation is one of the most important statutory objectives, but the overarching goal of the Association is to promote and support active engagement in society. Therefore it is an equally important objective  to establish a dynamic network of students and graduates of Cultural Animation, to initiate exchange of ideas and information between them. (Read more…)