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.

Article page pdf

Promo page pdf

A-N website

 This book is the record of what was successful and what failed in the course of the Animator project. It is a guidebook for all those, who now would like to undertake culture animation activities by themselves.

Download the whole book (in PDF format): Culture Animation NOW!

 Download the book by chapter (in PDF format):

• Ideas / Idee
• People / Ludzie
• Project / Projekt
• Tools / Narzędzia
• Resources / Zasoby
• Roots / Korzenie

Go on and read it for discussion – reflections – talks – impulses.

The book has been published by Spolek Richelieu within the ANIMATOR project as a conclusion of the three-part discussion project on the culture animation, culture management, its studies and practice in Czech and European context.

To read more, we publish the pdf version of the book, where the english summary is possible to find at the end.

DOWNLOAD THE BOOK (PDF)

Image: from presentation and performance, Warsaw Breakfast, Praga – by the Studnia ‘O’ with Katedra Kultury at Instytut Teatralny, Aleje Ujazdowskie.

One of the main activities of the Institute of Polish Culture at Warsaw University is to provide training within the framework of Animacja Kultury – Cultural Animation. Our students may be young artists, curators, anthropologists, writers, filmmakers, storytellers, musicians or actors, leaders of any common cultural activities. The goal of this specialisation is to prepare participants for an active role in culture. Culture is here defined as a space for self-realisation, for expression and realisation of values – a living space, which is undergoing constant transformation. To deliver our programmes and enhance our knowledge and experience, the Institute partners with other educational and cultural organisations, alongside practitioners.

In Poland, cultural theorist Grzegorz Godlewski defines the practice of animation as identification, activation, dynamisation of particular sphere of cultural experience. Following on from the way of thinking of Jerzy Grotowski, the Director of the Institute, Leszek Kolankiewicz, explains it this way: the heart of cultural animation is action, it is an intervention, an additional action, an attitude of activity and activism.

This spirit of animation was also reflected in England, though community arts is the term most often invoked to describe a creative activity undertaken in and with a given community. The English model was influenced by the French concept of animateur and the artist-activists taking to the streets in support of the student protests of May 1968. Cultural animators in the UK were also inspired in part by the tradition of community activism and civil rights in the USA, the ideas of Paolo Freire and by writers in the 1980’s such as Suzi Gablik, Lucy Lippard, Arlene Goldbard, who documented the work of artists in service of more than simply themselves.

What are – if any – connections between idea of culture animation and community arts? What are roots of community arts in England and of culture animation in Poland? Who are people belonging to "tribe of active culture"? What could be possible use of etnographic research for culture animation?

We ask these questions – and try to answer some of them – in the book Locally: Culture Animation / Community Arts based on our findings from ANIMUS and ANIMATOR projects.

Full book in Polish (PDF)

Text on etnography and culture animation in English (.doc)

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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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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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