Since conventional cultural events cannot be organized due to pandemic regulations, culture workers worldwide have found themselves lacking the right tools to promote culture. The inability to express their culture and identity due to isolation is leading to a global rise in mental health issues among everyone, especially people with fewer opportunities. The objectives of our research are: To develop innovative and universal high-quality tools to help people with fewer opportunities understand and express their own identity and the cultural context they are living in, their participation in cultural activities and bring community feeling and community recognition while adhering to pandemic regulations. To equip cultural operators and educators with tools to reveal feelings and attitudes hidden in local communities and tailor their educational interventions better. To increase the competences of cultural operators and educators in the area of participatory art and conducting culture research in their local communities. To increase the effectiveness of cultural operators and educators for remote work and inclusion of people with fewer opportunities during the pandemic. This project will be run transnationally because of its core quality aspects, multicultural expression and universal applicability, by incorporating diverse symbols and esthetics coming from different cultures and minority groups. Planned activities: 1) 3 Transnational Project Meetings to make final preparations for the whole project and strengthen cooperation between the partners. 2) Research phase: -collect best practices in the field of participatory art, culture and identity across Europe (lit review) -develop new methods and employ them with people from different social and cultural backgrounds whom we will reach in public places, indoor institutions (retirement homes, schools, homes for disabled and refugee centers) and via online social media campaigns. -collect the data about each culture and apply them to shape the marionettes 3) Test phase - with the help of our experts, culture workers create 4 prototypes of large size marionettes, place them in accessible public places and engaging the people to animate them daily. 4) Recording and evaluating the results of the test phase. 5) Creating the products: a) Practical Guide describing our methodology and a set of tools for cultural educators to collect data about local cultures and use them for participatory art. b) Well-designed and informative Toolkit with assembly instructions, clear know-how descriptions and video tutorials guiding educators through all stages of building large marionettes in a public space. c) Virtual Collection of stop motion videos and good practices of how the marionettes were used and interacted with by locals in public spaces. The collections will be saved and shared in a virtual gallery with open access. (All the products will have open access and be easy to download and print out (pdf)). 6) The multiplying event targeting 49 cultural educators which will be streamed via social media to allow more educators to join. Recommendations for further developments will be sent also to the wider public following the event online. During the research phase, we will involve 16 people from Poland, Lithuania, Germany and Russia from different institutions that are in danger of social exclusion (4 retirement homes, 2 homes for disabled people, 4 refuge centres, 4 schools). We will reach them in person or if the pandemic regulations do not permit, through Zoom video calls. We will also approach min. 100 young people through social media and public spaces (parks, public libraries, town squares, etc.) respecting the rules of social distancing. The prototype phase will last 90 days and we plan to involve people in total from Poland, Lithuania, Germany and Russia and cultural workers from these countries’ organisations. The results will be suitable for all cultures and languages, so they can be used everywhere in Europe. Imagine cultural educators all across Europe who are able to build an interactive installation of two big size marionettes expressing the complex identities of community members, the installation that can be easily animated by locals. Every day those marionettes have different gestures, postures communicating nonverbally messages towards each other, they would express what currently was alive in this particular community at this moment. Imagine there would be a collection of the short documentaries (stop motion) exposing the movements of marionettes from all over Europe. That could reveal the stories of different communities and bring a feeling of recognition, empathy and solidarity across Europe, regardless of isolation. Although due to the pandemic it might seem that we have never felt more alone and less heard, the long-term benefit of this project we hope to achieve is to strengthen a sense of belonging, connection and identity among people in Europe.
The main aim of the project was to provide cultural educators working with groups at risk of social exclusion with inclusive educational tools, allowing for remote work with beneficiaries outdoors. The objectives: 1. To equip educators with tools to reveal feelings and attitudes in the local communities, so as to tailor their educational interventions. 2. To increase the skills of educators to bring community feeling and community recognition through the use of participatory art. 3. To support educators and culture workers worldwide by equipping them with innovative tools, methods and methodology so they can conduct projects in their local community independent of the geographical location. 4. To equip cultural educators and operators with methods that allow for remote work so that marginal social groups are catered for. 5. To develop innovative and universal high-quality tools to enable people to understand and express (through participatory art) their own identity, the cultural context they are living in and the importance of participation in social life, all the while adhering to the pandemic.
The unexpected pandemic COVID-19 hit the cultural sector enormously. Nevertheless according to OECD Policy Responses to Coronavirus (COVID-19) from September 2020, by activating the cultural sector we empower innovation across the economy, as well as contribute to numerous other channels for positive social impact (well-being and health, education, inclusion, urban regeneration, etc.).The cultural operators and educators were facing burnout, a lack of tools and most often lack of methods to reclaim social integration, and the development of adults through art and social dialogue in a pandemic. The lockdown and social distancing measures have also made evident the importance of arts and culture for people’s mental well-being and health. That's why instead of developing digital tools we decided to create innovation which on the one side is respecting pandemic regulations and on the other side brings social dialogue, mutual learning and recognition to community members, and integrates those marginalised by using an art medium - large marionettes in public space that could be operated by-passers.