Grundtvig seminar: Public Spaces + Visual Arts = Civic Actions

Aims

The workshop aims at fostering the exchange of experience and good practice examples on civic actions as well as developing guidelines on how to capture the interest of the general public by means of visual arts displayed, played or created in public spaces. Sometimes even passers-by will be involved in the creation of objects or actions, installations or whatever which is to be invented for this purpose.

Target groups

Cultural animators, involved in creative activities within communities.

Civic activists-justice orientated citizens, taking an active part in social life.

Adult educators, who promote and teach active citizenship.

The working language of the seminar is English.

Main activities / programme of the Workshop/preliminary/

Day One: Visual Arts and Public Spaces

1.Participants introduce themselves.

2.Presenting good practice examples following the pre-workshop tasks.

3.Presenting visual arts. Guest speakers (sculptures, installations, collages, living pictures) and public spaces.

4. Splitting into work groups for the evaluation and discussion of the presented good practice examples and guest speakers presentations.

Day Two: Activities on Creativity

1. Familiarising with a diversity of open spaces in Vilnius.

2.Presenting the creativity subjects - guest speakers

3.Individual or group assignments in creativity.

4.Work on the assigned tasks.

5. Exhibition of the works done.

Day Three: Developing ideas

1.Shaping the assignments for work groups based on the achieved results of the previous day.

2.Working on the assigned tasks in open public spaces.

3.Testing of the achieved results by involving the general public into this process.

4.Presenting the results.

Day Four: Self-evaluation and reflections on the work done

1. Summing up the achieved results of the previous days

- specifying the most attractive forms of visual arts for expressing the civic ideas,

- evaluating how well the presented ideas managed to attract the attention of the general public to certain problems.

2. Working in groups and developing the materials for guidelines.

3. Meeting with Vilnius Art Academy students and teachers, representatives of Civic Responsibility Foundation, civic activists, cultural animators

-PPP on the achieved results during the workshop,

-discussing the presented materials and the opinions of the meeting participants on how the visual arts can influence the involvement into civic activities,

-feedback from the guests

Day Five: Summarising and Evaluating

1. Further development of the guidelines and reflections on the comments by Day 4 meeting guests.

2. Supplementing guidelines with the visual materials taking into consideration the remarks and comments.

3. Self-evaluating the involvement in the workshop.

4. Evaluation by the organizers and moderators on the achieved results.