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| Rivers of Change |
The project “Rivers of Change. Connecting - Learning - Creating”, within the Grundtvig program, focus on the river and its potential use as a public space open to all. The Grundtvig sectorial program responds to the education and learning needs of persons involved in every form of adult education, as well as the institutes and organizations responsible for assisting this type of instruction.
The main objective is to develop a new partnership between cities where the water, the communities, art and culture can meet, within the framework of a European and international intercultural dialogue.
The river has to become an effective and integrated part of the urban territory and it should represent a strong factor for the definition of the cultural identity of a specific site.
At the same time, the river as mobile element crossing a wide territory (even different States, cultures, languages, etc.) and flowing through big distances, can be seen as the symbol of intercultural connections, joining, on a local scale, two sides of a city and local communities, and, on a national/transnational scale, larger communities, different cultures, uses, languages, etc.
The river is a place that connects many important fields in the city: environment, architecture, city planning, transport, but also arts, culture, cultural tourism and education.
The project will focus on the theme of culture in social and educational context. The work that the city partners are doing within their organizations reaches large number of people creating an educational impact of non-formal education dealing with culture. The partnership want to learn from each other to improve the quality of our everyday work which will automatically reflect on the groups/communities they work with on everyday basis. The aim is to combine different experiences to find out the best solutions, converting the disadvantage areas by the rivers to vibrant, public places in our cities.
Main project aims and objectives
The project will establish new fruitful partnerships between several European organizations sharing the interest in river areas and culture as an educational tool.
The aims are:
• to bring people to the river banks and connected areas which often are deprived inner city areas
• to build audience curiosity to cultural events in the public spaces
• to animate the areas, making them attractive for both development and public exchange
• to increase the will for investment in these parts of city
• to draw media attention to rivers as a public space
• to develop the understanding and strengthening inter-relations between art and society
• to explore new values, linking international with local, imagining long term results and changes in city policies and planning. As a long-term goal, the project sees the improvement of the quality of life for big cities inhabitants.
Partnership
The following 5 cities are partners in the project:
1. Federation of Independent Filmmakers and STEP-Association for Education and Progress - Warsaw, Poland www.wisla.art.pl
2. Danube Island Festival - Vienna, Austria http://www.donauinselfest.at/
3. EGEAC-Management of Facilities and Cultural Animation Enterprise - Lisbon, Portugal www.egeac.pt
4. Temple Bar Cultural Trust - Dublin, Ireland www.templebar.ie
5. Cities on Water - Venice, Italy www.citiesonwater.com
Supporting partner : The Thames Mayor Festival - London, UK www.thamesfestival.org/
The project partnership aims at developing a platform for international exchange of ideas, projects, experience, and expertise. The staff of partner organizations which are lobby groups, managers dealing with community, social and cultural issues, local authorities’ representatives will be able to improve their knowledge and competences, to create or develop a new awareness on the river as a public space, open to all categories of citizens and visitors.
The aim of this adult education action is to train Partnership organisations to identify and develop the potentialities – in cultural, social and economic terms – that the river (and urban waters) can offer to the local communities and to the city itself. The main objective is to create partnerships among the cities, which have something in common – they are situated on the banks of a river. River cultural festivals / cultural / research organizations that have already done projects connected with the river, those who are focused on social and environmental issues and want to expand their ideas into a more international context.
On the partnership level the main objectives are:
• to increase awareness of the divers European cultural, social and economic scenes,
• to extend project management practice,
• to improve communication skills,
• to get confidence in using another language and possibly learn new one.
• to learn from each other to improve the quality of current work practices in order that they can then be transferred directly to the groups and communities with we work with on an everyday basis.
• to combine our different experiences and develop new models of best practice.
• to develop an accessible knowledge base for river cities and identify expertise that is able to advise on the legal, planning and practical aspects for opening up disused and abandoned river areas and converting them into vibrant, public places in our cities.
Rivers of Change meetings
During the life of the project, a series of meeting will take place.
The first meeting was held in Venice from February 14 to 17 and a tentative future meetings calendar has been planned:
• Warsaw: 25/26/27 July
• Vienna: 5/6/7 September, in occasion of the Donau Insel Festival
• Dublin: October 2008, dates to be decided
• Lisbon: April 2009, dates to be decided
If you want to join us on our meetings please feel free to contact us. awlazel@river-cities.net
1st Grundtvig meeting - Venice
The first meeting was held in Venice from February 14 to 17 and included sessions to organize the work on the project, informative meetings on the general issue of water and its cultivation for a better quality of urban life. The meeting has been a good opportunity to inform a wider public about the River//Cities platform which intends to promote rivers as an element of identity and a resource for the city, emphasizing its artistic and cultural potential.
A summary report of the meeting is available in downloads.
2nd Grundtvig meeting – Warsaw
3rd Grundtvig meeting – Vienna
During our Vienna meeting we will discuss „Top-down / bottom-up initiatives - in search of effective balance in cooperation between different players and sectors, the role of culture in the process of public space (waterfront) revitalisation;“ with Dr. Hannes Swoboda among others.
Dr. Hannes Swoboda is an Austrian social democratic politician. He has been a Member of the European Parliament since 1996. After studying law and economics at the University of Vienna, Swoboda worked in the Vienna Chamber of Labour (1971-86) and was director of the department for economics, health and housing policy. Swoboda also held a number of different functions within the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ). From 1983, he was a member of the municipal council and member of the city council of Vienna. In 1988 he became municipal councillor responsible for urban development, planning, transport and external relations. Swoboda is a member of the federal party executive committee of the SPÖ and federal chairman responsible for education. He is also a member of the steering committee of "A Soul for Europe", an initiative that is building an international network based in Berlin.
4th Grundtvig meeting – Dublin
River and water is very much a part of the city development plan and also another area undergoing regeneration in the city called the Docklands. We are planning to have visits to both organisations and one of the themes for discussion would be to look at the role of the river in regeneration, the river as a cultural space and the kinds of activities that can happen on these spaces - sporting events, festivals, artists commissions, cafés, boats, swims, beaches etc. And how the river can bring people closer to the city.
20.10 arrivals, dinner
21.10 Attendance in the conference on culture and the city with some really interesting speakers including Ken Livingston, Ken Robinson and Franco Bianchini.
22.10 morning - site visits to Docklands and meet Dublin city council Afternoon summing up and river//cities plans
5th Grundtvig meeting – Lisbon 3 – 4.04.2009
Leading partner:
FNTF, Warsaw, Poland
- co-ordinator Agnieszka Wlazel, awlazel@river-cities.net
Partners:
Danube Island Festival, Vienna, Austria
- Marcus Schober, marcus.Schober@spw.at
EGEAC, Lisbon, Portugal
- Helena Pais Costa, hpc@egeac.pt
Temple Bar Cultural Trust, Dublin, Ireland
- Lorraine Maye, lmaye@templebar.ie
Cities on Water, Venice, Italy
Marta Moretti, marta.cittadacqua@libero.it
Observers:
Drugo-More, Rieka, Croatia
Davor Miskovic, davor@drugo-more.hr
London Rivers Thames
Adrian Evans a.evans@coin-street.org
Skopije Festival, Makedonia
Robert Alagjozovski ralagjozovski@hotmail.com
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