Living with Cultural Heritage

Transcription

1 Living with Cultural Heritage Educational tool kit for facilitating heritage awareness at a historical site through community craft workshops In cooperation with the project partner

2 Living cultural heritage at a historical site The aim of the project is to learn how to live, maintain and cherish a historical town while preserving its characteristic environment and liveability The project builds on a joint interest based on the recognition of similarities and differences between the participating towns of Rauma (Finland), Visby (Sweden), Kuldiga and Aizpute (Latvia)

3 Educational tool kit for Promoting Living Heritage Educational tool kit implies the results of the craft workshops arranged in Old Rauma, Finland, during the project period V ( ) Workshops were hosted by the Crafts Education Teacher Training of the University of Turku in cooperation with the City of Rauma Educational and Cultural Services, and put in practice by the staff and students of the Rauma Campus Craft Teacher Training unit Workshops took place at Rauma Teacher Training School (pilot workshop) and at Marela Museum in Old Rauma (main workshop)

4 Aims for organizing craft workshops at a historical site to promote an understanding of the living cultural heritage to quest the culturally constructed imaginaries related to the life in a historical town to facilitate residents and tourists experience and encounter the historicity of a heritage site to expand professional competences of crafts educationalists through collaborative activities to distribute the outcomes and methods for organizing and researching workshops based on arts and architecture education

5 Craft workshops in Old Rauma, pilot workshop a two-hour pilot workshop arranged at Rauma Teacher Training School in order to test and redevelop the workshop plan and research design Participants: 9 pupils of Rauma Teacher Training School, grades 4 to 6, aged 10 to 12 Required resources: materials and tools for multi-material craft experimentation: inspirational photo material; appr. 250 photos of the architectural details of a heritage site, tools and materials for needle felting: felting needles, various colors of carded wool, needle felting mat such as a sponge or piece of foam, felted backcloth surface salt clay for clay model molding tools and materials for wood carving with soldering iron: plywood, irons materials for ensuring safety and security at the workshop Preferred site: textile class / workshop

6 Craft workshops in Old Rauma, main workshop an open, pop-in-type workshop arranged at Marela Museum workshop space Participants: 39 individual craft makers; male [12] and female [27] participants, residents [30] and tourists [9], ages ranging from toddlers to pensioners the average participant being middle-aged woman Required resources: materials and tools for multi-material craft experimentation: inspirational photo material; appr. 250 photos of the architectural details of a heritage site, tools and materials for needle felting: felting needles, various colors of carded wool, needle felting mat such as a sponge or piece of foam, felted backcloth surface salt clay for clay model molding tools and materials for wood carving with soldering iron: plywood, irons materials for ensuring safety and security at the workshop Preferred site: workshop / studio space

7 Organizing craft workshops at a heritage site 1. Contextualizing the role of the facilitator at the workshop: Select a venue for the workshop well beforehand and engage the required staff in codeveloping the workshop plan Contact the activities coordinator of the planned workshop site and customize the workshop plan according to the needs and facilities of the stakeholder Choose craft techniques, tools and materials as well as appropriate working methods and approaches for the purposes of the workshop according to the professional competence of the facilitator, in reflection of local heritage crafts Define a clear outline for the workshop with the stakeholders well-structured and well-coordinated workshop serves both educational and institutional purposes

8 Organizing craft workshops at a heritage site Decide and determine: 1) the maximum number of participants and/or groups, 2) the duration of the workshops and/or their frequency, 3) all schedules and deadlines, 4) allocation of material costs, 5) duties for arranging the space, workshop materials, tools and equipment Delineate responsibilities for advertising, announcements and the use of social media inviting people to join in open pop-in-type workshops encourages participation

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10 Organizing craft workshops at a heritage site 2. Promoting heritage awareness with pedagogical material: Supply rich and elaborate inspirational visual, auditory and written material related to the cityscape of a heritage site well-supplied, generous material pushes workshop participants to regain ownership of the living heritage through creative expression and intends to root them more intimately to a historical site When collecting and producing materials, pay attention to the visual and architectural details, territorially or topologically iconic features and institutionally well-established designs of the region well-established, easily recognizable details serve as inspirational boundary constructions that urge the recontextualization of the heritage of the historical town

11 Organizing craft workshops at a heritage site Place all materials available for browsing through effortlessly the attention paid to the details of the historical town strikes workshop participants with a call to action Make sure the material is varied enough in order to cater the needs of different workshop participants children are keen to select visual material for their craft experiments more expeditiously than adults, and may though have a relatively unproblematized vision of the purpose of the material experimentation providing complimentary written material may work for adults for deepening their insights and animating interest multi-material approach encourages participation among special groups: make sure to also include auditory and sensory inspirational material in the material installation

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13 Organizing craft workshops at a heritage site 3. Setting the scene for craft experimentation during workshops: Encourage action: Make sure there are enough craft materials and tools to allow individual choices and different forms of craft experimentation. Get creative: Cultivate and promote new ways of using craft materials and techniques instead of going for the most common and traditional ways. Make experiments and different variations, and let yourself be deviceful, originative and visionary when setting the workshop. Be involved: If and when the workshop focuses on collaborative and artistic action, get your own hands dirty too. Evoke inspiration by getting engaged in action and offer provide meaningful accounts on living heritage by your own example. If collecting research data during the workshops, make sure to carefully reflect on your own role as a workshop facilitator.

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15 Feedback and evaluation: a community craft workshop at a heritage site 1. Highlighting the uniqueness of a cultural heritage site through the promotion and revitalization collaborative craftsmanship The goal was to encourage workshop participants, both tourists and locals, to experience the uniqueness of a cultural heritage site through creative, multi-material craft making. Based on the workshop feedback it was observed that although workshop participants did not actively emphasize the uniqueness of the area's cultural heritage, they generally agreed upon the need for historical sensitivity, especially related to the ways of promoting urban life in a historical site. 2. Contributing to the sense of community through collaborative craft making The goal was to enhance encountering and collaboration between individuals coming from different backgrounds though community crafts based on arts and architecture education. During the workshops, collaborative craft making occurred both as a procedural way of encountering otherness and as a desired end result that motivated participation in the overall workshop. 3. Promoting knowledge of heritage crafts through the uses of different techniques, tools and materials The goal was to advocate knowledge of heritage crafts by urging people to leave their traits on a collaborative craftart work that was intentionally being constrained by the relational and territorial understanding of a heritage site. The workshop attempted to deepen community experience so that both traditional and contemporary forms of making could be promoted. The workshop implied that craft making offered a way to sustain knowledge of the living heritage, as well as a medium of sharing craft experiences through the materiality of making.

16 Feedback and evaluation: a community craft workshop at a heritage site Collaborative and multi-material craft experimentation seems to fit well for the purposes of cherishing, maintaining and preserving the characteristics of a historical town as well as promoting heritahe awareness at a historical site Stopping by concrete hands-on action allows one to experience and reflect on the uniqueness of the cultural heritage Craft making provides the individual and multi-level experiences to learn from one s own territorial placeness and the surrounding world

17 Key aspects for facilitating heritage awareness at a historical site through community crafts Familiarity of the historicity of a heritage site and cultural environment Attention to local heritage crafts in the selection of craft techniques, tools and materials for the workshop Knowledge and susceptibility of the sense of collectivity Community craft workshop promoting heritage awareness at a historical site Availability and access to multi-material resources Publicity in media and resources for social media sharing Purposeful and attainable location for the community craft work

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