Be Creative!
Start date: Aug 1, 2016,
End date: Dec 31, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
The main aim of the project is to develop the skill set of the volunteers, gain valuable addition to our organization and to the society. Furthermore - to acquaint the society with a different culture, to break stereotypes and expand their views on a variety of issues that are happening right now in the world. This will be implemented through the various activities that will be carried out by our chosen volunteers. The project consists of two types of activities - long-term projects that require a longer preparation and daily activities. The project as a whole will be implemented via four long-term activities and a number of short-term activities. This year we have chosen two volunteers: Yuliya from Ukraine and Anta from Croatia. Yuliya is an art historian who works at the art center in Lviv, Ukraine. Her responsibilities include organizing exhibitions, seminars, lectures and managing cultural programme. While being here Yuliya will develop her organizational skills - her specialty is art exhibitions and workshops. We as an organization want to build international relationships with Ukrainian artists and exhibit their works at our center. One of the long-term activities for Yuliya will be making an documentary art project that is deeply connected with the past of Riga’s buildings. The inspiration behind this project is the building where our organization is located, in its 120 years it has been a music school and art students' dormitory, then abandoned, and now turned into a cultural space. In order to implement the idea of Yuliya, we will help her to establish contacts with other organizations, such as "Free Riga", which aims to acquire the abandoned buildings in Riga and not let them go to waste. Also Yuliya will be writing a weekly blog about pressing matters, daily life in Riga, culture and her experiences during the EVS. Anta is a graphic designer and her specialty is different product and publicity material development for companies and events. But she also participates in various festivals for new artists and photographers. She is also interested in social themes and how to create social dialogue trough art. She has participated and organized a number of workshops that deal with the social dialogue, asylum seekers and human rights. As this topic is also relevant to us, we saw a strong potential in Anta`s activities here in Riga. Together with Anta we have built a number of projects that we want carry out during her EVS time here. One of them is to introduce the society with the current asylum seekers – create a story book, consisting from refugee stories and illustrations. All volunteer activities were created based on the Youthpass competencies to ensure continuity of the learning process throughout the project. We hope that at the end of the project we have helped the volunteers to achieve their learning objectives. That at the end of the project Yuliya will have gained additional knowledge on how to organize events and will be able to use it, continuing her work in Ukraine. Anta will have gained a new perspective in the field of graphic design. With this project we want to open up a broader vision of society on the processes taking place all around the world and especially in Latvia. And we want to do that trough the art. Often art is perceived easier because it speaks to most of the people, regardless of their age, ethnicity, religion and gender. We also hope that trough these various and interesting art projects and Instagram account, we will foster the interest in EVS programme for young people, because we believe that it is a great opportunity for young people to realize their potential as well as to gain experience, which could later be passed on to their friends and peers. In cooperation with local artists we hope to create projects which will help residents of Riga to look at their usual environment differently. Since these art projects will be publicly available to everyone, also the guests of Riga will be able to learn more about the architecture and history of it. With this project we want to go beyond our organization and reach as much hearing ears as possible, because almost all activities are created as a social dialogue, and thus it is important that the things we have done reach as many people as possible. The keyword of this project is communication, which will ensure among all participating parties that the project is going well and at the end we have achieved all the objectives originally set.