First Partners’ Meeting in Warsaw
On 13th June 2023 in Warsaw took place the special conference inaugurating the project „MICROPOLIS – THE POWER OF THE LOCAL COMMUNITY„. The conference and whole Warsaw’s meeting was host by the Wawerskie Centrum Kultury – the coordinator of the project.
We had the unique opportunity to meet with all project Partners – from the Danish research institute Interfolk, the cultural and volunteer center of the city of Middelfart in Denmark, and the organization Centro Commerciale Naturale from Sardinia, Italy. Among the conference guests were also many Polish experts, scientists and representatives of other Culture Houses in Warsaw.
The aim of the conference – as well as of the whole Micropolis project – was to exchange knowledge and best practices in the field of innovative cultural activities leading to building strong local communities. During the conference, each of the invited Polish and foreign speakers had the opportunity to present the most interesting projects implemented by his/her institution in the form of Case Study under the slogan „GOOD PRACTICES IN CULTURE – how to create a strong local community”. All presentations were translated into Polish or English.
Here is the summary of the most significant activities and topics that arised during Warsaw’s Partners Meeting together with films from the conference:
The conference started with the presentation of Małgorzata Smoczyńska, Micropolis Project Coordinator, who talked about the the idea and main aspects of the Micropolis project.
More information can be found here: https://micropolis.club/about-the-project/
The second presentation was made by Barbara Karniewska, director of the Wawerskie Centrum Kultury under the title „How to build Micropolis in Wawer district”. She presented 3 most significant projects carried out by the Wawer Culture House that successfully built the local community.
„The Factory of Art.” was a project that influenced the creation of strong local identity, „Pine that connects people” – turned out to be an extraordinary project activating local inhabitants around the important symbol and place. „Active in Radość district” (or „Active in Joy”) shows how the culture joins people in the crisis situation and how the cultural activities can actively come across people needs and cross the borders of the typical cultural spaces.
More information is available here [link do WCK Case Study]
You can watch the full presentation here: https://youtu.be/DUxNtW_Zsu0
The third speaker was Hans Jorgen Vodsgard – the founder of Danish Interfolk Institute who made a presentation of case studies from the civil socjety area in Denmark.
The audience could learn about the Habermas’ “Model of Society” and what are the most important dependencies between main societal sectors (the public sector, the market sector and the civil society). On the example of 3 Case Studies from Denmark, he indicated that the most transformative activities may be:
- not only to promote social capital between rather similar social groups of individuals,
- but to bridge former segregated social and cultural groups
- as a mean to promote mutual trust, social inclusion, and recognition among different groups of people in our communities.
- And thereby promote a shared community spirit and respect for the common good.
What is the most important according to the speaker:
Successful local cultural activities implies cross-sector cooperation between stakeholders both from the civil society and public institutions and municipality authorities.
Such cross-sector cooperation, labelled “co-creation” is today part of the development strategies in most Danish municipalities and an accepted goal for the civil society actors as well.
Ideally seen, the co-creation shall be based on open and equal terms, where the citizens groups and civil society associations are engaged – not only as co-implementers of aims defined by the public authorities, but also, as initiators and co-designers of new welfare services in our local communities.
More information about the 3 Case Studies is available here: https://micropolis.club/case-studies-from-the-civil-society-area/
You can watch the full presentation here: https://youtu.be/B167YhLw9xY
Our fourth speaker and another guest from Denmark – Kamilla Krogh Uttrup, representing the Middelfart Municipality, made a presentation entitled „Middelfart – Cultural Activities and Sustainable Communities”. She presented not only the town of Middelfart and how the local Culture House works, but also told about several very inspiring, most significant events organized fro the local community as
- Rock under the Bridge
- Strib Winter Festival
- The Triangle Festival Week
- The People’s Climate Festival
More information about the 3 Case Studies is available here: https://micropolis.club/middelfart-municipality-cultural-activities-and-sustainable-communities/
You can watch the full presentation here: https://youtu.be/49nR1Bty2e4
The fifth presentation was run by Susanne Juhl Paske, the head of unique Danish organisation – Frivilligcenter Middelfart which coordinates all kind of volunteering actions in the town. She presented how the organisation works and what are their most successful activities, including creation of holistic, Internet platform called Socialkompas.dk.
More information in the article: https://micropolis.club/case-volunteer-center-middelfart-and-www-socialkompas-dk/
You can watch the full presentation here: https://youtu.be/UVWnGRsVp70
The last from the Micropolis Partners presentation was made by Sylwia Sianiewicz – the representative of the unique Italian organization called CCN – Centro Commerciale Naturale in Cagliari Centro Storico. Sylwia, who originates from Poland but has been living and working for several years in Sardinia, told us how Italians combine business and culture and explained many interesting examples of how their organization integrates and supports the local community.
More information in the article: https://micropolis.club/micropolis-project-ccn-cagliari-local-case-studies/
You can watch the full presentation here: https://youtu.be/iEQfDtYMy1c
After the first round of presentations there was time for the lunch break and networking. It was a great chance for all the conference participants to exchange some contacts and reflections about working with local communities.
Many new aquaintances were made and even some future international partnerships were established, so we can say that Micropolis Networking Club successfully started working.
Second part of the conference were the presentations of several special guests from Poland. First of them – Wojciech Gorczyca, representing Obserwatorium Foundation, made a presentation entitled „Culture as a field of relations”.
The speaker talked about the very interesting Case Study of the small local community that experienced many serious conflicts. Thanks to an external support from the Observatory Foundation that helped to rebuild the local cooperation, especially the proces of negotiating and making agreements how to create a new common spaces, a conflict ended positively and successfully strenghten the local identity. The main message at the end of the presentation was: to create the strong communities: accept conflict, cooperate, negotiate and create agreements.
You can watch the full presentation here: https://youtu.be/IWd5CvKcg6E
The psychological and scientific approach to the topic of connectedness and strong social bonds continued dr Magdalena Gawrych in her presentation „Community in contemporary psychology”. We could learn what creates community and how it is connected with nature according to the newest scientific research. It was also explained how is community understood in science, what kind of community builds psychological well-being the most and translates into a subjective sense of connection with the closest environment and being part of a larger whole. The speaker also provided many practical tips on which solutions work best when we work with local communities.
You can watch the full presentation here: https://youtu.be/QGSSlNcGu5w
Very interesting Case Study – how to create from scratch the real Micropolis community over the borders of different districts but around important, natural treasures, presented Jan Piotrowski representative for the Vistula River in Warsaw’s City Hall.
His presentation – „A holistic vision of the promotion and animation of the Vistula” told the story how the Vistula river became the main actor of so called „Dzielnica Wisła” (Vistula District) community and what inspiring strategies and actions were implemented to integrate the people of various groups, ages, origins and place of living around the river but also what educational actions were created so that people spend their time on the River in a responsible, ecological and safe way, taking a great care of the common space.
You can watch the full presentation here: https://youtu.be/GEdDHMXipAY
Another highly inspiring presentation was made by Krzysztof Mikołajewski, director of the Wola Cultural Center, entitled „Social Culture House – the transformation of the cultural center”. The speaker shown step by step how they transformed the regular public cultural center into the highly innovative community space where the goal is to increase the involvement of residents in the creation of the cultural offer and co-management of the institution.
System assumption is that there are 3 pillars of activity: artistic, educational, animation – that are 3 forms of involvement depending on the competences and capabilities of residents. The key element in the activities of Wola Cultural Center is combining the 3 areas of activity so that the residents who were passive observants of the cultural life transform into active organizers and co-creators.
As a result of this innovative experiment, Wola Cultural Center can observe:
– Increased social activity of residents towards the activities of the Wolskie Centrum Kultury, residents not only passively participate in events, but also co-create them to an increasing extent
– Signs of activity are also the rapid growth of volunteers in WCK and grassroots initiatives implemented in WCK
– Increased share of people from groups at risk of social exclusion, especially immigrants, seniors and people with low financial status
– Increased interest in cooperation between NGOs and the commercial sector
The project is in fact a process of fascinating micro social change and is extremely meaningful for the Micropolis concept.
You can watch the full presentation here: https://youtu.be/GiAh8QJMc3I
How to build the local identity around on big and small stories told Magdalena Piotrowska, from the Foundation for the Great Stories (Fundacja na Rzecz Wielkich Historii). We could learn how and why the Foundation was established, what actions they take to build local identity and which of the projects they consider as particularly successful and unconventionally activating the local community.
You can watch the full presentation here: https://youtu.be/VRdB-gL1fZg
The last presentation was made by Joanna Kinowska, head of the Education Department of the Służew Culture House, telling us about this unique and beautiful cultural center but also about the project she found special and highly inclusive – „Multicultural Christmas Eve” as an example of working with the local community.”
You can watch the full presentation here: https://youtu.be/FJ5LfqckQMY
Second day of Warsaw’s Partners Meeting was dedicated for workshops on Micropolis concept. Together with our international guest, we were trying to synthetise the ideas and knowledge from the conference, brainstorming on the most important aspects and details of how the local community should be built, integrated and activated.
Using creative techniques, we tried to draw our vision of ideal Micropolis and name most important aspects of it. We also wondered how do the managers of ideal Micropolis:
– build an inclusive and cooperative identity?
– support the active particiption of the inhabitants?
– foster connectedness and sense of unity?
The results of brainstormings were both surprising and very inspiring. We will use them during our further works on Micropolis guidelines.
After half-day workshops, the whole Micropolis Team participated in an unique local guided tour – exploring Case Study of Świdermajer Town in Józefów (laying in the close neighbourhood of Wawer District).
We started the trip in front of the so called Willa Frankówka – authentic old wooden house built in the unique, local swidermajer-style and freshly renovated as the new headquarter of The House of Science and Art (public cultural center in Jozefow). The director of this institution, Agnieszka Jung together with local guide, told us the story of the place and the specific character of swidermajer houses. We could also see the beautifully renovated interior of the building.
At the end of our visit in Willa Frankowka, we participated in very professional workshops run by two swidermajer experts – local activist Robert Lewandowski and his daughter, who specialize in the history and architectonical details of this unique architectural heritage of Jozefow (but also Otwock, Falenica and other parts of Wawer district).
We could learn very interesting Case Study of local Micropolis – as around swidermajer houses arouse a huge community, with a very strong local identity based on swidermajer heritage and collective actions (as Swidermajer Festivals, workshops, guided tours, etc).
Robert Lewandowski told us a lot about the projects of local activists that helped to save swidermajer houses from being totally neglected and devastated and changed them instead into popular or even „cult” places, accelerating their revitalization and the process of creating new houses in the swidermajer-style.
At the end of the trip, we could move our discussions about Micropolis to the restaurant Willa Brzegi – another unique example of beautifully renovated swidermajer house.
Third day of Warsaw’s Partners Meeting started with workshops concentrated on creating the local survey – tool to measure the local community potential and challenges. It was the busy time to summarize the knowledge and reflections about Micropolis and to transform them into the questions and topics for the survey.
After the busy day, we could meet for the last farewell dinner. Our next meeting is planned for October in Sardinia.
