Untitled - Narodowe Centrum Kultury

40
Cultural
Leaders
Academy
Do young people have to rely
on intuition every time they
run a cultural project The
answer is a definite “No!”
16 amazing young people
attended our workshops and
organised a conference to
become bona fide cultural
leaders. Now they have the
skills, ideas, support and
contacts – all of which are
extremely valuable when
running projects in the
entertainment sector. Cultural
Leaders Academy is run by
OKiS in collaboration with
CANDEO Association and the
History and Social Studies
Teaching Unit of the University
of Wrocław. The project was
conceived by Adam Piwek.
I
n response to the expectations
of respondents and local
communities where there are
many young people who want to do community
work or who facilitate activities with
young people in cultural centres, we want to
offer them a comprehensive series of workshops
called Cultural Leaders Academy
(ALK). The workshops aim to develop participants’
skills, equip them with tools useful
in the cultural field, give them the chance to
run a cultural project (a conference held as
part of the project) and inspire them to develop
their own initiatives. Participants will
also learn about various cultural activities
in case study classes.
The disturbing lack of materials on
cultural education inspired us to hold a meeting
of young practitioners and researchers to
start a debate about modern cultural education
with a cross-generational appeal.
the project
This was what we initially intended. In actuality,
we achieved much more. The recruitment
stage was the most pivotal and worrying
part. By the second week of the process,
there were more applicants than places, and
in the end there were six candidates to one
place. There were also a lot of people who
wanted to attend the conference, “Cultural
Education: Yesterday – Today – Tomorrow”.
In 10 days, 16 amazing young leaders
won the hearts of their instructors with
their likeable personalities but above all
– with their commitment. Communication,
promotion, organisation of cultural events,
fund-raising, finance in culture, fundamentals
of management, and negotiations were
but a few of the topics we covered. Classes
ran from morning until late in the evening.
Michalina Sławicz, Krzysztof Wojtas, Paweł
Przybylski, Maciej Kieres, Joanna Płonka, Joanna
Drab-Pasierska and Adam Piwek ran
highly rated workshops. The average rating
was a strong B on a scale from A to F (where
A signifies outstanding performance). After
each class the instructors, all of them cultural
practitioners, had to field hundreds of
questions. The fund-raising and sponsoring
workshops, which prepared ALK participants
to draft their first grant applications,
were the highest rated of all. After a mix of
theory, hands-on exercises and case studies,
project teams set about preparing a conference
which was held November 25–27 in
Łężyca, outside of Duszniki-Zdrój. The project
has culminated in a publication featuring
work by young researchers/scholars and
notes on participants.
target groups / methods
The aim of Cultural Leaders Academy is to
promote the cultural sector as a place of potential
employment and social involvement
of young adult students under 26. This is to
be achieved through participation in a comprehensive
series of workshops as well as
involvement of workshop participants in organising
a cultural education conference