Project info

2008 was designated by the European Commission as the “European Year of Intercultural dialogue”. The aim of the year was to increase people’s mutual understanding and their appreciation of the many different cultures in Europe and to help them develop a sense of the values and traditions we share as part of our common European citizenship. For the European Commission, the key goal of the year is to strengthen respect for cultural diversity and the coexistence of different cultural identities and beliefs. In addition, the year aimed to highlight the contribution of different cultures to the member states’ heritage and way of life and to recognise that intercultural dialogue is essential for learning to live together in harmony. This project  embraces these issues.

Summary of Project Activity
Creative Laboratories
The Creative Laboratory is essentially a team of artists, having at their disposal different media, workshops and a team of specialists looking at ways of bringing groups of people together with artistic events, debates and meetings of those who otherwise would never have come together – exploring and sharing the craft of ‘building bridges’ in their local community, examining local issues creatively.

Open laboratories
Each partner are organising locally, in the area of their activities, an open laboratory. These are individual events, over a number of days, presenting the activity of the laboratory to the outside world; it will present the activities and methods of work, encourage discussion on the philosophy and concepts behind them. It will be accompanied by a demonstration of the work-in-progress in the form of exhibitions, concerts, spectacles, film-projections or author’s evenings. Open laboratories will be created in Sejny, Bela Rechka and Birmingham & Black Country.

Travelling laboratories
We aim to develop laboratories in other locations, sharing practice and demonstrating models of creative projects that can be further developed. Their aim is to reach the regions where there are, as yet, no formal institutional partners for the project but where there is, however, a great need and interest in intercultural practice. A travelling laboratory is a few days intensive workshop activity for future practitioners of the intercultural dialogue, sharing practice and demonstrating models of creative projects that can be further developed. Two travelling laboratories are in development with our associate partners in Chania (Crete) and Baku (Azerbaijan).

Exchanges
Throughout the project there will be opportunities for artists and practitioners from each partner to network, visiting each other and sharing knowledge. An integral part of the project for Laundry is a training and mentoring programme which has been awarded through open competition to four artists in the West Midlands.

Production
At the conclusion of the project, material from the creative laboratories will be compiled for publication in various media by the partners