Feedback and inspiration for our toolbox

On November 19th representatives of the lead partner Miriam and Katja held a three hour workshop in the “American Corner” at the Provincial and Municipal Public Library Joseph Conrad Korzeniowski. A small group of employees from different branches of the library with no previous experience in participatory design attended the meeting, which combined informational input with hands-on activities. After a brief overview of BALTIC UKH’s project design, we were able to connect with our Norwegian partner Jamie online. During her virtual presentation, she guided the group through the step-by-step approach of our toolbox, briefly explaining the current five phases as well as the tools developed so far. The following hour, participants were asked to form groups and brainstorm their own re-design or re-development project, focusing on current challenges or deficiencies they experience at their institution or with their communities. Furthermore, the project team had prepared blank “tool templates” for participants to engage with and where possible to fill out. Eventually, we came back together for a joint discussion of the ideas formulated and the experiences engaging with the tools.

The project team was impressed by the very concrete and seemingly needs-based ideas the groups formulated with next to no previous experience with participatory processes. Furthermore, we received valuable feedback on both the current state of the toolbox but also the workshop design. Both aspects are very relevant for our upcoming activities as we are entering the finalization stage of the toolbox and simultaneously preparing our final conference. The latter will include a hands-on session, making participants of the conference engage with our final output. Therefore, this workshop was a great test-run and gave us much food for thought. We thank our AO for co-organizing the workshop with us and all participants for their valuable input!

Additionally, we were able to combine our workshop with the attendance of the first InnoCulture Conference held from November 19th-20th in Gdansk and focused on innovative solutions driven by the cultural and creative sector. Next to networking opportunities and key notes, the main activity of the conference were workshop sessions focusing on the role of culture in the fields of health, sustainability, entrepreneurship, mobility and community. We paired up and attended the workshops on community, centered on results of the UrbCulturalPlanning project – a project that has been on our radar since the application process for BALTIC UKH in late 2022.

Next to the introduction of the cultural planning roadmap, we were able to learn about and engage with an array of methods for fostering bottom-up initiatives that leverage local cultural resources. This session was extremely inspiring for the further development of our toolbox both in content as well as in design! We will make sure to reach out to both representatives to get guidance and feedback on our final output.

Overall, we are very grateful for these enriching two days in Gdansk!

Author: Miriam Green

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