The humanitarian crisis on the border between Poland and Belarus, Russian aggression on Ukraine, and increasing ethnic diversity in Poland motivate the culture community to rethink its mission, programme, its work organization, and the relations with the spectators and participants of cultural events. How to open cultural institutions and events to the multicultural society in the area of programming, that is the presented subject matter, invited artists, and contact with the audience as well as in the area of employment? How to identify subjects which are important to a given minority? Should the created events be universal or addressed to one community – speaking about its problems, with its tools, in its language, with its actors? How should the mission of cultural institutions be defined and put in practice today? How to prepare for the future?
Aware that the abovementioned questions can only be answered in cooperation, we are initiating an open network, including a series of meetings of culture organizers, working not only in public institutions in larger cities, but also in culture centres in smaller towns, non-governmental institutions, and informal collectives. Together, we would like to create a space for exchanging ideas and experiences, related to the work in the culture sector from the perspective of a multicultural society. The meetings will be held every two months in various cities in Poland, and their patrons will be: Malta Festival Poznań, CK Zamek, Pawilon, Teatr Polski (Poznań), Europejskie Centrum Solidarności and Teatr Szekspirowski (Gdańsk), Teatr Powszechny and Strefa Wolnosłowa (Warsaw), Teatr Łaźnia Nowa and Centrum Wielokulturowe (Cracow), Galeria Labirynt (Lublin). Surrounded by the xenophobic discourse dominating in Poland for several years now, creating a space for dialogue and independent cooperation is a particularly important task.
The first meeting will be held on 27-28 June, during Malta Festival Poznań. It will attempt to diagnose the situation, be an opportunity to look at the institutions from abroad which have transformed their approach to the multicultural society in the recent years by switching from organizing one-off projects to including the work with ethnic minorities into the institutions’ operations. To what extent can we be inspired by their experience? What are the similarities and differences between us? We will also look into grass-roots cultural and art initiatives started off in Poland by persons who experienced migration. The meetings will involve presentations, discussions, and most of all, working groups, allowing us to get to know each other, discuss the most urgent needs, exchange ideas and practices, look for solutions together, and start planning the necessary changes in the area where migration and cultural policies meet.
27.06 PAWILON, ul. Ewangelicka 1
11.00 – 11.30 Mapping the Network – greeting and getting to know participants of the meeting
11.30 – 12.15 Social integration of people with migration / refugee experience in Poland – presentation of the report from 2022 and discussion
Prof. Dr. Izabella Main (Migration Research Centre at Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań, Poland)
moderator: Joanna Pańczak
12.15 – 13.00 Cultural institutions and intercultural society in Brussels – presentation and discussion
Michael de Cock (KVS, Brussels, Belgium)
moderator: Dorota Semenowicz
13.15 – 14.00 Bottom-up decolonial and intercultural practices in Berlin – presentation and discussion
Daniellis Hernandez (SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, Germany)
moderator: Dorota Semenowicz
14.00 – 15.00 break
15.00 – 15.45 Building an intercultural community in Athens – online presentation and discussion
Niovi Zarampouka-Chatzimanou (Victoria Square Project, Athens, Greece)
moderator: Aleksandra Skowrońska
15.45 – 16.45 Foreign experiences and working methodologies vs Polish perspective
– working groups
17.00 – 18.00 Presentation of working groups thoughts and discussion
28.06 CK ZAMEK, Rehearsal Room (3 floor), ul. Św. Marcin 80/82
10.00 – 11.30 From the perspective of foreign artists and cultural organizers living in Poland – presentations and discussion i.a. Maria Beburia, Taras Gembik (Solidarity Culture House „Słonecznik” – „Соняшник”, Warsaw), Olga Strizhniova (Klubokawiarnia MY, Poznań), Youssef Chadid (Muslim Cultural and Educational Center in Poznan)
11.45 – 15.15 [including a break 13.00 – 14.00] Redefinition of the mission, programming, working conditions and relations with the audience and participants of cultural events – collective work using the open space method
moderator: Agnieszka Bułacik (New Visions)
15.30 – 17.00 summary of the work of the groups and closing discussion
