FIVE COLORS OF NOWY PORT. SUMMER WORKSHOPS FOR RESIDENTS

Sewing bags from banners, ceramic classes, the effect of which will be the mural “Good Morning” placed in the area of ​​Bliska Street, creating lanterns from bottles and carpentry waste, preparing creative compost bins and vegetable patches, holiday postcards and collages – these are the activities prepared for the residents of Nowy Port Mewka Foundation as part of the Open City Culture Institute program. The events are being realised as a pilot program of cultural planning in cities – Urb Cultural Planning, in which the City Culture Institute takes part.

• The idea for “Five Colors” came from the natural continuation of our animation and cultural activities in Nowy Port. We noticed that we should derive from something that is a big problem, e.g. rubbish, and show that even in this you can find artistic and creative values. Our main goal is to involve the local community and disenchant the myth of the dangerous Nowy Port. We invited local Dom na Skraju to cooperate with us, says Bartosz Zimniak, the author of the project and founder of Mewki. The Socially Involved Gallery in Nowy Port.

The series of workshops Open City Cultute Institute in Nowy Port, the effect of which will be the changes in the immediate vicinity of the district, worked out with the residents, are part of the Urb Cultural Planning program. The program is also implemented in Riga (Latvia), Vilnius and Visaginas (Lithuania), Pori (Finland), Kiel (Germany) and Guldborgsund (Denmark), and the funds come from the European Union INTERREG BSR program.

The name of the project “Five Colors” refers to the colors of the segregated waste containers that we use in Gdansk. – Workshops that indirectly refer to the subject of ecology and recycling are a excuse to talk about the area of ​​the district or a few streets. It is an idea for a vacation in the city, but also a reason for a discussion about solving problems closest to residents – says Katarzyna Buczek, coordinator of the Open Institute program.

Workshop program Five Colors. Open Institute in Nowy Port

Yellow: plastic and synthetics. Tailoring workshop for sewing bags from used banners. Moderator: Katarzyna Dworznik.

Workshop dates and places: July 9th and 10th, Dom na Skraju, ul. Strajku Dokerow 31, Nowy Port (workshops for children aged 9-15). August 4th and 8th, Mewka Foundation, ul. Bliska 11A, (workshops without age limits, registration fundacja.mewka@gmail.com).

Workshops conducted in cooperation with MEWKI Socially Involved Gallery, Cooperative society ZEROBAN from Nowy Port and Tailoring studio Koty na Ploty.

Blue: paper. Workshops on making eco-postcards and collages from Nowy Port photos “We create collages – we put together CLOSE stories”. Moderator: Sylwia Nikko Biernacka.

Workshop dates and places: August 6th, Dom na Skraju, ul. Strajku Dokerow 31, Nowy Port (workshops for children aged 9-15). August 11th, Fundacja Mewka, ul. Bliska 11A, (workshops without age limits, registration fundacja.mewka@gmail.com).

Black / Gray: Ceramic Workshop. Creating mural elements – the inscription “Good morning”. Moderator: Anna Terefenko.

Workshop dates and place: July 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th – Fundacja Mewka, ul. Bliska 11A, (workshops without age limits, for residents of Nowy Port, registration fundacja.mewka@gmail.com).

Green: glass. Workshops on creating lamps and lanterns, from bottles and carpentry waste.

Workshop dates and places: July 23rd, Dom na Skraju, ul. Strajku Dokerow 31, Nowy Port (workshops for children 9-15 years old), July 24th, Mewka Foundation, ul. Bliska 11A, (workshops without age limits, registration fundacja.mewka@gmail.com).

Brown: bio. Workshops on creating creative compost bins and vegetable patches.

Workshop dates and places: August 1st, Mewka Foundation, ul Bliska 11A, (* workshops with no age limits, registration fundacja.mewka@gmail.com),  August 8th, Dom na Skraju, ul. Strajku Dokerow 31, Nowy Port (workshops for children 9-15 years old).

Organizer of the “Five Colors” workshop: Mewka Fundation. Since 2017, they have been running the Mewka Socially Involved Gallery at Bliska 11A in Nowy Port. Cultural events are organized there: exhibitions, workshops and meetings with authors.

Partner of the “Five Colors” workshop: Dom na Skraju. They have been running animation and educating activities for children from Nowy Port for over 20 years

In the fall, the second competition project will take place – “Atmospheric in Nowy Port”, whose originator is Hanna Obracht-Prondzynska and the Society of Polish Town Planners. The Society’s initiative will include activities aimed at: encouraging residents to care, order and aesthetics of space, spending time actively outdoors, sensitizing all users of space to equality, and raising awareness of the identity and history of the district.

****

The Institute’s Open Program has been successfully supporting organizers of grassroots activities in the implementation of their ideas for four years. In 2019, the Open Institute developed its formula to include activities in the city space: in Siedlce and Plac Kobzdeja. Using the experience of Open Institute, we adapt its formula to the UrbCultural Planning program.

The City Cultute Institute Open Competition in Nowy Port is supposed to check how the method of cultural planning, tested in an international project with partners from Latvia, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Poland, Germany and Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast), works in various cities in the Baltic Sea Region. Until March 4th, residents (not only Nowy Port) submitted their ideas. Two projects were selected for implementation through a competition.