Footprints – Local Culture are Personal Imprints

The basis of the project is the awareness of how important creativity is as a fundamental means of human expression, giving meaning to human existence in the world through art. The development we as a society have fostered – in the municipality of Brda and beyond – does not pay enough attention to this important aspect of human existence. While we are witnessing an increase in amateur culture, we have perceived a lack of appropriate systemic and structural conditions for the establishment of professional cultural and artistic involvement. The project aims to draw attention to this issue, increase awareness of individuals about the issue and stimulate the process of changing the existing ways of decision making about the directions of cultural development in the municipality of Brda.

We are focusing on the process of creation, which should be the basis for a conscious and empathetic engagement in society. We see the solution in the awareness that in addition to the existing prevailing ways there are other approaches to the development of culture and local politics that strengthen individual and collective creativity. Part of the solution is also changing attitudes through experience, and thus in creating conditions for developing sensitivity to one's own creative expression. Creativity in this sense of the word addresses the very core of humans, namely the ability of imagination, which allows us to operate outside socially established norms to develop new ways of looking and thus change our ways of living.

We designed the promotion of creativity as three intertwining levels of activities: intergenerational film and music workshops, connecting artists active in the municipality, and a consultation process in support of creating a program to promote artistic expression in the municipality of Brda.

In cooperation with the Alojz Gradnik Primary School and the University of the Third Age Brda, we designed intergenerational film and music workshops to re-establish contact between generations, exchange stories and interpret them through film and music. The purpose of the workshops is to foster confidence in one's own creative power, the importance of team collaboration and dialogue between generations. Together we want to create a friendly environment for creative collaboration. At the level of networking between artists, we will organize a series of consultations and co-create a working group with local associations and collectives which will formulate Recommendations for Creating a Program to Promote Creativity in the Municipality of Brda.

We will invite local institutions in charge of cultural policy-making to participate in the consultation process. We will set this up as a series of meetings between active artists working in the municipality of Brda and the actors from the management level and the departments in charge of strategies for the development of culture. Based on the previously mentioned recommendations of the working group, we will start the process of drafting guidelines for the development of creativity in the municipality.