E12 - Result Sharing with Policymakers - Lithuania
In late October 2020, we met a group of leaders from communities and cultural organisations. This period was just before the new COVID-19 restrictions for the events. Combining online and offline presentations we introduced them to our newly-developed game method and invited them to try.
In the first part of an event Laimikis.lt has overviewed its approach to cultural innovations and the concrete methods of how to develop and keep creative communication with people on the streets, squares, neighbourhoods. We found out, that these pragmatical questions are of great importance for a cultural organisation.
Then we moved to the second part, presenting how urban games can serve as a tool to explore the potential of the neighbourhoods -- cultural heritage and local narratives. Together with our participants, we have tested the UPĖ game, which we have co-developed with our changemaker Inesa Jarkova within the I_Improve project on the basis of the stories shared by the communities leaders in Kaunas. We also commented on the ways of how to identify which method and activity has the potential to become a cultural product, essential for the cultural organisations.
The question and answers series is the most interesting one, as it allows you to tackle the burning topics and vulnerability of cultural organisations (which has become extremely important in the situation of lock-down). Most of the questions concerned building communication with the communities: what is the very starting point? How to keep dynamic communication within communities? How to include different age groups in the process of cultural development of the neighbourhood? In the end, we also provided participating organisations with tips on how to map the resources and potential of the organisation -- on the basis of the matrix that we develop for "I_Improve" partners.
We hope our experience in working on the cultural innovations will be helpful for the stakeholders, who seek to improve their neighbourhoods by applying creative cooperative activities.