wojtek, Autor w serwisie Fundacja Dom Kultury

CONVERSATION

Graphics: Małgorzata Jabłońska and Piotr Szewczyk

„Conversation” is a series of workshops aimed at building language and social skills for boys in isolation at the Youth Educational Center on Barska Street and boys and girls at the Youth Sociotherapeutic Center No. 8 in Radość.

The six-month program includes classes dedicated to young Polish poetry, author meetings with poets Ewa Frączek-Biłat and Mateusz Marczewski, an author meeting with rapper Muflon, workshops for writing their own poetic-rap texts, rap and improvisation workshops, and finally preparing a concert based on texts written by the participants (rehearsals, rehearsals, and rehearsals again!). In October 2023, we will invite you to the final live hip-hop concert at the Klub Komediowy in Warsaw.

The texts rapped by the boys will be recorded in audio format, and the concert will be recorded in video format. The productions created within the „Conversation” project will reach a wide audience online.

„Conversation” is an example of good practices in conducting Polish language classes for excluded youth and social inclusion through participation in culture. We have invited professionals – charismatic personalities who will guide the participants into the world of the Polish language, poetry, rap, and their own creativity.

The „Conversation” project is implemented in partnership with the Youth Educational Center of the Orionist Fathers in Warsaw, the Youth Sociotherapeutic Center No. 8 in Radość, and the Klub Komediowy theater in Warsaw.

Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage within the National Center for Culture program: Homeland – add to favorites. Edition 2023

MY PLACE ON EARTH

We painted a children’s corner!

In the visitation room at the Grochów prison… Thanks to the funds obtained from the Orlen Foundation as part of the „My Place on Earth” program, we painted a children’s corner in the visitation room at the Warsaw-Grochów Detention Center. Women serving prison sentences took part in the project, and under the guidance of an artist, painter, and art therapist Joasia Świerczyńska, they first created the mural design and then painted it themselves. Time became the guiding theme of the painting, or rather the idea that „only time separates us.” Not walls, not distances, but just time. Soon, in some TIME, the women from prison will be free and with their families.

Volunteers, including members of the Resocialization Scientific Circle at the Academy of Special Education in Warsaw, led by Dr. Katarzyna Nawrocka, also participated in the painting actions.

The mural has warmed up and decorated the austere interior of the visitation room. We believe it will help reduce the stress of children visiting a parent in prison.

Photo, Małgorzata Brus

ANIMATION AND INCLUSION

„W Kratkę – a magazine of women from prison and artists” at the XII National Project Exchange of the National Center for Culture.

XII National Project Exchange

„W Kratkę – a magazine of women from prison and artists” was presented at the XII National Project Exchange of the National Center for Culture, which took place in Toruń.

This is an honor for us and a great opportunity to present good practices, network, and gather new inspiration.

We invite you to view the wonderful photo report on the NCK website.

ANIMACJA + WŁĄCZANIE PDF

FOTORELACJA

Finger in the Inkwell, or Fredro in Prison

Graphics: Małgorzata Jabłońska and Piotr Szewczyk

„Finger in the Inkwell” is an educational campaign dedicated to the works and life of Aleksander Fredro, promoting reading among women and men serving prison sentences. The core of the campaign revolves around the fables and well-known sayings by the writer, which continue to be a part of Polish culture today. Using the pretext of the Sejm (Polish Parliament) declaring 2023 the Year of Aleksander Fredro, we have created a reading education program aimed at people in prisons. Aleksander Fredro, the creator of the original Polish comedy, is also the author of humorous poems, fables, and sayings that are well-known and used in contemporary times. It is this aspect of his work that we want to emphasize in our project. Sayings like „jaki pan, taki kram” (like owner, like shop) or „pleciesz trzy po trzy” (which means “you’re talking nonsense) are known to everyone, even those participating in culture without advanced cultural competencies. However, not everyone is aware of their origin. The Year of Aleksander Fredro is a great opportunity to remind and raise awareness among modern Poles of the immense contribution of the writer to Polish culture, including contemporary culture. As part of the project, we will conduct lectures on the writer’s works and life, as well as workshops on text analysis, loud reading, rewriting selected fables, and illustrating them. From the materials, manuscripts, and illustrations created by incarcerated individuals during the workshops, invited artists will develop artbooks. These artbooks will be available in printed form at literature museums and in digital form online. Thanks to the campaign, participants of the workshops, who are usually excluded from culture due to their isolation, will improve their reading skills, contribute to the popularization of the Writer’s work and his contribution to Polish culture, and participate in commemorating his birthday.

The project involves women serving prison sentences in the Warsaw-Grochów Detention Center and men from the Warsaw-Białołęka Detention Center.

The project’s organizers are Piotr Prasuła, curator of the Literature Museum in Warsaw; artists from the Warsaw artistic community: Joanna Świerczyńska, Józek Gałązka and Małgorzata Brus, collaborating with Fundacja Dom Kultury; and actress Kinga Kosik-Burzyńska from the Comedy Club in Warsaw.

The resulting artbooks will be donated in paper form to the A. Mickiewicz Literature Museum in Warsaw and the Aleksander Fredro Museum in Rudki, Ukraine, and will be available in digital form HERE.

The educational campaign „Finger in the Inkwell” is carried out by Fundacja Dom Kultury in partnership with the Warsaw-Grochów Detention Center and the Warsaw-Białołęka Detention Center.

The task was co-financed from the funds of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, originating from the Culture Promotion Fund.

Vzájemné soužití o.p.s.

Vzájemné soužití o.p.s. / Life together NGO/ has been working with children, youths and adults in excluded localities of mainly Silesian part of Ostrava since 1998. About half of the employees are Roma. We work with and help people who find themselves in need or difficult situation (support in the field of education, housing, training, work, finance etc.).

Life together provides several registered social services (professional social, legal counselling, field work, 2 community centres for children and youths, service for endangered families with children), and also educational, preventive and other activities provided to the vulnerable and disadvantaged with the aim to eliminate the negative impacts of social exclusion.

Mixed teams of Hrušov and Liščina centres offer Roma children and youths a wide range of activities and events in locations and also outside, so that they may get out of the excluded environment and gain new skills, knowledge and experience.

In the field of education, we respect the basic human right of every child to equal opportunities (our organization stood at the birth of the so-called DH case vs. the Czech Republic). We run preschool clubs so that children from less stimulating backgrounds can enter kindergartens and schools with the necessary skills and have the same starting line as their peers. We provide tutoring for children and youths, communicate with schools, support students in the form of moral support, counselling, excursions, scholarships and motivation.

We support the development of needy/talented children in art schools, organize a summer camp, various lectures, realize preventive events like Stop drugs, we take kids to adventure events, trips, involve them in activities to improve and localities and centers, children perform at public performances or festivals, we organize excursions or internships of students of elementary, secondary schools, universities in our centers.

We support empowerment of people, try to support those who have the potential to further work with and motivate children, youth and the community.

Link to our annual reports: https://www.vzajemnesouziti.cz/file.php?nid=15768&oid=8273170

FB link

https://www.facebook.com/vzajemnesouzitiops

Examples of our projects

Supporting the integration of Ukrainian refugees (donation from the SOS Ukraine collection), subsidies for the provision of social services, EU funds (education, employment,..), individual projects to support children, pupils, students (scholarships, tuition fees at the Art school etc.), projects aimed at financial literacy, support for football teams, dancing groups, community-based projects etc.

Project team

Project coordinator – Simona Reichlová – 13 years of experience in leading and implementing various NGO projects (cultural, educational, cross-border etc.) mostly for disadvantaged children and youths (state, regional, municipal sources, Norway Grants etc.).

The team leader from Liščina children and youth centre Zdeněk Kroščen – 20 years of experience in leading the centre and its team – qualified to social work with children and youths. Zdeněk was once as a volunteer, he grew up in the locality. He has especially manual, sport and leadership skills, is a qualified camp leader. He knows well the community and has their trust and respect, he also serves as an inspiration to children and youths.

FB link https://www.facebook.com/nzdmkc.liscina, more info on our website https://www.vzajemnesouziti.cz/nizkoprahove-zarizeni-pro-deti-a-mladez–liscina

The team leader from Hrušov children and youth centre Eva Šuterová – years of experience with social work, qualified to work with children and youths, knowledge of the community. Manual, educational and leadership skills, qualified for the camp leader and basic medic course, inspiration for the community, children and youths, trust of local residents.

FB link https://www.facebook.com/nzdmkc.hrusov, more info on our website https://www.vzajemnesouziti.cz/nizkoprahove-zarizeni-pro-deti-a-mladez–hrusov

Summer Workshop Camp

The Summer Workshop Camp – capacity-building programme for Roma Youth and NGO networking.

Twenty boys and girls from Roma communities in Poland, Czechia and Slovakia took part in a nearly week-long summer camp in Oświęcim in late July and early August. A programme of social skills workshops, lectures on the situation of the Roma in the Visegrad countries and the work of NGOs were created by the following organisations: Fundacja Dom Kultury (Poland; project leader),Vzájemné soužití o.p.s.(Czechia) and ETP Slovakia(Slovakia). The camp was organised at the International Youth Meeting Centre in Oświęcim. The participants included the youth and activists from RSO Harangos from Cracow. The key element of the programme was a visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum and the commemoration of the European Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma.

ČEŠTINA

SLOVENSKÝ

The first edition of Summer Worshop Camp, or a summer of excitement!

The Summer Worshop Camp was designed so that young people from most of the Visegrad countries would have the opportunity to learn about some of the important history that just happens to have left a significant mark in our part of Europe. This year, this history was followed by young people, participants and participants of the summer workshops, which were organized by the Dom Kultury (Culture House) Foundation in partnership with the organizations: Vzájemné soužití o.p.s. from the Czech Republic and ETP Slovakia and cooperation with the Cultural and Educational Association "Ros Harangos" from Krakow. Young Roma and Roma women from Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia met from July 29 to August 4 at the International Youth Meeting Center in Oświęcim (Auchwitz), to spend a week not only getting to know each other and integrating, but also to look back at the 79-year history of the extermination of the Roma people during World War II.

When carrying out such projects, the question always arises: how to convey to young people the knowledge of the tragic past that affected previous generations, and often people from their family? How to tell teenagers, about the fact that their ancestors were doomed to total annihilation, so as not to traumatize them once again? Finally, how do we commemorate the murdered, listen to the speeches of the survivors, so that at the same time we can get to know each other better, spend our free time having fun and integrating? These topics, despite the passing of almost eight decades after the war, will all the time appear among those involved in the historical education of children and young people. New generations come and right at the start they receive knowledge, about the past, which is actually a baggage of tragic experiences. For how to talk about the past of a nation that was doomed by the Nazis to total annihilation for its ethnicity alone? Therefore, the program of the summer camp was prepared for education, reflection, but also for joint educational and integrative games that helped to better understand the difficult history, but also to focus attention on the future. This future can be created by the next generation of young social activists and activists, just entering adulthood.

High on the camp's agenda, therefore, were presentations of the activities of each of the organizations and opportunities to look at how the Roma community is supported in neighboring countries, including mainly what is organized for children and young people. Learning about educational methods, interesting solutions from different countries, i.e. integration day care centers, workshops, cultural and sports activities, supporting children and youth in difficult family situations, refugees from Ukraine, as well as the opportunity to get to know activists and social activists from different experiences, their history and achievements

In turn, other parts of the workshop asked about identity, both individual and social. Who am I? How do others see me? What is important to me? Who do I want to be? These are probably the questions most often asked in the teenage years, and we wanted to answer this question together, together with our participants and participants, to learn about their way of looking at history and the present and, in the process, support the development of social competence. Agnieszka Caban and Iza Jaskowiak, trainers and long-time social activists, were helpful in this.

The strategic point of the program, however, was to prepare for a visit to the former Auchwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and to participate in events commemorating the 79th anniversary of the extermination of Roma and Sinti on August 2. A trainer from the International Youth Meeting Center prepared for this event.

On the penultimate day of the workshop, we found ourselves in Krakow, where we were guided by male and female guides, but we also went to Nowa Huta, where a painting workshop for young people led by one of the most interesting artists of the younger generation, Marcin Janusz, took place at Utopia Home - International Empathy Center. On the other hand, at the end of our meeting, a music workshop was conducted by Sinto Valentin, a musician and composer, and unofficially the best uncle to the participants and participants of the camp.

All the activities were led by an experienced team: female trainers and coaches, as well as artists, whose knowledge and expertise brought out important reflections, but also spent time in a safe, almost family atmosphere. This year's Summer Wokshop Camp brought a lot of emotions, both difficult ones that brought sadness, but also positive ones, in which joy prevailed with mutual curiosity and ideas for the future. We will share them in the next installment of our Summer Workshop Camp news!

Agnieszka Caban

Agnieszka Caban: cultural studies scholar, doctoral student at the University of Warsaw at the Doctoral School of Cultural and Religious Studies, researcher of national and ethnic minority cultures, specialist in multiculturalism. Lecturer and trainer in intercultural communication, anti-discrimination, self-advocacy and others. Social activist and human rights defender. President of the Dom na Pograniczu Foundation, member of the Programme Council of the Dom Kultury Foundation.

ČEŠTINA

SLOVENSKÝ

The International Visegrad Fund is a donor organization established in 2000 by the governments of the Visegrad Group countries – Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

More about the Grantor

Fundacja Dom Kultury

Vzájemné soužití

ETP Slovensko

My place on Earth

A part of a larger project, by Zuzia We are painting the children’s corner in

We are painting the children’s corner in the visitors’ room at the Grochów prison…
Thanks to funding from the Orlen Foundation we will paint the children’s corner in the visitors’room at the Warsaw Grochów detention centre, as part of the 'My Place on Earth’ programme. The
project involves women prisoners who will first create a draft for the mural and then paint itthemselves. The participants will work under the guidance of an artist, painter and art therapist Joasia Świerczyńska. The painting will add warmth and colour to the raw interior of the visiting room. We believe it will reduce children’s stress associated with visiting a parent in prison.

#documenta

We present you with a very interesting publication - “Bypass” by Jenny Brockmann, presenting the realisation of her project of the same title. In the book, the artist devoted attention to, among other things, our “In a Grid” initiative, for which we are grateful to her. On pages 220 - 243 you will find a description of our participation in Jenny Brockmann's project Entanglement 2 in Kassel and in the event within the documenta 15 festival, Kassel 2022.

W Kratkę magazine and Fundacja Dom Kultury took part in an amazing artistic event by Jenny Brockman: Entanglement 4 #Melody that tool place in Kassel as part of #documenta 15.
We were accompanied by artists taking part in our foundation's activities in prisons, including Małgorzata Jabłońska and Piotr Szewczyk from the Wrocław Department of Graphics at SWPS University and Józek Gałązka.

Jenny Brockman Entanglement 4 #Melody

documenta 15

Kassel 2022

The artistic activities with the project participants were prepared to be performed in a circle, within an installation created by Jenny Brockmann. The activities were participatory but artist-initiated. The activities metaphorically alluded to the situation of imprisonment, and had sound-making potential - the objects prepared by the artists could be used as specific musical instruments. The objects, thanks to the interaction of the users, also changed and enriched their visual layer and were art works in progress.

Małgorzata Jabłońska

Małgorzata Jabłońska's objects consisted of large sieves (which are usually used for sifting flour). They functioned as a substrate for building a joint composition from the artist's original pictograms, available to participants in the form of foil stickers.

Together, the participants created a visual composition from the 'prison' pictograms: figures, abstract shapes and objects. It was a time of reflection through action.

The imposed working space, selecting only from a range of available elements, the necessity to adapt to the existing surface (pre-made by the artist) as well as to other people working together on the composition, corresponded to the limited possibilities of arranging the world inside prisons.

Some of the pictograms came from Małgorzata Jabłońska's illustrations for the 'W Kratkę' magazine, while others were designed specifically for the activity.

The pictograms of objects with which the participants worked were things neglected in life at large, which become important only in the prison reality, ensuring easier functioning or survival - mentally and physically.

Technically, the pictograms were applied to a surface - the net of the sieves. Later, after Entanglement #4 had already been completed, the objects were covered with paint and the stickers were removed, ensuring that, thanks to the translucency of the sieve, all the elements penetrated into the structure of the 'grids'. During the performance, it was possible to generate sound with the sieves.

Piotr Szewczyk

In Piotr Szewczyk's performance, participants worked with his original drums, which were made up of customised metal basins (the basin is an important part of everyday prison life!) and a canvas covered with a painting surface. Through the use of unusual sticks with abrasive tips, people taking part in the activity made sounds and, at the same time, interfered with the surface of the painting. The final painting was a product of movement, force of abrasion, the amount and involvement of the participants.

Józek Gałązka

The work entitled 'Strings', which I presented during Jenny Brookman's discursive performance, was a continuation of the object/sculpture structure prepared by the artist as part of her 'Bypass' project. I prepared simple harnesses connected by nylon strings that paired participants together. I wanted to create a situation in which the participants in the project are entangled with each other, but can produce a common melody by working together. By appropriately tightening or loosening the title strings, the participants combined with Jenny Brookman's object to create a living instrument.

During the meeting, we also shared the experience of working and running workshops in prisons. The musical improvisation we found ourselves in brought the participants closer to the group workshop method.

The activities were curated by Antek Burzyński.

Photos: Justyna Domasłowska Szulc, Ada Szulc

In a Grid no.6

„In a Gris no. 6” is a magazine created by women serving prison sentences in the Warsaw Grochów Detention Centre as well as various visual artists. We have been publishing this unique irregular
magazine since 2013.

In 2022, we prepared issue no.6 in cooperation with artists from the Department of Graphics at the SWPS University of Humanities and Social Sciences in Wrocław. In addition to 20 ladies from the Grochów prison, the project was joined by a group of men from the Penitentiary Institution in Wołów and ladies from the Remand Prisons in Goleniów and Opole as well as the Penitentiary Institution in Lubliniec.

The editor-in-chief of the 6th issue is Ewa Frączek-Biłat. The authors and contributors are:
Alicja, Bebe, Bonita, Dawid, Eveline, Fruzia, Helenka, Iza-Iwi, KŻ, Majka, Malina, Małgosia, Miszania, Monika, Pełnoletnia, Siemion, Świeżynka, Wiewióra, Zołza, Zośka.

The authors of the illustrations are: Paulina Adamczyk, Anna Birecka, Julia Gwacka, Małgorzata Jabłońska, Darren Kruk, Oliwia Macińska, Weronika Naskręt, Justyna Przybylska, Małgorzata
Raczyńska, Oleksandra Savkina, Agnieszka Semaniszyn-Konat, Piotr Szewczyk, Ewa Tomaszkiewicz, Anastasiya Tupik, Paulina Węgrzyn, Kaja Wojciechowska.

The artistic director is Małgorzata Jabłońska. The author of the graphic design and layout is Piotr Szewczyk.
Programmatic supervision over the preparation of the issue was provided by Lt. Ewa Smolińska from the Detention Centre in Warsaw Grochów, as well as by guest contributors – Lt. Mariusz
Hawrot (Penal Institution in Goleniów), Lt. Iwona Bawolska (Penal Institution in Wołów) and Pvt. Wioletta Szczęśniak (Detention Centre in Opole).

Issue no.6 of „W Kratkę” was printed by MuruGumbel Printing House.
Courtesy of the Central Board of Prison Service, printed copies of the magazine are available in all prisons in Poland. The digital version of issue 6 as well as previous issues are available
HERE.

” W Kratkę” no. 6. was financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Cultural Promotion Fund.

I Live in MOW, You Have to Understand This

I know everyone hurts, but it’s not my fault

Even some Tuwim was hurt

But in my life, I’m the king

So I’ll tell you what hurts me and what my pain is

Seba

Those who won’t be able to come can watch it online :).]

I live in MOW, you have to understand this

I know everyone hurts, but it’s not my fault

Even some Tuwim was hurt

But in my life, I’m the king

So I’ll tell you what hurts me and what my pain is

Seba

“I live in MOW, you have to understand this” is an unusual project: language competence workshops conducted for boys from the Orionist Priests’ Youth Education Centre in Warsaw, finished with a rap concert.

We ran a series of Polish language classes which resulted in a rapped performance – a concert. About what? About the lives of the boys living in a Youth Centre. Their stories, their pains, their desires. Sounds cliché? It’s a very deep story, full of pain and hope, which was put into rhymes and presented to a wide audience on stage of the Comedy Club in Warsaw. It was a little bit recited, a little bit improvised.

Polish language teacher and poet Ewa Frączek-Biłat conducted Polish language classes, during which the young people learned about the classical writers’ works, as well as literary means, which they later used to write their own texts.

Rapper and radio journalist Mateusz Fuczyło led workshops sessions on creating rhymes and rapping.

Actress, trainer and improviser Kinga Kosik Burzyńska directed the concert, which was the finale of the entire project.

At the final phase of the work, the boys from the Barska Youth Centre were joined by girls from the Youth Centre on Strażacka Street. The girls presented their own lyrics, which they had written one year earlier, as part of the ’12 stories about ME’ project.

A lot of great lyrics were created, which allowed the young people to talk about themselves. A lot of rehearsals are behind us, and the concert, which took place on 22 October 2022 at the Comedy Club in Warsaw, was the culmination of the hard work of all the people involved in the project: artists, performers, the centres’ alumni and their tutors.

The texts were presented by:

Kuba, Wiki, Sabina, Turek, Mateusz/Jasin, Kamil, Paula, Dima, Kasia, Dorota, Jasmina.

The 'I live in MOW, you have to understand it’ concert was recorded by Robert Olszański.

The project was implemented by us, Fundacja Dom Kultury, in cooperation with the Comedy Club, the Orionist Priests’ Youth Education Centre, and Youth Education Centre No. 2.

It was an extraordinary event preceded by extraordinary preparations.

2022 r.

'I live in MOW, you have to understand it’ was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage within the framework of the programme 'Ojczysty – dodaj do ulubionych. Edition 2022′.

Concert documentation Justyna Domasłowska Szulc

Concert documentation Małgorzata Brus

Concert documentation Zuzanna Brus

Photos: Małgorzata Brus

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