About Animus - An International Network for Training in Culture Animation

The Animus project was undertaken within the framework of European Commission Programme Leonardo da Vinci – Transnational Networks between 2001 and 2004.

Who? – The Animus Partners

Animus was promoted by Instytut Kultury Polskiej (Institute of Polish Culture) which is a part of Warsaw University. One of the main activities of the Institute is training of young cultural animators within the framework of vocational line of studies Animacja kultury (Culture Animation). The line of studies was established in 1990 and since then on has been continuously enhanced.

Animus was partnership-based project and as such involved a number of partner organisations of various institutional basis from Finland, France, Germany, Lithuania, Poland and United Kingdom who shared common ideas of culture animation and worked with different methodologies in various areas of culture animation.

The list of core partners in the project included:

Universitaet Bielefeld (Bielefeld University - Bielefeld, Germany)

CLiO – Centre de Literature Orale (Centre for Oral Literature – Vendome, France)

Helsingin Kuvatidekoulu (Helsinki Art School – Helsinki, Finland)

Universitetas Vytauto Didziojo (Vytautas Magnus University - Kaunas, Lithuania)

Stowarzyszenie Katedra Kultury (“Cathedra of Culture” Association) – Warsaw, Poland)

Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej (Centre for the Contemporary Art – Warsaw, Poland)

Fundacja “Pogranicze” (Borderland Centre – Sejny, Poland)

The Public (West Bromwich – United Kingdom)

Why? – Animus Goals

The main goal of the project was to develop an international network of institutions involved in cultural animation and training. The network had various dimensions of exchange: exchange of information and people, exchange of good and fruitful practices and ideas of culture animation and training of cultural animators. In these ways we wanted to achieve much better quality of training for our students, to increase chances on the labor market for our trainees, to prepare and realize better cultural projects with a greater impact on the communities involved.

How? – Animus Activities and Products

The co-operation of partners in the project was designed to be practical. It meant that an exchange of ideas, people, methods, skills and practices was achieved - mainly in course of common practical work on particular projects run by partner organisations.

Workshops and internships were opportunities to share ideas and practices on the spot and, of course, the experience of real work. Partners in the project organised workshops and internships for both experienced and young trainers in culture animation in order to enhance their skills and to receive feedback helpful in the process of improvement and development of their own methods. Examples of this kind of activities are workshops and internships organised by Centre de Literature Orale (in storytelling), The Public (community arts and new media), Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej (art education) and Bielefeld Universitaet (art education and new media).

Study trips gave opportunities to visit outstanding centres of culture animation and to meet established practitioners. These were organised by partners for partners and involved young culture animators (as visitors) on the one hand and experienced culture animators (as guides) on the other. Examples of this kind of activities were study trips organised by Instytut Kultury Polskiej and Stowarzyszenie Katedra Kultury (culture animation in Poland), Universitetas Vytauto Didziojo (culture animation in Lithuania), Helsingin Kuvataidekoulu (art education as the method of culture animation in Finland).

Event networking was also a way of sharing ideas and training in culture animation. Some longer-term projects involved a number of partner organisations. In process of preparation and realisation of these projects, skills were transferred while working with particular communities. This helped strengthen the quality of training and skills exchange. Examples of this kind of activities were the project „Home. My Centre of the World” (together with the community of Suprasl, Poland) and „The Touch of Memories” (with young and elder people in Poland and Finland). The method of event networking was also be used in September 2004 in Warsaw during final event of the project - „Festival of the Word”.

This particular website was also designed to help document the project. We hope you find it useful.

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