Text by Wenancjusz Ochmann
Landing at Manchester Airport made me a little sad. The weather was also typically ‘English’, with a light drizzle of rain. But it wasn’t the aura that put me in a not very cheerful mood. This is probably the last time I will be flying to the UK for an Erasmus+ partner meeting. The UK is now no longer participating in this programme due to its exit from the European Union.
But let’s get back to the meeting. This was the final third DigiKommune project partner meeting and took place on 11-12 May 2023 in Shieffield, UK. The host organisation was Inova Consultancy, the leader of this project. At the meeting we discussed all the activities implemented so far. The ARTeria Foundation was the leader of activity two, i.e. the preparation of training materials and their testing in pilot workshops in all countries of the partnership. As a representative of ARTeria, I presented the national report after the pilot in Poland and moderated the panel on the pilots in the other countries. This phase of the project went very well. A total of 64 women artists and representatives of the creative sector participated in the pilot. They tested the training materials prepared by the partnership, which were divided into 5 modules. The pilot participants in all countries of the partnership rated the material presented very highly.
The next point of the meeting was to discuss the activities of action three, the organisation of local DigiKommune groups. The leader of this action was Inova Consultancy. Also in this project, the Artistic Circles methodology has worked very well in all partnership countries. The female artists participating in the Local DigiKommune increased their digital competences and soft competences so much needed for creative work especially in the postcovid era.
The last content activity that was discussed in the meeting was Digital Art Spaces. These were online meetings with female artists carried out in all partnership countries. In each country, six female artists, representing various artistic disciplines, presented their work. In these meetings, female artists were able to present their creative work and discuss it together with the audience. The leader of this action was the Italian partner CESIE.
At the end of this last meeting of the DigiKomunne project, the partners summarised all the results achieved so far and planned activities for the rest of the project.
The return from Shieffield to Manchester Airport was not easy. There was a major strike by railway workers in the UK on 12 and 13 May and all trains running between Shieffield and Manchester were cancelled. Fortunately, it was possible to organise a joint taxi service between the Italian and Polish partners to the airport.
