It was creative and inspirational weekof co-creation, skills and learning exchange, and networking! During five days (24-28 of January 2022) 18 creative apprenticeship coaches and trainers from the 6 countries participating in P4CA came together for a transnational bar camp in Pécs, Hungary. Training week was hosted by the Cultural Creative Industries Cluster in Pécs at their KOHO Co-Working House.
Participants were drawn from the Peer Development and Review Groups supporting the development of the project outputs in each country. Polish tema was represented by Wenancjusz Ochmann, sector expert and senior mentor in our training and mentoring programmes, Dariusz Bieniek (4MAX / sector expert and trainer, Foundation ARTeria) and Beata Bieniek (Silesian Museum in Katowice, Poland / sector expert, Foundation ARTeria) – they worked togetehr with partcipants from Hungary, Italy, UK, North Macedonia and Slovakia. The aim of these groups was to ensure that the project results are tested by practitioners and sector experts, and reflect real-life work experience of coaches who train and support creative apprenticeships. Participants came from a wide range of creative industry backgrounds, including dance and performing arts, photography, design, visual arts, music, digital media, museums and working with young creatives with special educational needs.
The week included a series of networking and learning exchange events arranged by CiCC with creative employers in the Pécs Creative Industries Cluster who have experience of training apprentices. These included TSB ArtLab photography studios, the visit the Pannon Philharmonic Orchestra, who reside and perform in the spectacular architectural setting of the Kodaly Centre which opened as a concert hall in 2010 when Pécs was European Capital of Culture. A further learning exchange event took place at the Pécs Chamber of Commerce, through which the potential for piloting the project learning toolkit with local employers was discussed.
A key purpose of the week was to review, develop and generate additional content for the project Intellectual Outputs.
During the week Press to Exit (North Macedonia) led workshops that enabled the IO3 Learning Toolkit resources to be finalised, CiCC were able to liaise with participants to agree a structure and timescale for completing a beta-site for the Open Educational Resource. Materahub (Italy) led a workshop to inform and develop the structure and content of the IO5 Good Practice Guide, and through-out the week gathered a range of video and audio documentation and interviews as content for the Guide. We were joined via Zoom by Dr. Denise Stanley Chard, Chief Executive of Tulip Peer2Peer, who gave a presentation about the CLOCK accreditation process, and David Garcia of Rinova also participated by Zoom from the Polo Digital Hub in Malaga to support the technical process of developing the IO4 Open Educational Resource. Creative Business CoachTomorr Kokona also gave a short presentation of his new book, “Creative Artists mean Business”.
These five days together were an invaluable opportunity for partners to take stock and review what has been achieved and revise and adapt plans for the final stage of the project. This included planning a piloting process, joint-staff training in Matera (Italy) and final conference in Skopje (North Macedonia).
The busy agenda for the week included opportunities to explore the rich cultural history of Pécs, which is recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site, including guided tours of the city and opportunities to visit the Szolnay Ceramics Museum and Victor Vasarely Museum or historic churches.
It was an immensely productive and stimulating week, and huge thanks go to Janos, Judit, Aron and the team at CiCC for putting it together, and for their wonderful, generous hospitality through-out the week.
Photos by Martina Mlcuchova / @mmmlivephoto
