Project

 

The project is focused on development of new ideas and design and a renewal sight on handicraft to become visible in multicultural aspects. Traditions, experiences and most of all inheritance of form and objects within the field of textile will be exploited not the least for the purpose of development within mode, design and interior decoration.
 
The project will function as a meeting place in time and space between people, cultures and phenomenon, a meeting place for diversity and cultural contacts in a context to life long learning. Through exchange of knowledge and experiences the partners want to highlight the similarities and differences of their work in the field of adult education, development of new skills and they want to share the best practices of how to raise awareness to the textile heritage.
 
Attention will be drawn to the value of the silence and invisible knowledge of women who have created the treasure of textile in the countries and to make it alive. Business potential and prospects of development connected to women is not a matter of course in the society. The project ´s results will promote the change of attitudes and values in the society in which skills and knowledge of women has often been underrated.
 
The aim is to develop methods for creating new products, new design influenced by the own and other nations´ textile traditions and heritage.

 

Lead Partner: County Council of Västernorrland, SE
Partners: County Museum in Västernorrland, SE
               Somogy County Government, HU
               County Museum in Somogy, HU
               Museum in Ciuc, RO
               Harghita County Council, RO
               Muhu Museum, EE
Duration: 2007.12.01 - 2009.11.30
Total Budget: 512 395 Euro
Community grant total: 300 000 Euro

Project description

New learning methods based on traditional textile techniques as well as on challenges of testing new ways both in techniques and materials will be developed. The project will improve the stimulus and self-esteem of the target groups and develop their creativity based on theirs knowledge, experiences and interest.
 
The project starts in December 2007. The partner organisations will set up the management and the working teams of the professional staff. Each group will also have got an expert in textile design and product development. During the first 4 months the working teams will arrange seminars and workshops in each country in order to exchange knowledge and experiences about their ways of contribution to life long learning in the field of textile. The host organisations prepare the events, they invite the target groups (people in interest, handicraft people, teachers, designers, etc.) from the own region, choose the collection of textile for the workshop and give the presentation of their working methods with adult education and with renewal of textile heritage.

Concerning the textile heritage the project will touch the following fields: male/female, working-day/feast, tradition /renewal.

The first seminar and workshop will be arranged in Västernorrland where the museum will also give a presentation of its previous project about the adaptation of patterns and techniques of two women from the 19th century, in order to develop new products of today. The resulted products of the project will be demonstrated.
 
After the period of exchanging knowledge and experiences during these seminars, the working teams will together design the educational material of an adult educational course for renewal of the textile inheritance by design and product development. The course material will be translated into the languages of the participating countries. Each region prepares the course and invites the participants.
 
During the autumn of 2008 the course will be tested in each country. After the evaluation results from the regions the curriculum will be eventually modified or corrected and the developed new products will be documented.
During the winter 2008 the Hungarian and Romanian partners together as well as the Swedish participants together with the Estonians will arrange the international courses to apply the method to each other's textile heritage. The purpose is to see the differences and similarities in each other ´s heritage and traditions and how knowledge about other cultures can give inspiration for development. The work-teams will select the foreign textiles for the courses at the end of the national courses and at the same time they will follow up these courses in the partner region.
The results of the international courses will be evaluated and documented.
 
The working teams will arrange a disseminating exhibition, which will visit each other ´ s region from June 2009 to July 2009. The content of the exhibition will be chosen from the innovative products of each region´s educational results and from the results of the international courses.
A dissemination seminar at the time of opening the exhibition will be arranged in each country. 
A joint exhibition and dissemination seminar will be arranged in Hungary in September 2009.
 
The target groups in the short-term are handicrafts, teachers, designers and people of interest in textile or product development. The target groups will learn a new method to find innovative ways how to use the resources of museums in learning processes, how to improve their professional skills and how to develop new products based on textile heritage. Through the dissemination of the results they can also have opportunity for marketing themselves via their new products.
 
Many of these people in the regions are unemployed or have difficulties to earn their living. They will enhance their accessibility in the labour market and in the future they can start small businesses to produce and sell their new products based on the method. But even the regions belong to the long-term beneficiaries because the inhabitants´ regional identity will be strengthen, the museums role will widened, new small businesses can be established and the attractiveness of the regions by new products based on regional traditions and inheritance will be enhanced.

The project ´s duration is 24 months is justified by the description of activities and tasks above.
The indicators are:
- the  number of participants on the workshops to prepare the method of 
    the course in each country (approx. 30)
- the number of participants on the educational courses in each country
    (approx.10 adults) both the national and international  courses
- the quality and quantity of the developed new products during the national
    and bilateral courses
- the number of visitors on the dissemination exhibitions (2000-3000) and
    seminars (approx. 50) in each country
 
The pedagogical material will be created as the result of the project by pedagogical approaches to product development based on the textile heritage of museums in Europe. The curriculum will contain the whole process and working method how to create access to the collected knowledge and potential of museums in order to develop skills and competences and promote new ways of product development.
 
The “best practice” of the Swedish museum is a good base of the methodological improvement. However, the Swedish method must be developed with the knowledge and experiences of the international partnership to strengthen adaptability of the curriculum in Europe.
The course starts with the selection of textile for product development. The instructor of the course is a designer and the method addresses the needs of the target group such as competence development, coaching and inspiration. The created curriculum will be tested by the target groups of the 4 countries, which provides better conditions to evaluate its quality and adaptability generally in other countries. According to the results of evaluation the curriculum will be eventually corrected or modified. The outcomes of the courses in each country are the new products created by the participants during the courses which quality and efficiency can be indicated with the quality and the number of these products.
 
During the second phase of the project the bilateral courses (Sweden –Estonia and Hungary-Romania) will focus on how to find the similarities and differences between the textile heritage of the own region and another country ´s region and how these can influence the product development. The target-groups keep contact to each other in their work with each others ´ textile heritage, which can also give additional inspiration and stimulation to the participants during the international courses in these countries. The results of these courses will be compared to the national courses and they will be analysed by the participants and by the experts.
The documented results of each course will be exhibited to demonstrate and prove the quality of the educational method.  
During the dissemination seminars the target groups will share the knowledge and experiences of each country ´s target groups and gain additional impulses and knowledge. The invited representatives and experts of other museums and educational organisations will also be able to share the results of the project and learn how to develop new ideas for innovation in the fields of cultural heritage.

The different phases of the project implementation and their results will be presented on the web-site of the project.
 
Outputs, results and products:
• seminars and workshops for exchanging knowledge and experiences and 
    for dissemination and exploitation;
• curriculum and course material developed by the international partnership 
    and translated to the native languages;
• pilot courses in the 4 countries;
• international pilot courses based on foreign textile heritage;
• the innovative new products developed as the results of the courses and 
    to prove theirs quality;
• the web-site, DVD and paper based information materials such as reports
    inclusively the evaluation report, exhibition catalogue, brochures, flyers
    and placards