Living with Cultural Heritage

Educational tool kit for facilitating heritage awareness at a historical site through community craft workshops

In cooperation with the project partner

Living cultural heritage at a historical site

• The aim of the project is to learn how to live, maintain and cherish a

historical town while preserving its characteristic environment and

liveability

• The project builds on a joint interest based on the recognition of

similarities and differences between the participating towns of

Rauma (Finland), Visby (Sweden), Kuldiga and Aizpute (Latvia)

Educational tool kit for Promoting Living Heritage

• Educational tool kit implies the results of the craft workshops

arranged in Old Rauma, Finland, during the project period V

(1.9.2017–1.2.2018)

• Workshops were hosted by the Crafts Education Teacher Training of

the University of Turku in cooperation with the City of Rauma

Educational and Cultural Services, and put in practice by the staff

and students of the Rauma Campus Craft Teacher Training unit

• Workshops took place at Rauma Teacher Training School (pilot

workshop) and at Marela Museum in Old Rauma (main workshop)

Aims for organizing craft workshops

at a historical site

• to promote an understanding of the living cultural heritage

• to quest the culturally constructed imaginaries related to the life in a

historical town

• to facilitate residents and tourists experience and encounter the

historicity of a heritage site

• to expand professional competences of crafts educationalists

through collaborative activities

• to distribute the outcomes and methods for organizing and

researching workshops based on arts and architecture education

Craft workshops in Old Rauma, pilot workshop

• a two-hour pilot workshop arranged at Rauma Teacher Training

School in order to test and redevelop the workshop plan and

research design

• Participants: 9 pupils of Rauma Teacher Training School, grades 4 to 6, aged

10 to 12

• Required resources: materials and tools for multi-material craft

experimentation:

• inspirational photo material; appr. 250 photos of the architectural details of a heritage site,

• tools and materials for needle felting: felting needles, various colors of carded wool, needle

felting mat such as a sponge or piece of foam, felted backcloth surface

• salt clay for clay model molding

• tools and materials for wood carving with soldering iron: plywood, irons

• materials for ensuring safety and security at the workshop

• Preferred site: textile class / workshop

Craft workshops in Old Rauma, main workshop

• an open, pop-in-type workshop arranged at Marela Museum

workshop space

• Participants: 39 individual craft makers; male [12] and female [27] participants,

residents [30] and tourists [9], ages ranging from toddlers to pensioners the

average participant being middle-aged woman

• Required resources: materials and tools for multi-material craft

experimentation:

• inspirational photo material; appr. 250 photos of the architectural details of a heritage site,

• tools and materials for needle felting: felting needles, various colors of carded wool, needle

felting mat such as a sponge or piece of foam, felted backcloth surface

• salt clay for clay model molding

• tools and materials for wood carving with soldering iron: plywood, irons

• materials for ensuring safety and security at the workshop

• Preferred site: workshop / studio space

Organizing craft workshops at a heritage site

1. Contextualizing the role of the facilitator at the workshop:

• Select a venue for the workshop well beforehand and engage the required staff

in codeveloping the workshop plan

• Contact the activities coordinator of the planned workshop site and customize

the workshop plan according to the needs and facilities of the stakeholder

• Choose craft techniques, tools and materials as well as appropriate working

methods and approaches for the purposes of the workshop according to the

professional competence of the facilitator, in reflection of local heritage crafts

• Define a clear outline for the workshop with the stakeholders

well-structured and well-coordinated workshop serves both educational and

institutional purposes

Organizing craft workshops at a heritage site

• Decide and determine:

1) the maximum number of participants and/or groups,

2) the duration of the workshops and/or their frequency,

3) all schedules and deadlines,

4) allocation of material costs,

5) duties for arranging the space, workshop materials, tools and equipment

• Delineate responsibilities for advertising, announcements and the use of

social media

inviting people to join in open pop-in-type workshops encourages participation

Organizing craft workshops at a heritage site

2. Promoting heritage awareness with pedagogical material:

• Supply rich and elaborate inspirational visual, auditory and written material

related to the cityscape of a heritage site

well-supplied, generous material pushes workshop participants to regain

ownership of the living heritage through creative expression and intends to root

them more intimately to a historical site

• When collecting and producing materials, pay attention to the visual and

architectural details, territorially or topologically iconic features and

institutionally well-established designs of the region

well-established, easily recognizable details serve as inspirational boundary

constructions that urge the recontextualization of the heritage of the historical town

Organizing craft workshops at a heritage site

• Place all materials available for browsing through effortlessly

the attention paid to the details of the historical town strikes workshop participants

with a call to action

• Make sure the material is varied enough in order to cater the needs of different

workshop participants

children are keen to select visual material for their craft experiments more

expeditiously than adults, and may though have a relatively unproblematized

vision of the purpose of the material experimentation

providing complimentary written material may work for adults for deepening their

insights and animating interest

multi-material approach encourages participation among special groups: make

sure to also include auditory and sensory inspirational material in the material

installation

Organizing craft workshops at a heritage site

3. Setting the scene for craft experimentation during workshops:

• Encourage action:

• Make sure there are enough craft materials and tools to allow individual choices and different forms of craft experimentation.

• Get creative:

• Cultivate and promote new ways of using craft materials and techniques instead of going for the most common and traditional ways. Make experiments and different variations, and let yourself be deviceful, originative and visionary when setting the workshop.

• Be involved:

• If and when the workshop focuses on collaborative and artistic action, get your own hands dirty too. Evoke inspiration by getting engaged in action and offer provide meaningful accounts on living heritage by your own example. If collecting research data during the workshops, make sure to carefully reflect on your own role as a workshop facilitator.

Feedback and evaluation:

a community craft workshop at a heritage site1. Highlighting the uniqueness of a cultural heritage site through the promotion and revitalization collaborative

craftsmanship

The goal was to encourage workshop participants, both tourists and locals, to experience the uniqueness of a culturalheritage site through creative, multi-material craft making. Based on the workshop feedback it was observed thatalthough workshop participants did not actively emphasize the uniqueness of the area's cultural heritage, theygenerally agreed upon the need for historical sensitivity, especially related to the ways of promoting urban life in a historical site.

2. Contributing to the sense of community through collaborative craft making

The goal was to enhance encountering and collaboration between individuals coming from different backgroundsthough community crafts based on arts and architecture education. During the workshops, collaborative craft makingoccurred both as a procedural way of encountering otherness and as a desired end result that motivated participationin the overall workshop.

3. Promoting knowledge of heritage crafts through the uses of different techniques, tools and materials

The goal was to advocate knowledge of heritage crafts by urging people to leave their traits on a collaborative craft-art work that was intentionally being constrained by the relational and territorial understanding of a heritage site. Theworkshop attempted to deepen community experience so that both traditional and contemporary forms of makingcould be promoted. The workshop implied that craft making offered a way to sustain knowledge of the living heritage, as well as a medium of sharing craft experiences through the materiality of making.

Feedback and evaluation:

a community craft workshop at a heritage site

• Collaborative and multi-material craft experimentation seems to fit well for the

purposes of cherishing, maintaining and preserving the characteristics of a

historical town as well as promoting heritahe awareness at a historical site

• Stopping by concrete hands-on action allows one to experience and reflect on the

uniqueness of the cultural heritage

• Craft making provides the individual and multi-level experiences to learn from one’s

own territorial placeness and the surrounding world

Key aspects for facilitating heritage awareness

at a historical site through community craftsAttention to

local heritage crafts

in the selection of

craft techniques,

tools and materials

for the workshop

Availability and

access to

multi-material

resources

Purposeful and

attainable

location for

the community

craft work

Publicity in media

and resources

for social media

sharing

Knowledge and

susceptibility of

the sense of

collectivity

Familiarity of

the historicity of a

heritage site and

cultural environment

Community craft workshop

promoting heritage awareness

at a historical site