Temporary Culture House - local art residencies in North District

Before I started my EVS in Berlin I was volunteering in my hometown “Nie Po Drodze” Social Art Activity Association in Suwałki, located in the north-east part of Poland, close to Russia and Lithuania border. “Nie Po Drodze “ means “Not On The Way” as our city is seen as the very end of Poland and we used it in an ironic way. We are non-government organization, where all members and volunteers bring experiences from different fields in developing culture spaces and city environment. “Nie Po Drodze” is organized to initiate projects of contemporary culture, community art, sustainability and ecology in the city and region.

After years of volunteering and gaining experience in the association, last summer I was coordinating a big social and art project in the neighbourhood from where I come from. The project was called “Temporary Culture House – local residencies in North District”. As we don't have any culture house or local community club in the district, we found out that we can make one ! Even if it must be temporary. Our idea was based on deeper research and years of experience working with local community. Generally speaking, “Temporary Culture House” was an answer to the lack of local activity spaces and cultural offers in the northern part of Suwałki. We also believe that artistic activities can temporarily transform the district where the access to art and culture is limited.

And so from July to August there was held a serie of artistic activities, interventions and workshops with local community led by local and international artists, who came for short artistic residencies to Suwałki. The strong side of this project was a cooperation of many actors – inhabitants, cultural practitioners from „Nie Po Drodze” Association, the Suwałki Senior Club, volunteers, informal neighbourhood groups, district administration and the professional artists. It was pretty easy to gather all those people and get things done as almost all association members are from the North District. We know Mr Mirek in administration of the district, Mrs Maria from the local shop, a neighbors who have a drill, someone who can help to connect cables and where to find the power supply in the neighbourhood. It was easy enough to handle all the things we needed for workhops, events or picnics. 

Invited artists - architects, visual artists, musicians and culture practitioners have attempted to arouse responsibility for the common space, activate and integrate the inhabitants through the tools provided by art, music and architecture. Artists used a whole range of methods, based on their experience working in a variety of environments in Warsaw, Poznan or London. During two summer months of action we have shown that art and culture can take place in our own backyard and be created jointly by artists and residents, regardless of the age.

This limited access to art in North District is not only the effect of the distance to the city center, but also of social barriers. In an independent report about condition of culture in Suwałki (2015) we can read: „The lack of cultural events happening right in front of the building ensures that the people who are rarely or never participate in cultural events will not change their attitude in this regard”. A key part of “Temporary Cultural House” was a diagnosing the needs and the problems of the residents, the potential present in the area, and the existence of grass-root narratives. The task of the artists, who came for a residencies was to state a diagnosis through the artistic activities and „map” the potential of the district and residents.

I do believe that we built connections between different worlds so that art became a tool of communication and participation. Through this project we also developed a model of „local residency” in Suwałki, based on the artists’ cooperation with the local community and government. From my personal perspective, through these two months of activities and three months of preparation I gained a big experience. Beside I had a chance to work with my friends, neighbours and amazing artists in my hood. Big pleasure!