New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Initiative category

Identify the award category for which this initiative is being submitted
Regaining a sense of belonging

Email user
zagorni@kh-berlin.de

Basic information
Initiative title
seekicks: Start-up Studio

Full initiative Title
Experimental formats for creative agency

Please provide a short, catchy description of your initiative to be used in communication towards the public.
seekicks is an ongoing creative platform enabling access to knowledge and resources in the area of innovation and entrepreneurship for design and art students, graduates, and professionals. One of the experimental formats we work on is the Start-up Studio. In the studio, we explore collaborative entrepreneurial skills development for arts and design practitioners.

What was the geographical scope of your intiative?
Regional

Where was your intiative implemented?
Member State(s) and Western Balkans
Germany

If relevant, insert names of region(s)/municipality(ies) involved
Berlin, Brandenburg, Saarland

Does your initiative address mainly urban or rural issues?
Mainly urban

Does your initiative refer to a physical transformation of the built environment or other types of transformations (hard or soft investments)?
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)

Has your initiative benefited from EU programmes and/or funds?
No

Has your initiative won an EU prize with a monetary value awarded?
No

Does your initiative has a minimum level of maturity? The minimum level of maturity is exemplified by stakeholder/ initiative promoter commitment to implement the initiative in practice and a clear methodology /approach.
Yes

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?
As a representative of an organization, in partnership with other organisations
If you are submitting this intiative as part of a group, please provide the contact details of the other individuals or organisations
- Name of the organisation(s): Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin
  Type of organisation: University or another research institution
  First name of representative: Anastasia
  Last name of representative: Zagorni
  Gender: Female
  Nationality: Germany
  If relevant, please select your other nationality: Ukraine
  Function: Program management
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Bühringstr. 20
  Town: Berlin
  Postal code: 13086
  Country: Germany
  Direct Tel: +49 30 477050
  E-mail: hello@seekicks.org
  Website: http://www.seekicks.org
Social Media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
- URL: https://www.instagram.com/seekicksorg/
  Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): #creative #political #practical #creativeagency #entrepreneurship #art&design
In case my initiative is selected as a finalist of the NEB Prizes 2023, I agree to share the name (individual and/or organisation’s), email address, website and social media accounts indicated above with other NEB Prizes finalists. I also agree to publish the name (individual and/or organisation’s), website and social media accounts indicated above next to the public description of my initiative in the channels of the European Commission.
Yes

How did you hear about the New European Bauhaus Prizes?
Press

Description of the initiative
Please provide a summary of your initiative
The Start-up Studio is an educational format, beyond curriculum, in the context of art and design. The studio is one of the main elements of the platform seekicks.org that has been funded through the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action since July 2020. The platform aims to provide access to knowledge to equip creatives with skills for the 21st century.
The central notion of the Start-up Studio is the question of artistic agency: How can creatives internalize the sense of agency and understand the impact they create or can create in the social context? In a broad sense we are aiming for a shift where creative potential is not instrumentalized but able to find or to frame for itself new contexts of implementation. This is where entrepreneurship comes into play.
The studio aims to foster collaborative entrepreneurial skills of arts and design practitioners. Setup as six-month prototypes, each studio round presents a unique assemblage of activities and workshops opening a dialogue between the disciplines.
The value of designing for open-ended collaborative participation in this way connects everyone involved in the project to shared concepts, ‘unlocking, amplifying and analyzing individual creative potential’. The studio currently runs the third prototype with a diverse group of participants from various backgrounds. They are supported by a group of experts with coaching, development of novel enterprise models, understanding economic contexts in a form of discussions.

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with 5 key words.
- future skills

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
- creative agency

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
- entrepreneurship

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
- collective

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
- communities

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of sustainability and how these have been/will be met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
With regard to sustainability, the Start-up Studio is currently accessible to graduates, students and other creative professionals from various disciplines. The accessibility is one of the most important aspect as many entrepreneurship programs have specific applicant’s profile in mind. The initiative is attached to our structural model which is a »distributed network«. The »distributed network« is a self-directed network including representatives and experts from art schools, educational organizations who are committed to foster innovative educational formats in the context of art and design as well as to enable change and access to knowledge in this area.

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience for people (through design, positive emotions and cultural benefits) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
One of the key objectives, beside accessibility and inclusivity is to introduce the participants into the development of innovative enterprise research methods. A particular approach we base our assumptions on is the connection between the creative and business practices: how those two practices are interlinked, how the business practice can benefit from creative approaches and methodologies and eventually how a business can be shaped by creative thinking. The positive effect of this approach is that participants don’t have to abandon their ways of working but can expand them while diving into new areas and business contexts.

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of inclusion (ranging from accessibility and affordability for all to inclusive governing systems, design for all principles or new societal models) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
The central element of the initiative is the idea of creative agency which underlines the notion that creatives should take an active role in shaping an inclusive and fair world. To make it happen, they need to understand how the current political and economic systems function, its mechanisms and flaws. The promise is here: the more creatives with diverse backgrounds (unusual suspects) are participating in the entrepreneurial activities, the more diverse initiatives and businesses emerge.

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the initiative and civil society have been/will be involved in the initiative and what has been/will be the impact of this involvement on the initiative
With the studio we also aim to expand the idea of art and design and see it as a thinking tool that can find in purpose not only in physical implementation but in various societal constellations. With recent prototypes, we started our engagement with the city by working on various locations, involving organizations from the city of Berlin and also collaborating with the city through the format of summer schools. Our next collaborative summer school with Pratt New York is coming in July 2023.

Please explain how different stakeholders at various levels (local, regional, national, European) were engaged in the design and implementation of the initiative.
In our work we are continuously shaping concepts with a group of representatives from various stakeholders e.g. local organizations as the Senat of Berlin, Haus der Statistik, University of Arts Berlin; regional: School of Sustainable Development Eberswalde, national: K8 Institute for Strategic Aesthetics and HBK Saar, european: ELIA, Cumulus, Imagination Lancaster and the Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths.

Please explain which disciplines and/ or knowledge fields were reflected in the design and implementation of your initiative. Please explain how representatives of these different fields interacted with each other, and what the added value of this process was
Apart from representatives in art and design, we have been interacting with experts from leadership, marketing, architecture, business development, communication, natural sciences. Various inputs contributed to the fact that the initiative is open for various participants and also can cater various needs.

Please highlight the innovative character of the initiative, when compared to mainstream actions in the field of the initiative
While the mainstream entrepreneurial initiatives are still focusing on the individual aspects of a creative person, the Start-up Studio addresses the notion of collective agency in order to tackle current societal challenges.

Please describe which elements of your initiative could be replicated or transferred to other places, groups of beneficiaries and contexts. This may involve, for example, aspects of the methodology, technology, processes, products, learnings, etc.
Both, the methodology of the studio as well as the formats can be transferred to other places and can be used in other contexts. These include especially: the set up of the studio which consist of already fixed elements (scaffolding) and emerging topics depending on the needs of participants; studying and questioning of current practices in art and design (model analysis), working on overlaps between individual practices of participants to come up with processes that could strengthen collective approaches.

Please describe the methodology or approach used in your initiative.
Method framework: The concept of the start-up studio takes a learning by doing approach - to support people who are exploring how and why to found a venture.

The Start-up Studio uses the following three approaches:

Scaffold: bespoke workshops form a fixed structure that gives people a recognizable space for guided learning.
Reflective: open- space to stimulate peer to peer learning to allow needs to emerge and giving the participants the opportunity to design part of the process themselves.
Networks: Enabling connections to be made that can support participants to realize opportunities, address practical needs, and foster lasting networks with each other and beyond.

Please explain what kind of global challenges the initiative addresses by providing local solutions
With regard to global challenges, we are primarily working on shaping the programs to transfer new skills, expand current curricula and introduce open-minded and inclusive approaches in education. Our efforts are linked to the European Skills Agenda which links to the green, digital and social transition.

Please detail the scope of progress in the implementation of the initiative. This can include already demonstrated results/outputs related to the chosen Prizes category, and the already achieved benefits from the initiative for direct and indirect beneficiaries. This can also include a development plan of the initiative, with a particular attention to the steps envisaged in the year following the application, and including envisaged results and benefits from the initiative
We have carried out three prototypes so far on the local level focusing e.g. on peer- to-peer learning, self-directed learning, collective approaches. The studio is currently at the stage to link these activities to the formats on the European platforms as e.g. ELIA and open it up to participants from other European regions.

Please provide documents that demonstrate the maturity level of the initiative and commitment to implement the initiative in practice (e.g.: evaluation report, final or mid-term initiative report, certification, publications, building permit, grant agreement, letter of support, partnership agreement, etc.)
PDF
PDF
- pdf-1-19597.pdf
If relevant, please describe how your initiative contributes to developing new competences, especially in the context of the European competence framework on sustainability.
In the context of the European competence framework of sustainability, our initiative especially addresses understanding the complexity in sustainability which is translated into activities to align various opinions, learning how to work collectively, understanding the purpose and eventually the impact of the individual and collective actions, considering small actions in the context of social transformation, taking the active role to change the status-quo locally.
Please attach at least 6 high resolution images or visual representations of your initiative to your application.
If you would like to upload additional documentation, please upload or write below.
- Capturing the process on the start-up studio-midterm-June-NEB.pdf
- Official-Press-EXIST2019-NEB.pdf
By submitting your application you confirm that you are the copyright owner of the images provided and that they can be used by the European Commission for the purposes of promoting the New European Bauhaus on all platforms (websites, print, social media and other).
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that you are not in in one or more of the exclusion situations foreseen under Article 136 of the Financial Regulation.
Yes

By submitting this application, I declare that I am not related to the entities subject to EU restricted measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and subject to Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)1, and entities covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05), which are not eligible to participate in any capacity.
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that you assume sole liability in the event of a claim relating to the activities carried out in the framework of the contest, that the proposed initiative has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Prizes in any other category or strand and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.
Yes

By submitting your application, you guarantee that you are the author or have the rights to proceed with the application and to authorise the use of the initiative and that you have obtained any necessary consents, licenses or assignments from third parties and included copyright notices when necessary
Yes

By submitting your application, you understand that all the applications that meet the eligibility requirements will be shared for the purposes of the selection processes, and notably published on the secured platform prizes.new-european-bauhaus.eu and for the purposes of the promotion of these on the New European Bauhaus website and/or other European Commission communication channels. In this sense, the applications would be widely available. Applicants should ensure that they present their initiatives, initiative, in such a way that they could be shared without giving rise to intellectual property related concerns. If your submission is selected as one of the finalists, it will additionally be shared for the purpose of the public vote that will take place. The European Union is granted a licence to use and share your application with the general public and the official external experts for the purposes of the selection process, including the voting. The European Union has the right to use the images and visual materials and the description provided in the application for communication purposes related to the contest and beyond. Rights granted comprise the right to store, reproduce, display, publish and communicate or distribute copies in electronic or digital format, including, but not only, through the internet. Unless you have disclosed your name, the European Commission has no obligation to share your name when using or disseminating your contribution to the public. The European Union cannot be held responsible in case any submitted initiative, initiative is found to infringe third party’s rights. The European Union shall be neither responsible for the use that third parties may do of the applications or related content.
Yes

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you read and understand that the ‘Guide to Applicants’ of the NEB Prizes 2023, available online in the website of the NEB Prizes 2023, is an integral part of this application form and that it must therefore be observed when completing and submitting your application.
Yes