Adaptation the Austeria buildings for Center for social and cultural integration, stage 1 and 2
The project consists on the renovation, modernization and adaptation of the historic building of Austeria for the purpose of giving it a new cultural and educational function. The main objective is to renovate of the Austeria building in Raszyn in Poland enabling preservation of the existing functions of the historic building and adaptation of the building into the Centre of Social and Cultural Integration. The target group Poles and foreigners living in Raszyn which is 8% of total population.
National
Poland
Mazovian Voivodeship
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
Yes
2021-11-11
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Municipality of Raszyn Type of organisation: Public authority (European/national/regional/local) First name of representative: Andrzej Last name of representative: Zaręba Gender: Male Nationality: Poland Function: Mayor of the municipality Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Szkolna str. 2a Town: Raszyn Postal code: 05-090 Country: Poland Direct Tel:+48 22 701 77 77 E-mail:ratusz@raszyn.pl Website:https://www.raszyn.pl
The project costs are covered in 73% by the EEA Funds and in 12% by the funds of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage; the self-contribution of the Raszyn Commune is 15%. The total cost of the project: 3 948 488 €. The task have launched January 1, 2021 and will be finished September 30, 2023. Project supports the revitalization of Polish culture heritage. The project involves the restoration of buildings which are the parts of the Austeria complex: carriage house, former post office and stalls where the Jewesh community settled in the 18th century and run its trade. Austeria was the historic urban complex of the historical center of Raszyn of 18th and 19th centuries, designed by Bogumił Zug, one of the most famous architect of those days. The entire monument is placed in the provincial and local Register of Monuments. As soon as archeological excavations were finished, Raszyn Commune started construction works. In the newly-restored building there will be a Center of Social and Cultural Integration. To implement this task, Raszyn Commun is cooperating with one Polish Partner: Foundation for Dialogue and two Norwegian Partners - Nansen Humanistic Academie and Kristiania University. It is our Partners who prepare most of the events planned in the project for every target groups: minors, adults, seniors, migrants (in Raszyn more than 8% of total population, the biggest number in Poland), for expulsed persons, invalids, disabled persons etc. Many interesting and innovative projects of a social and cultural nature have already been planned and performed in the restored in 2021 part of Austeria complex, including meetings, exhibitions, performances, trainings and workshops. The rest of the events will take place in the newly renovated rooms: reading room, room for physical activities, multimedia zone, library, kitchen and consumption center. This task contributed also to the increasment of knowledge about Jewish community and Jewish heritage in Raszyn, Poland.
renovation
reconstruction
center for immigrants, expelled persons, disabled persons
innovative workshops on visual communication and new media
interactive and activating
The main objective is to create an attractive and modern cultural offer and to increase public participation in culture. It will be implemented through two intermediate goals: modernization and renovation of the monument of the urban complex of the historic center of Raszyn and through the expansion of the cultural offer and strengthening the competence of culture. The first objective will be implemented through operational objectives: improvement of infrastructure quality, modernization and reconstruction of buildings in part of the Austeria complex, improvement of infrastructure quality, retrofitting of buildings. The second specific objective concerns expanding the educational offer and workshops addressed to national minorities and / or to excluded people, e.g. by presenting Jewish and Norwegian culture, expanding the cultural offer and gaining new competences by employees of the commune office. It is assumed that the implementation of the operational objectives will have a positive effect in the form of increasing public participation in culture.
Taken as part of the project entitled "Adaptation of Austeria buildings for the Center for Social and Cultural Integration in Raszyn at al. Krakowska 1 - stage 2 ”the activities have a dual purpose; firstly - modernization and renovation of the historic Austeria urban complex, secondly - creating an attractive and modern cultural offer and increasing the participation of society in culture. Through a wide cultural, exhibition and educational offer, as well as conducting workshops (including culinary workshops), the Raszyn commune wants to increase the activity of its citizens (permanent and migrant population, indigenous Polish residents and foreigners). Thanks to the appropriate promotional action, the commune will try to present an attractive cultural and educational offer also for enthusiasts and interested people from nearby communes, from closer and further regions of Poland. The reconstructed part of the complex of the former Austeria complex will become the NANSEN CENTER FOR INTEGRATION AND DIALOGUE. In the years 2021-2023, the Raszyn Commune - through the Raszyn Cultural Center - together with partners: the Foundation for Dialogue – the Polish partner and the Nansen Academy of Humanities based in Lilehammer (The Nansen Humanistic Academy) and the Kristiania University in Oslo ( Høyskole Kristiania) – Norwegian partners, we will work together to improve access to art and culture of both countries. We will improve the flow of information between us, to present the treasures of the cultural heritage of our nations. We hope that this will strengthen relations between Poland and Norway, and the attractive and modern cultural and educational offer of the Nansen Center for Integration and Dialogue, located in restored buildings, will result in new contacts, interesting meetings and many inspiring performances. Nansen Center presents the innovative nature of its activity by using innovative tools of visual communication: 3d technology, Virtual Reality etc
Building a culture of dialogue by disseminating the Nansen methodology of dialogue created at the Nansen Humanistic Academy in Lilehammer in 1938 and used in many places around the world, will contribute to the growth of cultural competences of local communities, help in solving social problems, increase tolerance, activate seniors, people with disabilities, socially and professionally excluded people. These tools are not used in Poland, and thanks to the program, they will not only be used in the Raszyn Commune, but will also be disseminated in other communes, and further throughout Poland. The Center for Integration and Dialogue will educate a staff of trainers-facilitators of dialogue, improve contacts of minorities with the local community, reduce the phenomenon of exclusion in access to work, offices, schools, and health care. Training for teachers will help them work in multicultural classes, improving relations between students, reducing aggression.
A number of projects will be implemented under the program: local and supra-local dialogue workshops conducted in Polish, English and minorities’ languages living in the commune, for teachers, volunteers, local community and minorities, for parents and students, art and cultural education workshops, innovative workshops on visual communication and new media, a creativity fair for the elderly, local, national and international symposia, exhibitions in the reconstructed exposition space of Austeria, museum lessons shared by the local community and minorities. All the activities are and will be free of charge.
The program is based on interaction and dialogue, which by their very nature are interactive and activating for participants. It focuses on mutual learning, understanding one's attitudes and motives, helps to avoid simplifications and a tendency to stereotypical thinking. It leads to understanding beyond local divisions, without stereotypes about religious, political and ethnic differences.
The Raszyn Commune is currently the largest concentration of foreigners in Poland (they constitute 8% of all residents of the Commune, while in the rest of Warsaw, for example, their percentage is only 1.3%). According to the data of the Raszyn Commune Office, more than 1,700 foreigners were registered among the total population, which constituted about 8% of all residents of the commune. In this group, the most represented minorities were citizens of Vietnam and Ukraine, Turkey and India. The project includes a strategy of including ethnic and national minorities in project activities as audiences and as performers. Recruitment of actors and dancers for stage activities will ensure the participation of representatives of various ethnic groups living in Poland. In turn, the interactive mobile exhibition and stage activities will be shown, among others, in selected places in Poland and Norway. For audiences beloging to ethnic and national minorities and foreigners who do not speak Polish, all will be translated. Virtual reality, as the main communication medium in the task, makes it easier to reach ethnic nad national minorities using digital devices. In addation to the presentation of the exhibition and stage activities, our artistic, dialogue and integration workshops using the Nansen method, conducted by the Nansen Academy, will be particularly useful in the process of activating minorities.They will be intended for students from mulitcultural classes, for the adult local community.
In the project we have three Partners - one Polish Foundation and two organistions from Norway. We together meet the problems: online hate speech targeting minorities; negative stereotype of a foreigner; separation and reluctance to integrate; isolation in schools - this becomes the reason for our innovative project involving joint contact wiht art and participation in artistic, dialogue and integration workshops will help to some extent in integrating foreingers wiht local community. We offer two-track activities: training in innovative computer techniques for designing VR and AR presentations and education for tolerance through art. We intend to evaluate the program of integration through art develped in the Raszyn commune and, after its positive result, we will make it availabel to other integration programs.
Local and post-local dialogue workshops: dialogue workshops for teachers from schools (Foundation for Dialogue nad Nansen Academy in Lillehammer; Dialogue accoring to Nansen is more than words - prepared by Nansen Academy; workshops subjests: "Dialogue and tolerance" (Identity - the key to understanding yourself and others; What is communication?; Listening - the most important communication skill; Asking questions - the key to understanding others; Cultural impressions and expressions; Prejudices: Where they come from and how to overcome them; Generalizations and stereotypes: What is a conflict? Positive and negative sides of the conflict; Conflict mapping and presentation: Conflict analysis - one of the tools of conflict transformation; Respect, Acceptance/Empathy, Compassion (sympathy): The role of the facilitator; Role of the observer; Dialogue simulation; Facilitation and evaluation of dialogue simulations; Awarding of certificates. Workshops for volunteers, recruitted locally and nationwide - for elderly, adults, people wiht disabilities; Joint dialogue workshops for local communities and minorities; Dialogue workshops for volunteers - recruitted locally and nationwide - care for the elderly, adult with disabilities; Dialogue by Nansen is more than words; Dialogue workshops: care of children and young people with disabillities.
We'd like to achieve: 1. The importance of culture of dialogue - what is dialogue? Social integration and increasing cultural competences in the local community, as well as the integration of minorities with the majority, will not be achieved without the first, basic action - social dialogue. Dialogue serves to remove a number of barriers that stnad in the way of integration. Workshops are often the first opportunity ot establish a dialogue between different social groups in the commune. 2. The program of the Center for integration and dialogue - Poland, unlike previous integration programme, does not consist in passive listening to lectures, but is based on social dialogue, which is naturally interactive and activiates participants. This methot assumes that dialogue is a meeting between people whose main goal is mutual learning. The stories / narratives told by the parties to the dialogue do not require agreeing or justification, but only listening. And listening does not mean uncritical acceptance, but understanding the attitudes and motives of the other party. Thanks to this, the tendency to instantaneous evaluation, simplification and stereotypical thinking disappears. This insight allows you to break the mold, stop the natural escalation of conflict, and take the path to reconciliation. 3. Benefits resulting from the implementation of the program for the entire local community in Raszyn which has not yet had innovative tools for activation, integration and development of cultural competences of the local communinity, such as those developed by the Nansen Academy. These tools are not known in Poland and thanks to the implementation of the task, they will be used in Raszyn and then disseminated in the neighboring communes, and then throughout Poland. Effects for minorities: increasing contacts with the local community, their activation, increasing participation in social and cultural life, enriching knowledge about Poland, mitigating culture shock and controllin
Innovative vusal communication and new media workshops - collaboration: Foundation for Dialogue (Poland) and Nansen Academy, Lillehammer (Norway) and Høyskole Kristiania, Oslo (Norway). 1. New media workshops: VR virtual reality, AR augmented reality; 2. Sculpture workshops using 3D printing; 3.art "Digital Art". The aim of the interactive and mobile exhibition of public art (sculpture) and the stage event: the task is addressed to a new, young audience in Poland and in Norway - who will be attracted not only by world-class artits, but also by an innovative way of presenting classic contenct. It will be 1. the first joint presentation of public art by artists in history; 2. the first presentation using the innovative "mixed reality" technology; 3. the first ever attempt to combine sculptures with stage activities. This innovative project consisting in common contact with art and participation in artistic, dialogue and integration workshoips, will help to some extent in the integration of foreigners wiht the local community of the commune. We offer two-track activities: trainging in innovative computer techniques for designing VR and AR presentations - for students (open for everyone) and education for tolerance through art. We intend to evaluate the program of integration through art developed in the Raszyn commune and, after its positive result, we will make it availbable to other integration programs.
As a result of the analyzes of the environment and social needs, as well as decisions made at the concept stage regarding the preparation of the modernization, reconstructin and arrangement of the facilities, various variants of the project were identified. These variants concern: 1. alternative locations (to a limited extent due to the historic nature of the buildings) - analyses of the potential of the project implementation site, as it was impossible to confirm the possibility of achieving the assumed goals in other buildings (lac of values of a historic building, lack of space for presenting modern art); 2. alternative organizational solution - analysis of the most appropriate organizatinal solutions for the implementation and operation of a project of comparable scale and complexity; 3. alternative sources of financing - verification of the possibilities of various forms and ways of financing investments; 4. alternative technical and technological solutions - examinatin of possible functinal solutions in the area of using the historic building. Economic criteria (operating costs), environmental and climatic criteria (impact of the selected technologies on the climate) were also taken into account. A tool helpful in achieving these goals will be, firstly, building a culture of dialogue in Poland ("dialogue is more than words"), by disseminating the Nansen methodology of dialogue developed at the Nansen Academy in Lillehammer since 1938 and used in many places around the world through the Nansen Dialogue Network. This methodology not only serves to increase the cultural competence of local communities, but also has contributed to solving social and political conflicts through dialogue and culture, promotes tolerance, contributes to the activation of people with disabilities and seniors, to professional activation of excluded groups, to counteracting the isolation of minorities and for their integration with the local community.
The project focuses on the implementation of the main objective of the program through two specific objectives and 5 operational objectives. The intervention covers two main pillars - interventions in the infrastructural sphere and in the sphere of cultural offer. It is emphasized that all activities are carried out in Raszyn in the area of revitalization and the extension of the cultural offer will also be addressed to the excluded and those at risk of social exclusion. It is assumed that the implementation of the operational objectives will have a positive effect in the form of increasing public participation in culture. By expected, as a result of the investment, the social and cultural offer of the Austeria building in the future will be addressed in particular to: residents of the Raszyn Commune (who will be the special and most frequent recipients of the offer); inhabitants of the Pruszkow poviat (taking into account the fact that at present tzhe cultural and entertainment offer in poviat is very limited, and each attempt to expand the offer finds a large number of recipients in a short time); inhibitants of the region - more than 5,5 mln people (Austeria has a chance tobecome one of the significant cultural and entertainment facilities inthe province; region Mazovia will be among the potential recipients of the offer); mixed family groups - children wiht parents, children and grandparents, multi-generational family groups; social groups - schools form the Mazovia Voivodeship; domestic and foreign tourists; foreigners settling in the commune and poviat - 8% of all residents are the foreingers, the number still increases, espacially after an outbreak of war in Ukaine.
In Raszyn there are Vietnamese, Ukrainians, Chinese, Nepalese, Turhish, Hindus nationalities. Research and consultations carried out in the Raszyn commune show that national minorities are a group whose numbers are constantly growing and a group strongly emphasizing their separateness (excepted Vietnamese). According to the local community, the number of people registered and the number of people living in the area are divergent, the statistics do not show the full share of national minorities registered in the commune at all. This phenomenon is strongly noticeable in school classes, where children of foreigners often constitute about 20-30% of all children in classes. The minority which, according to the inhabitants, is currently best assimilated with the local community are the Vietnamese. The assimilation of other groups of foreigners takes place at different levels, which is often due to the fact that Raszyn lacks places conducive to integration, exchange of views, presentation of cultural heritage, etc. Due to the diagnosis of the commune's needs, the planned activities in Austeria include projects aimed at learning about the culture and history of foreigners, as well as putting emphasis on building social bonds. As indicated above, it is also important in this case that the commune lacks meeting places for foreigners and places where they can cultivate and propagate their culture, as well as learn about Polish culture. Therefore, they will undoubtedly become recipients of this project. Forecasting the future demand for the offer of Austeria, full implementation of the investment plans includes both modernization of facilities and expansion of socio-cultural offer. Thanks to the modernization works, retrofitting the studio and adjusting and expanding the offer to the needs of various groups of recipients, the number of people visiting Austeria and the Raszyn commun will increase systematically.
