Prague spots is a project that aims to support a sustainable urban environment by supporting urban communities, developing culture, and focusing on the active involvement of all age and social groups of society. The purpose of the project is to revive the neglected, non-functional, or unused public space of Prague in cooperation with local actors.
Regional
Czechia
Prague
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
2022-12-31
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Creative Prague Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Tomas Last name of representative: Drahorad Gender: Male Nationality: Czechia Function: production Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Staroměstské náměstí 4/1 Town: Prague Postal code: 11000 Country: Czechia Direct Tel:+420 731 891 971 E-mail:tomas.drahorad@kreativnipraha.eu Website:http://kreativnipraha.eu
Prague spots is a project that aims to support a sustainable urban environment by supporting urban communities, developing culture, and focusing on the active involvement of all age and social groups of society. The purpose of the project is to revive the neglected, non-functional, or unused public space of Prague in cooperation with local actors. In short: We select a city district, choose a potential location, invite local artists, participants and actors, bring street furniture and then organize discussions, film screenings, author readings, etc. for some time. We show how easy it could be and we try to keep it as a community spot forever.
The purpose of the project is to initiate the use of selected public spaces in a relaxed way, quickly and without the need for major financial interventions. Prague spots support the active involvement of Prague residents and develop their relationship to public spaces. They are a symbol of the city's helpfulness and showing trust in people hand in hand with an emphasis on personal responsibility for public, i.e., shared by all, space.
sense of belonging
sense of community
sustainable development
inclusivity
cultural development
Prague spots is a project that has been promoting a sustainable urban environment by supporting urban communities, developing culture, and focusing on the active involvement of all age and social groups of society for several years now. The established cooperation between municipal associations, communities or individuals demonstrably continues even after the end of the project and thus contributes to the sustainability of urban space. In addition, we enliven the space - thanks to borrowed street furniture - with suitable natural elements such as trees, shrubs, and flowers, thus supporting the interest of residents in aesthetic enhancement of the place around them. The exemplary nature of the project lies in reviving the neglected, non-functional, or unused public space of Prague and thus satisfying and developing the basic needs of the inhabitants in the future.
One of the goals of the Prague spots is to encourage the inhabitants of Prague to make their own creative interventions. The project is always based on the predispositions of the space, encourages original solutions, and combines them with other aspects of the project, such as accessibility or creative improvisation of local actors. We involve both local and invited artists, both professionals and students at art schools, in the project. We invite them to implement site-specific artistic realizations associated with free art, artistic and environmental approaches, sustainable design, etc. The invited artists thus respond to a specific space, they help to integrate the general public in the locality and their approach support its aesthetic development. Art thus becomes a common universal language.
The project encourages city districts to participate and be able to systematically develop culture and public space in a way that does not discriminate against anyone. Inclusivity is one of the main attributes of the project. The project is set up so that it is accessible to everyone without distinction and so that everyone can actively participate in it. One of our policies is that this offer should be available to everyone free of charge. Due to the location of the project in the public space and the nature of the work, it is also an opportunity to involve homeless people or otherwise disadvantaged citizens both in the preparatory phase of the project and during its implementation.
To do this, we use local communities or focused organizations. The space, also thanks to the layout of the furniture (tables, chairs), encourages the use of a shared place and positive social control. A place that used to be abandoned and lonely suddenly is a shared space for families with children, people waiting for a business meeting or homeless people.
The Prague spots project is set up in such a way that it is accessible to everyone and at the same time the largest possible number of local actors can participate in it. Through a local partner (e.g., a city district), we address all community organizations, associations and selected individuals and offer them participation in a jointly created program for a specific space. Citizens can participate actively (they are part of the program offer) or as visitors to these activities. In this way, we strengthen neighbourly relations and interest in sharing something new, creating a mutual value, in public space. An ideal example is the participation of teachers and children (kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools) in the dramaturgy of a jointly created program. Children become the initiators and authors of the program on which they then spend time together.
The first step is to promote links between the participating parties. This includes reaching out to different parties and finding strategic partners in order to create a more coherent awareness of local issues and a better understanding of the public space in the locality. An important goal of the Prague spots project is to initiate cooperation between the municipality (municipal authority) and its citizens. The project can initiate further changes, such as a debate about public space and generally about reflections on its use towards the requirements and wishes of the city's inhabitants. All this contributes to a better neighborhood and stimulates community engagement. The Prague spots project uses the overlapping of local and international experiences. In cooperation with foreign partners, we coordinate our mutual experience on a long-term basis. Prague has long lacked a conceptual approach to the transparency of public space, and this fact has changed significantly in recent years – also thanks to Creative Prague and its Prague Cultural Forum project.
Prague spots is a beneficial project in many ways: it can help the people not to have to wait for many years to see a change in public space due to the lengthy permission processes, as well as it can help the municipality decide on where not to spend big money where it may prove to be unnecessary or unsuitable for solving the situation. We know from experience that even minor changes in public space can help to strengthen people's relationship with places and to start a debate about their future development. The project aims at the cooperation of city district officials - cultural and urban planners, local artists, urban designers, local participants and representatives of associations and communities. There is also added value in the interconnection of officials under one common project. Prague spots act as a mediator and natural organizer of the project. The emergence of such cooperation is often the first cooperation at such a level in each city district. This is also one of the major benefits of the project.
The aim of the Prague spots project is to test changes in the functionality of various public spaces - live and in real scale. The existing function of the public space, such a parking lot, a dead-end street, or an unused and dangerous spot, is temporarily modified or extended. This makes it possible to change the content and visual appearance of the space, and in many cases also to improve the safety aspects. Thanks to our project, we have demonstrably achieved these changes and laid the foundation for a permanent transformation of previously non-functional urban spaces. The change brought specific impacts both for local communities and other involved organizations (e.g., school, municipal library, museum) and participated in defining priorities (project evaluation) in creating a cultural vision of a city district. An indispensable part of the Prague spots is one of their outputs - Cultural Compass, a strategic document which offers easy-to-go-through procedures to work actively with the community as well as public space, and according to which the city districts can now proceed. (Cultural Compass is included in the attachments – translated by an online tool for the purpose of this open call, as it is a document we only use in native language).
Prague spots test the possibilities of public space and offer solutions based on the evaluation of objective conditions. We do not want to create a one-off action, but on the contrary, to achieve a permanent and sustainable solutions in the shortest time possible. For this purpose, we have created tools (especially Cultural Compass), which we actively use in the promotion of this plan. At the same time, we teach local actors and organizations to use the tool.
In the first phase (data and information collection), Prague spots will verify the possibilities of the space, in the second phase (communication with the actors) they will assess the most appropriate procedure and in the third phase they will implement a cultural and community-based program for a limited period of time. An important step is to promote links between the participating parties. This includes reaching out to different parties and identifying strategic partners to create a more coherent awareness of local issues and a better understanding the importance of locally used and generally liked public space. For this purpose, we also use our constant conceptual approach during implementations and follow-ups. This is not a one-off temporal change, but a systemic one.
Prague spots is a project behind which stands Creative Prague, a strategic institution of the city of Prague for culture and cultural and creative industries, in which it was set up, and a working group consisting of a variety of professionals, that deals with specific localities and maps their problems all year round. In the newly established partnerships, we are working on projects that should enable much greater development of the Prague spots project in the next 3-5 years. An essential feature of the project is the Cultural Compass, which works as a methodological basis for working with the urban public space of Prague in a cultural and social way. A transferable element is certainly the participatory nature of the project and its possibility of involving the public and communities.
Prague spots are continuously looking for opportunities to support an inclusive, participatory, and culturally creative environment to transform Prague into a city of functioning communities and a city full of people who want to perceive shared space as a place they care for and have a say in. The Covid-19 pandemic or the invasion to Ukraine have shown how cultural community consolidation can help with major challenges.
