From 13th till 15th of March 2014 the Baltic See Cultural Centre in Gdansk Poland will host international and local cultural managers interested in developing engagement strategies on waterfronts.

Rivers of Opportunities project by bringing together 10 European organisations from Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, and UK aims at sharing knowledge on practicing culture in public places as a way of engaging audiences (also current non-audiences) in new environments, specifically on urban waterfronts/riverbanks across Europe. The underlying issue is how to use audience development strategies for this purpose.

Chris Torch (Intercult, Sweden): “Arts interventions are being practiced all over Europe, often in connection to rivers, harbours and parks. We need to understand how they work, what makes people feel vitalized and engaged. The moment of a cultural experience is most often strengthened by the element of surprise, accessibility and in a context. Our conventional cultural consumption is exclusive and predictable. Re-vitalizing public space and public time is essential to a sense of participation.”

The Seminar in Gdańsk will be partially open to the public and will include  presentations, debates and workshops. One of the topics will be the case of Young City Gdańsk, which is being developed in post-shipyard area. We will discuss the role of cultural events on waterfronts and their impact on the development of the new district as well as the possibility of implementing there participatory planning facilitated by artists.

Rivers of Opportunities Learning Partnership is supported by the Grundtvig Programme of the European Commission.

Organiser: River//Cities Platform Foundation
Co-organiser: The Baltic Sea Cultural Centre in Gdańsk

More information at http://www.river-cities.net/pages/show/RoO_Gdansk