The Family Centre “Let’s Be Together” focuses on strengthening families and providing preventive assistance to young or single parents with children, and complex assistance to individuals experiencing various difficulties. The center is also active in integration of unemployed persons into the labour market and the community, and the development of the local community of Dainava. The organisation is based in one of the largest districts in the city in terms of population – the Dainava ward, which is remote from the city centre. With almost 7 years of experience in the local community and comfortable premises, the organisation is known for its diversity of services, which is why more and more people are getting involved in accessing social services and participating in various community activities (socio-cultural events, actions, workshops, etc.). Thanks to community activities, lonely or isolated people are also involved, and new talents are discovered. In the center, various events are organised, usually people give classes to other community members on what they know best – sharing their recipes, sports exercises, do massages, yoga classes, sharing their experience of making flower bouquets, handicrafts, greeting cards, etc.. The leader of the organisation has many years of experience in developing and implementing projects, has a good knowledge of the needs of the community, and has experience in various cultural and health activities. A professional team of nine people provides psychosocial services. Volunteers also assist in the organisation’s activities.
“Magic Carpets” project: “Let’s Play Fluxus!”
Two artists were invited to collaborate with Dainava community and invite people to co-creative activities.
Felicia Hansen, textile artist based in Sweden, had a few meetings with the community. She invited people living in Dainava, aged from 2 to 80 years old to her original “Teddy Bear Killer” workshop. Together, they dismantled and re-constructed second-hand toys, crafting playful new characters. It was beautiful to see how an unusual activity created opportunities for people to meet and share positive emotions together. Felicia also suggested for the group to prepare for the culmination of Fluxus festival together, as it is a great opportunity for communities to creatively represent themselves. Visual representations of Dainava were created using the technique of a collage with discarded textiles. Felicia stitched up all the little squares into a large banner which the community members of Dainava later proudly carried at the carnival of the Fluxus Festival. The symbolic act of the communal climbing up the hill together with other kind people while carrying the representational DYI objects summarized the whole process of the time spent together while seeking for positive impact on individuals and communities.
Ugnė Makselytė is a sound artist from Kaunas, Lithuania. Ugnė implemented the practices of deep listening and soundscape explorations together with the community members from Dainava based on a collective exploration of the self and the environment. The artist was confident that practices focused on active listening would perfectly satisfy the need to include socially sensitive groups in the creative process and could become an excellent tool for strengthening the relationship with the surrounding environment and other participants.
Ugnė introduced the group to the basic theory of deep listening and invited them to collectively participate in easy meditation exercises. With the help of professional sound recorders, Dainava residents themselves collected sounds in the parks, walking and counting the different sounds that they hear, closing their eyes while walking and trusting the partner. The recorders made it possible to hear the sounds that are usually conceived without even noticing them. The final meeting with the community had a format of soundscape picnic. During the picnic, people tasted foods and drinks that were specially selected by Ugnė as a way to ensure that interesting sounds would be made while eating. People were chewing, crackling, laughing, and chatting, and while doing this everything was captured by using professional recorders. Ugnė wove all the recorded sounds together into a single piece, “Part of the Family”. The title was suggested by a 10-year-old boy from Dainava when all community members participated in the choice of the title. At the “Let‘s Play Fluxus!’ exhibition the sound piece was presented in the experimental sensory installation, inviting visitors to experience the artwork inspired by the soundscapes of Dainava collectively, with their eyes covered. It was inspiring to see how curious and proud the community members were while listening to the piece that resulted from their experimentations during the Magic Carpets workshops with the artist.
Number of community members included in the project: ~40
Reasons for participating in the “Magic Carpets” project: The main reason for participating in the “Magic Carpets” project was to bring professional art closer to the people from Dainava and include the non-usual participants of cultural events into exploring the power of creativity. The co-creative activities are a powerful tool of bringing people together, especially when working with socially sensitive groups of people.
Inga Bradūnienė, head of the center:
“It was a huge honor to accept the invitation and participate in the project “Magic Carpets”, including organised workshops and follow-up events in May-June and September-October. These activities involved both existing community members and new participants of the center. Although the project has not been long, most of the community members are already enquiring about the next similar activities, as they are keen to participate again. So, we would like to bring people together for continued socio-cultural activities and to thank them for their active participation in the project “Magic Carpets”.