RDP project database

The ITU arts association serves as a forum for diverse artistic expression. In 1995 ITU established with EU-funding support its showroom in an old granary. As "art knows no boundaries", the idea was born to go international and invite foreign artists

LounaPlussa (Forssa, Finland)

ITU’s members are artisans and artists. Some of them live in remote places of the region. They cannot meet each other very often, but whenever they do it reportedly is an even more intense and stimulating experience. Therefore there was no hesitation to engage in international collaboration of similar character with foreign partners. Accordingly, ITU members say the joint planning phase with their Austrian partners of ‘Schaufenster (=showcase) Freistadt’ proved extremely inspiring and productive

The overall aim of ‘Woven Together’ was to generate additional resources of artistic inspiration by bringing together the creativity, skills & knowledge of artists from two European rural areas of different background & cultural origin. The project's specific objectives were the acquisition of: 1) new creative skills and 2) knowledge about presentational techniques to disseminate art among the wider rural public, thus stimulating village renewal.

Artists from rural Finland & Austria have met to present to each other their exceptional arts & crafts. Visiting both Humppila, a small rural community in the southwest of Finland and Freistadt in the Mühlviertel region of Upper Austria, they collaborated in workshops (e.g. glass blowing, water colour painting, crafting jewelry from recycled materials). Joint exhibitions were held to display artwork from the partner communities, as well as the results of work jointly conducted in the workshops.

Finnish and Austrian artists have jointly ‘woven together’ their arts and crafts. This also included the joint testing of ancient techniques such as rope making, yarn spinning, the craft of blacksmithing and traditional pottery/ceramic manufacturing methods. Numerous art enthusiasts came to see their joint exhibitions in July 2011. The exhibition in Finland, which was was open to visitors during two weeks, counted almost 500 visitors, among them 43 foreigners.

Participants from both areas say despite different language, culture and crafts they have found new inspiration how they approach their own artistic activities. Like their Austrian project partners, ITU members plan to design an abandoned shop’s showcase in order to improve a village’s image in a creative way. In addition, preparatory activities & exchange visits preparing for a creative partnership with artists from rural Latvia have taken place

Austria, Mühlviertel region and Finland, Kanta-Häme region

62 247

23 989

28 585

9 673

https://www.taideitu.net/woventogether/index.html

Eila Heikkilä

eilaheikkila@gmail.com

+358503805728

English, Finnish