British Council Latvia goes POSITIVE
In early spring The British Council Latvia received an invitation to take part in the Positivus festival , which is the largest music and art festival in the emerging Baltic countries with up to 30,000 people passing through its gates every year.
As music and art is in the very heart of British culture we said “Yes, we must be there! But how? We need a tent – something different, something truly creative, innovative and green!” So we decided to ask for the best solution to the new talented Latvian designers and announced a Sustainable Design Award.
The Award was launched on 15 June during The Days of Design Graduates STARTS 2010 in the Arts Academy of Latvia. The Open Call was also been announced in several Design Blogs, Portals and Social Media platforms. Reaction from the audience towards the announcement of the competition was very positive and enthusiastic.
We received numerous calls and questions about the competition from designers and a lot of complete applications as well. The idea of a sustainable tent made from recycled materials was accepted as a challenge. The BC Latvia offered only provision of supply of the recycled materials. Creative ideas and construction solutions was the investments of participants of the award. The Prize: 6 two-day tickets to Positivus 2010 festival along with the further networking opportunities with the British Council Latvia.
In total we received 14 applications from the young Latvian designers for the British Council YCE Sustainable Design Award (YCE – Young Creative Entrepreneurs program is an open platform which brings together young entrepreneurs from Latvia and other countries. It creates opportunities for commercial and collaborative exchange and encourages ongoing networking. This includes networking events, workshops, master classes, trainings and discussions). The jury chose the company Foldlife (www.foldlife.com) which makes printable, foldable, cardboard furniture.
Our aim in festival was to engage people with the BC by profiling the organisation as a contemporary, creative and open institution that actively seeks to be present in the places and activities that attract broad and divers target audiences to initiate people to take responsibility for bringing positive changes into local communities and environment. Through active engagement with the Festival audience we were sharing objectives and methodologies of the BC Latvia projects to build appreciation towards UK culture and achievements in the creative economy, English learning, intercultural dialogue and sustainable life style.
Our major activity was the Trash Art workshop with UK’s YCE Alumni artist Nick Rawcliffe (www.rawstudio.co.uk) and his partner Adam Fairweather (www.re-worked.co.uk). The materials used for the workshop were collected by the guests and participants in the area of the festival, brought to the Tent of British Council Latvia and immediately used to create an art-piece, therefore, effectively emphasizing the “thinking-green” principle of the British Council.
One of the most positive activities of BC Latvia was Global Learning English project with MUSE song lyrics. The MUSE performance was the biggest highlight of the festival. What we did was handing out the most popular MUSE song lyrics to the Festival audience including vocabulary for the most difficult key phrases along with information about Global Learning English opportunities.
In order to create a unique added value of our presence in the festival we launched an opportunity to participate in the Unassembled Short-Film Workshop. The main idea of the workshop was to create a screenplay for a short (max 5 minutes) film and filming it during the festival. The main theme for Unassembled Short-Films was Diversity in and around Positivus festival in its wider understanding – Cultural, National, Gender, Age, Social Status, Religion, Racial and Work-Life balance, Interests etc.
The Grand Premiere of the Unassembled Short-Film Workshop was taking place in the second evening of the festival in film tent. It was very well attended.
Our main goal by participating in the festival was to be closer to our audience. The festival is all about creating positive atmosphere – focusing not only on music, but also on other kinds of art, bringing awareness to social problems as well. The media express their support to the festival and recognize the value of the whole event – the festival is not perceived as a commercial product, but rather than an admirable social movement that not only demonstrates but also creates added value.
In this event we created a platform for open dialogue, for developing new connections and partnerships, to share experience and encourage trend setters and “true-believers” to generate added value.
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