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Photo by Ruslan Altimirov
Dear MitOst Community,
one footstep out of our front door and we are right in the middle of our neighbourhood. At first sight, a neighbourhood may seem like just a place where people live near each other – but it can also be so much more! So, how do we get to know our neighbours and connect? How can we create new community spaces? How do we tackle culture, education, social affairs, housing, mobility and work? How can we activate the community?
With this fourth edition of the MitOst community newsletter, we invite you to explore some of the innovative, creative and simple projects and ideas from our community on how to contribute to our neighbourhoods' cultural and civic life.
Enjoy the inspiration and connect with (y)our community!
Your MitOst Team,
Joice Biazoto and Laura Werling (editorial team)
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Get to Know Each Other!
“If you’re not contributing to communal activities, the next step is alienation and then psychological disorders and mental health issues. Connecting community contributes to quality of life in a solid way.”
Chisinau, Rijeka, Valencia: Connecting people in fast-changing cities. Three Actors-supported projects from Chișinău, Rijeka and Valencia are working to cultivate new notions of community, seeking to expand access to cultural and civic life and, most critically, help their cities adjust to fast changing urban realities. Read more here or listen to the story’s podcast.
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Alles-Anders-Platz
Haus der Statistik, a 50,000-square-metre building complex near Berlin‘s Alexanderplatz, remained empty for 10 years. As a result of high-profile actions by a group of committed artists, architects, cultural workers and politicians, the previous plans for selling to investors and the planned demolition were prevented in 2015. At the end of 2017, the Federal State of Berlin acquired the Haus der Statistik from the Federal Government, paving the way for the development of the block for the common good: it will provide space for art, culture, social affairs and education, affordable housing as well as a new city hall for the district of Berlin-Mitte and administrative uses.
Read more about this model project's initiative and vision, as well as their integrated workshop process.
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People, Places and Projects to know
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The Free University of Oberhausen
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Anyone can sign up and join, because this is a university from the neighbourhood, for people living in the city and the region. It's a university where students can learn theory and practice, research and spend a good time together. A group of creative people from Oberhausen and the Ruhr Region in Germany have developed a free programme of seminars, activities and events, managed and realised by actors from the social, arts and culture sectors with support from external experts. Read more!
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IarmarEco
The social and cultural event brings neighbours and actors from the environmental and social sector in Moldova together to promote changing the daily routine to a more active, healthy and conscious lifestyle. The Fair of Ecological Opportunities and Social Entrepreneurship is a unique combination of a fair, facilitated networking and interactive presentations. Read more!
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help* action
To face challenges of urban development and to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population in Leipzig, Germany, a community of neighbours, artists, initiatives offers a space for learning and participation, addressing topics such as culture, education and social affairs, housing, mobility and work. The help* Festival, or #EastParkFiciton, aims for a neighbourhood park as the first future conversation area. The Green Parade for kids, open dinners, a radio show or a farmer's market are only a few projects to support the community. Read more!
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Build Your Community!
Method: Circle of Trust
The Honorary Hotel – a mobile toolkit for newcomers, a project by Inga Gerner Nielsen (Performance- & Film Production in Vendyssel - Tversted, Denmark) and Ariane Jedlitschka (Helden wider Willen e.V. - Leipzig, Germany), is about social inclusion. They facilitate encounters between the local cultural community, residents of the region and newcomers. Inspired by Tandem methods and tools, they created a new method that helps build communities. Watch the following video to learn about their method, Circle of Trust.
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Watch the Story of Udruženje „Naš most“
Mirsad is convinced that art and socialising with colleagues positively affects mental health: "It seems to me that the role of art is to save a person from negative temptations," Meliha says. "I am here because of the enthusiasm and love for painting as well as for socialising." She says that retirement can create a huge void and people start feeling lost. To fill that period that was once reserved for work, pensioners in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina can visit the Centre for Enjoyable Aging to have a good time and learn. Journalist Ajdin Kamber reports from this inspiring art centre. Watch the story here!
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StormSongs
“StormSongs” collected stories about how one Cornish community defended and rebuild their harbour during big storms in 2013-2014. Working with a Cornish and Dutch composer, a community choir translated these experiences into contemporary sea shanties that expressed their relationship to the sea. The project started a dialogue about how communities can adapt to extreme weather events and explored how creative responses such as music and theatre can embody the global and conceptual issue of climate change on a local and personal level. Watch the StormSong video here!
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MitOst connects active citizens in an open and diverse network in Europe and its neighbouring regions. We encourage activities and implement programmes which foster cultural exchange, active citizenship, social cohesion and sustainable urban and rural development - beyond cultural, sectoral or linguistic borders. Find more information about at at mitost.org.
With our MitOst Community Newsletter we like to share inspiring stories, learnings and methods as well as people and places you might want to know and visit from our community. We plan to share our Newsletter four times a year with you. Each time we invite you to explore another topic and some of the awesome work our community is doing. The next issue will focus on Active Citizenship.
We hope to inspire you and your activities, connect you to makers and activists, explorers and pioneers!
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