By Wenancjusz Ochmann
The multiplier event in the Global FemART project in Poland was organized in KURORT QULTURY Gajowa 9, in Zabrze on Friday 25th October 2019. The programme was very intense but also very interesting and varied.
Anna Ochmann, president of Arteria Foundation, welcomed guests and participants at the beginning. Then there was an introduction to the Global FemART project and a summary of the preliminary results of the “Global FemArt Competence Framework” in Poland and selected countries of the European Union was made. Next, three presentations were made: Bogusława Bębnik presented “Advantages of being a woman-artist. Abstract image or realistic photograph?”. She is a psychologist, career counsellor and trainer. She has over 15 years of experience in career counselling for various groups of clients. She is particularly keen on working with women entering the labour market. She is a licensed moderator of Design Thinking, WenDo trainer, and assessor of Vocational Potential Analysis. She has been involved in projects supporting women on the job market, including those professionally related to the cultural and creative sector. After this Anna Lewicka showed “Road to artistic career – opportunities and threats in women’s art education.” Anna is a psychologist by education. She has been working closely with business for over 14 years, providing coaching, mentoring, and training in the area of personal development and professional competence. She works for companies and organizations as a trainer, psychologist, psychotherapist, consultant, analyst and professional advisor. She implements projects in the field of professional and interpersonal competence development in group and individual processes.
Then Wenancjusz Ochmann from ARTeria Foundation presented the introduction to Artist Circles™ and the Global FemArt ACADEMY (Learning and Network Platform). He also said a few words about “Global FemArt – the women that drive the creative industries.” – the report for policymakers planned to be produced at the end of the project.
Before the break Katarzyna Kuczyńska-Budka shared her own experiences in the speech “Passion and work. Why is it worth following your dreams?”. She is a local government official, passionate about social communication, a Gliwice councillor, a mother, the wife of a politician. For 17 years she has been working in administration. She is the author of the first programme for seniors and a programme for young people in the Silesian Voivodeship. Thanks to her involvement, the first Rada Działalności Pożytku Publicznego (Council for Activity for the Benefit of the Public) and the first provincial participatory budget were created at the regional level. She advocates strengthening cooperation between the third sector (non-governmental organisations) and the administration and the broadest possible participation from civil society.
This part finished with the summary and discussion with speakers and all participants moderated by Wenancjusz Ochmann. The conclusions and recommendations were presented.
After coffee break, the female artists and creatives shared their experiences in the context of the Global FemARTproject aims and also they had an opportunity to show their art and creative works. The day finished with time for networking.
In sum 22 participants took part in the multiplier event in Zabrze – 19 women and 3 men. Most of them represented the cultural sector (for instance: vocalists, musicians, painters, etc.) and creative sector (fashion designers, graphic designers, architects, ceramic artists). Some of them already run economic activities, some of them work as freelancers or they are thinking about running their own small enterprise. They were first of all interested in the internationalisation of their work, which was a totally new idea for them, and also in support that the Global FemART project can offer.
ARTeria started to register the participants over a month before the event giving them also the possibility to show their own work during it. 12 female artists and creatives decided to take part in the presentation, so we organized ‘small art fairs’ at the end of the event.
The multiplier event in Poland was very highly evaluated by participants and it allowed ARTeria not only to disseminate the project idea, activities and aims, but also it was a great opportunity for discussion. The participants defined particular elements which need to be developed to help them develop their businesses, and they were also very interested in the activities in project. Lack of self-confidence to develop a business was very often emphasized by participants – it was recognized as a main barrier in internationalising their careers (together with lack of knowledge about marketing, and lack of knowledge about law regulation in different countries). Networking is also a very important challenge – in this context they were pleased to have the opportunity to show their artistic/creative works and discuss them.
Generally they recognize the project as very important and useful because they have very limited previous experience in conducting a business, or working as a freelancer in international context (this is also connected with lack of international contacts or knowledge how to start).
They also evaluated the event, presentations and possibility to discuss very highly. Most of the participants declared an interest in taking part in Artist Circles, and they were also interested in the on-line platform.
