The first activity involves 6 artworks in public space in the Ústí Region focused on the phenomenon of gardening and realized in cooperation with local artists and communities and in collaboration with local community and educational organizations. The artworks in the Ústí Region will relate to aspects specific to the social and cultural situation in the former Sudetenland, which is defined as a structurally disadvantaged region with defective processes: economic stagnation, a burdened environment, and social and cultural exclusion. The 6 artworks in public space will be created on the basis of collaboration between invited Czech artists and the University of Jan Evangelista Purkyně, local communities, and community and educational organizations. The target groups will depend on the focus of the cooperating organizations.
The selection of collaborating institutions reflects the portfolio of target groups comprising art school students, university students and academicians, residents of socially excluded locations (mostly Roma), clients of low-threshold clubs, clients and staff of non-profit organizations active in Ústí nad Labem, and clients with various forms of dementia, their family members, and their carers. All of the artworks share a common target group: the residents of the localities where they are realized.
The University of Jan Evangelista Purkyně, People in Need, the Velké Březno Home and the Elementary School of Art Most will collaborate in the creation of 1 artwork each, and the Volunteer Center will be involved in the creation of 2 artworks. A structured method of mutual collaboration will be used to formulate the thematic focus of the artworks and their production. Specific target groups and localities will be defined based on discussions between the applicant and the collaborating organizations, and then an artist will be selected based on their ability to prepare an art project for the given context. The artists will use artistic research and either participatory or site-specific intervention strategies to define the concept for the work, and then realize the artwork in public space in cooperation with the applicant, the collaborating institutions and the local community. The artworks will respond to the overall project theme – the issue of gardening from the symbolic perspective – and the needs of the local community and selected locality. Both the individual artworks and the entire part of the project realized in the Ústí Region will contribute to improving the quality of life, developing specific communities, and defining strategies for integration and developing the local residents’ sense of belonging and identity. The artworks will be used by the participating organizations to expand community programmes.
