ul. Mireckiego 16/2
81-229 Gdynia
Poland
- Arts
- Democracy and community development
- Gender
- Human rights
- Media
We act in the field of culture and art as well as cultural and art education in both Poland and abroad. By organizing and supporting cultural, artistic, educational and social initiatives we want to contribute to greater involvement of people from different social groups in cultural activities. Most of all, our actions contribute to strenghtening the voice of women in public space, both by supporting them in skills development and presenting their experiences and stories.
In and by our actions we also support young artists and draw attention to gender inequality.
„Women for Democratic (R)evolution” is an Egyptian-Polish comic project carried out by The Baltic Sea Culture Centre with the partnership of Arteria Association (Poland) and Comtemporary Art and Culture Centre Darb 1718 (Egypt) with the financial support of Anna Lindh Foundation. The project consists of comic workshops (November 2013), an exhibition presented in Gdańsk, Cracow, Poznan, Wroclaw and Kair (November – May 2014) and a booklet summarizing the workshops. The subject of the project is the role of women in socio-economic transformation in Poland and Egypt.
"The Shipyard is a Woman. Stories of Women of the Gdansk Shipyard" (January 2013 – January 2014) was an educational herstoric project carried out by Arteria Association in co-operation with City Culture Institute. We collected stories of women that by work, family relationships as well as social, political and artistic activities were connected with Gdansk Shipyard and people working there. The stories became a basis for a free audioguide which enables one to an independent tour around the former shipyard.
The project's aims were enhancing the knowledge and understanding of women's role in the democratic transformations as well as the public and professional life, appreciation of social history contribution to the development of intergenerational dialogue and rescue of the stories about the Gdansk Shipyard.
„Neighbours-Nachbarinnen” was a project carried out with the co-operation of the National Museum in Gdansk. The project aimed at promoting women in the area of culture and was a form of dialogue between artists, institutions and all the people interested in contemporary German and Polish art. Pictures, graphics and sculptures were a starting point for reflections, discussions and an attempt to answer the question whether it has been differently to be both a woman and an artist in Berlin and in Gdańsk. Have life and creating in different social, economic and political conditions determined what are the predominant themes in artists work and way the themes have been developed?
The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue and an educational program prepared by Arteria Association. The program consisted of screening films about the female artists, workshops and museum lessons. The exhibition was presented in September and October 2013 in Inselgalerie in Berlin, which is a gallery owned by Berliner Fraueninitiative Xanthippe e. V., a partner of the project.
Girls are drawing comics, too
The two editions of the project were held in response to small number of girls drawing comics. The participants took part in practical and theoretical workshops, screen printing classes and creating comic zines. The emphasis was placed on acquiring practical skills in comic art, showing publication possibilities and promoting comic made by women.
Arteria Association is already involved in the Network's actions through co-operation with The Baltic Sea Culture Centre (the Network's member) in carrying out the project „Women for Democratic (R)evolution”. In our actions we put emphasis on increasing the representation of women in the art world and in the public space. „Women for Democratic (R)evolution” is one of two projects concerning this question and implemented in co-operation with organisations from abroad. Another one is „Sąsiadki-Nachbarinnen”. We also co-operate with another Network's member – City Culture Institute, e.g. in carrying out the project „Metropolitanka” that aims at making knowledge about women's meaning in social, political and historic development popular. In the Network we would like to continue our activities, such as initiating and joinig activities concerning gender equality, human rights and equal access to culture on a national and international scale. We can contribute to the Network by sharing our knowledge – as two PhD candidates at the University of Gdansk, we are dealing with the subjects of participation of women in art and the role of culture in social transformations.
By joining the Network we would like to extend the reach of our actions to national and international scale. We want to be a part of international platform, which will give us a deeper insight into changes taking place in the world today, especially in the field of culture and democratic transformations in Europe and in the Mediterranean region. It will let us continue and expand our actions. We are looking forward to the new possibilities of action and co-operation, which are offered by participation in the ALF Network.