Vilnius 2012

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Meeting in Vilnius 27 – 29 September 2012

The third meeting of InterContexts took place in September 2012 in Vilnius and was hosted by “Laimikis.lt”. A three-day session took place at Vilnius municipality building, just next to a wooden part of Šnipiškės (Shnipishkes, eng) neighbourhood.

This time we focused on tools and methods, which are implemented by each partner in developing local projects. Also, we were interested in cases and challenges, each partner faced in working with local communities. So, InterContexts partners presented their works-in-progress and discussed methods they apply in their practices.

We had an excursion to Šnipiškės (Shnipishkes, eng) neihbourhood. A local project, which is being developed by Lithuanian partners, is addressed to this neighbourhood, which attracts investors and is going to be redeveloped according to the preliminary general plan. A representative of “Vilnius Planning” has presented an urbanist vision on this area, which provoked a huge debate on practices of urban planning in Lithuania, Latvia, France, Germany and Portugal, concerning an issue of citizen participation in decision making processes.

Moving from the “strategic” view upon the neighbourhood to local initiatives, we visited “Beepart” platform, a temporal building, which aims to revitalize a residential area (Pilaitė) by involving its residents into cultural activities and by creating an alternative spot of attraction for Vilnius citizens. We had a discussion with the initiator of “Beepart” on the tactics, which are used for promoting cultural activities in the neighbourhood and on the tactics of survival for non-commercial initiatives.

Works-in-progress, which were presented by partners, brought a discussion on tools of communication, which foster interconnections within citizen communities. It also encouraged us to re-examine models of communication between institutions, which are involved in the same processes of civic and cultural education, but which still are disintegrated. These discussions drew a perspective for the next InterContexts meeting.

Minutes InterContexts meeting in Vilnius Sep. 2012 . pdf

ICE – InterContexts Vilnius September 2012, Project and Methods – Portuguese [PDF]