Photography Kaleidoscope: Inclusion, Communities, and Knowledge

Project was prepared with intention to foster cognition, creativity, and community inclusion via one of the most easily accessible technologies and art forms - photography. The project aimed to help create and develop sustainable international relations, educate and improve the skills and competencies of those participating in adult education, which is necessary in order to make creative and innovative decisions, control current challenges and risks, encourage intercultural interaction and creative citizen self-awareness. Project partners observed that the photography field has not been sufficiently explored in order to create a synergy between adult education and culture. Education andragogues and specialists of the cultural field lacked skills, knowledge, and resources, as well as international best practices and consultations on how to adapt technology in adult education and exercise it as a useful education tool in order to familiarize with the history of the region, cultural heritage, improve creativity, taste for art, foreign language skills, share information, get involved in community activities, improve opportunities for quality leisure time.

Project goals: to strengthen the competencies of andragogues and other adult education field personnel, working in the field of culture and creativity, by using international experience; to use educational and artistic values of photography in order to motivate adults to become involved in the learning process, acquire new skills and competencies, cultivate creativity and share their experiences. The goals of the project are directly related to the needs and interests of 3 main target groups: adult learners that do not possess basic abilities, have low qualifications, or learners at adult education school/centre; adult educators that engage in consulting, training, educating based on creativity, photography actualization, and work related cultural activities of adult groups; official and associated partners that aim to develop international partnerships create high quality resources for adult education.

2 intellectual products were created and adapted for non-formal adult education: 1) Guidelines for creating educational exhibitions; 2) Programme of international (joint partners content) educational artistic photography exhibition. In order to achieve the project objectives and deliver the planned quantitative and qualitative results 3 partner meetings were organized in Vilnius, Maribor and Budapest, 1 training program was created and implemented in Madrid on the use of photography in the education process, 2 testings of guidelines with associated partners was organized in Lithuania and Spain, 2 multiplier events were organized in Klaipėda and Kuldiga, an international documentary photography competition and exhibition „Sign of the times“ was organized, project visual identity and visual adaptation were created for a unified communication campaign, intellectual outputs were translated to Lithuanian, Latvian, Spanish, Hungarian and Slovenian languages and published on the project's website photokick.eu, individual promotional inititvies were implemented and creative and educational activities (workshops, exhibitions, educations) were organized by each partner organization.

The project created two practical resouces for adult educators: 1. Guidelines for Creating Educational Exhibitions, used for community involvement, encouraging cognition and creativity, and improving skills and competencies in educational exhibition curation. By using these guidelines, andragogues and specialists working in the adult education field receive useful information about special innovative and engaging activities for adults. The Guidelines material is presented in 2 parts: theoretical material on creating professional photography exhibition and the main steps of exhibition curation; the best practices of participating organizations, related to educational and interactive presentations of art exhibitions. 2. Programme of Educational Art Photography Exhibition. The Programme covers the practice of effective participation of adults in lifelong learning by using cultural experiences, leading them to dialogue with photography, art, giving a possibility not only to participate interactively but also to get knowledge. Programme explains the process of creating and educational community exhibition from organizing an open access photography competition, to creating a community exhibition, to using created artworks in the educational process. Both results were created in English with translations to Lithuanian, Latvian, Slovenian, Hungarian and Spanish languages. Other quantitative results achieved: short-term training activities organized - 1; participants in short-term training activity - 14; international photography competitions organized - 1; participants of the photography competition - 357; testing of guidelines in partner countries with associated partners - 2; participants in guidelines testing - 23; participants with fewer opportunities involved in all project activities - 200; transnational project meetings organized - 3; participants in transnational meetings - 52; implemented communication campaign - 1; number of promotional publications on the project and project activities - 225; number of communication channels used for dissemination - 28; multiplier events - 2; participants in multiplier events - 165 local, 10 foreign, 374 virtual participants; usage of created outputs - 6000 online viewers; other project related activities organized (workshops, exhibitions, lectures, discussions) - 21; participants in other project related activities - 2935.