about us - ENGLISH

The Foundation for Living Culture "White Crows" 

Please check pictures from our actions: 
 http://picasaweb.google.com/bialegawrony/

I. Our ideas.

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry,
the philosophy which does not laugh
and the greatness which does not bow before children.

Kahlil Gibran


We want to show a positive alternative, a possibility of leading a 
meaningful and creative life for one's own happiness and the welfare of others, in harmony with the natural world. Our team consists mostly of young people from diverse environments and different interests, but there is one thing that joins us: a strong belief that in order to bring about any significant change, we have to act in local communities, in our neighbourhood. Persons who work in the Foundation are strongly committed to improving the quality of life in a broad sense, from individual development through community work to tackling the global issues of sustainability and fairness.

 

 

 

We organise various activities combining culture, art, ecology with the social engagement. We are a legally registered non-profit organisation dedicated to promotion of such values as creative development, collective action, independent thinking, holistic perspective of interdependence of all beings. We are not aligned to any political or religious option.

 

 

 

Our projects have two target groups. The first one is the local community of the centre of Lodz with a special emphasis on children from the neighbourhood. They enjoy additional activities that broaden their knowledge and interests such as painting, mosaique, singing, reading fairy tales or circus workshop. Here they can find help, our volunteers assist them in doing homework, and they try to solve some of children’s problems by chatting and playing with them. 

 

 

 

The second group are all the inhabitants of Lodz interested in sustainability, art and personal development with a special emphasis on university students. We offer huge range of workshops for them and encourage them to volunteer for the local community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

II. Our history.

 

 

 

1) The spontanous beginnings.

 

 

 

Our Foundation was officially registered on 23^rd September 2004, however, the founders of the foundation had been active as informal group "White Crows" since 2002.  We have started with the street theatre actions with some engaged messages (Buy Nothing Day, TV-Turnoff Week, theatre against war). We wanted to express our concern with the problems of overconsumption and destruction of environment, sad reality of every-day rat race in freshly capitalist Poland, the media and politics obsessions with economic growth as the key to better future. We used the fun and laughter as means of criticizng society, where scale of material consumption was wrongly associated with well-being. We also organised action "Think it over" which consisted in spreading various philosophical questions or statements on the stickers placed in public places and initiating discussions in internet. We posed such questions "do yo go on partying because we run away from yourself?" , "we are creators or our own reality" or "we prefer to watch the moon than the TV news". Apart from this funny and provocative actions that aimed to invite people to reflect on their every-day experience, we organised in the indepndent cinema called "Cytryna" (Lemon)  many screenings of documentary and fictionary films dealing with important social problems combined with discussions. We also hold meetings in some cafes to plan further  actions and discuss more in-depth the topics that moved us.

 

 

 

In the autumn of 2004 we decided to create more "official" and "serious"  framework for our activities and register the foundation in order to establish a cultural centre.

 

 

 

In May 2006 we also prepared the first project that was financed by  the "Youth in Action" Programme of EU which was the Forum "Consumptionism against Creative Life" . Furthermore, we were tired with the "flying" status of our organization and wanted to have a stable place on Earth where people could find us and talk with us and look for ideas for action, a place, where the majority of our activities would conncetrate. After a year of looking for a cheap and not-too-destroyed place, we found a venue in Wschodnia street in the city centre in Lodz.

 

 

 

2) "Consumptionism against Creative Life".

 

 

 

This project focused on raising awareness on sustainability, fairness, North-South issues was started in spring 2006 and was subventioned by the National Agency of the EU "Youth in Action" Programme. We felt that it is unacceptable that, in spite of more than 1,5 billion people suffering from hunger and malnutrition, the money spent on advertisement worldwide amounted to 446 billions dollars annually. We focus on fairness and sustainability on global and local every-day life level. However, the idea of our forum was to treat the critique of the status quo only as the first step, as an invitation to formulate positive visions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Forum was, first and foremost, a collective celebration of our quests for creative, cheerful and friendly for other beings lifestyles. We held many discussion meetings with philosophers, economists, anthropologists, sociologists, educators, social and environmental activists, dietary consultants, organic farmers, hermits, dwellers of eco-villages around various lifestyles and sustainability issues. The topics of the panels ranged from ecological economics, health problems, role of advertisements and PR, sustainable lifestyles. Each discussion was accompanied by a film screening, among others of Godfrey Reggio's alarming film on environment – "Koyannisquatsi", Erwin Wagenhofer's film on the agro business "We Feed the World", "Brand New World" of Andrzej Wojcik and Ewan Jones – Morris dedicated to the Aldous Huxley's prophecies and a vision of contemporary consumption society. A film that inspired probably mostly the whole discussion was "Czech Dream" by Vit Klusak and Filip Remunda – the story of two Czech filmmakers that organised a real marketing campaign of a new hypermarket that appeared to be fake but thousands of people got attracted. The important outcome of our project is the publication of two issues of our bulletin "Towards Living Culture", each issue presented various articles around creative life, sustainability, spirituality and future society. 

 

 

 

Since we believe that creative life must be practiced in action, we offered 12 workshops of art, music, listening to nature, dance of life, yoga, tai chi, etc. We also organised for the kids from impoverished families series of art workshops and a 4-hour-long tour of Łódź in the 50-year-old tramway combined with a musical jam session.

 

 

 

Although the project had been formally finished, we still keep on organising discussion meetings around fairness and sustainability issues with interesting people as well as art- music- theatre- and dance workshops.

 

 

 

3) Centre of a Living Culture – Wschodnia 45

 

 

 

Since June 2006 we have been leading a Centre of a Living Culture, alternative social and cultural centre in the downtown of the city of Lodz, in the Wschodnia street. We offer a social and environmental library, trying to subscribe to as many interesting magazines as possible and increase readership by voluntary offerings and collective orders of books. We have a "conversational tearoom", where we offer space for people coming to discuss and share inspiring ideas. From time to time we organise "exchange actions", invite people who have things that they don't need anymore to pass them to others, giving them a “new life”. Always it is accompanied by a fertile exchange of ideas and sometimes exchange of services. We want to create a “world than can include many other worlds”, we offer space that might be used for discussion, workshops, art – we are open for people’s initiatives. The centre is functioning until present moment, however we changed slightly its profile, now it's not only bringing together green-oriented "hippie" people but it is authentically serving the needs of local community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

III) Our current projects:

 

 

 

 

 

 

1)    “Sun rises in Wschodnia”

 

 

 

Community jubilation project and organising street festival  initiated in summer and autumn 2007. The goal of this community-oriented project is to raise the quality of life in the surroundings of Wschodnia street in Lodz where we lead our cultural centre.  Despite being situated in the city centre, Wschodnia (Eastern street) has a notorious reputation of crime records, drug dealing, alcoholism, etc. We aim at changing the image of this street as a street of culture and art.  We focus attention on providing free time activities for  children living in the neighbourhood. In October 2007 we organised the three-day-long festival – street feast, inspired by fiestas we participated in Barcelona’s district of Gracia. The programme included fire dance shows, concerts, theatre shows and contests for local people. We engaged children and youngsters in theatre workshops or painting grey walls with colourful graffiti, writing poetry on the walls. In old closed-down shops we organised temporary art galleries. The project was widely supported by our local community empowering it and making local people proud of the place where they live. More than 1,000 people participated in all the activities of the festival. We plan a continuation of the project next year. We keep on working with local children and youth in our Centre for a Living Culture. We plan establishing Workshop of Creative Activities in the corner of Wlokiennicza and Wschodnia street, a place exclusively deidcated to artistic workshop mostly for the youth from the centre of Lodz.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2) Creative Life Academy

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Academy is inspired by Galileo’ s motto:

 

 

 

We cannot teach people anything, we can only help them discover something they already have inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many young people are forced to leave their dreams behind and get used to the brutal and boring reality of work and competition. They are persuaded into forgetting their own uniqueness and let the employers and the market tell them what they need. Luckily, many of them do not want get bought and exploited and feel the need of developing different kinds of work and social relations. They feel that something is wrong in the technocratic paradigm of human domination of other beings and nature. These people call themselves “seekers”. Many sensitive people with great ideas and good heart get lost and frustrated, that is why we offer them support and want to give living examples of alternatives that might be constructed. We do not promise any wonders but just offer opportunities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are creating a place where individual quests of meaningful life can merge and be nurtured by meeting inspiring people, sharing ideas and experiences, common reading, discussions, dancing...  The main objective of the Academy is facilitating the awaking of creative capacity of human beings. Another goal is fostering co-operation through collective games and group tasks. We propose a series of workshops where, through discussing texts, sharing and interpreting dreams, developing the awareness of the body, people get closer to discovering their own vocation. We are strongly convinced that if none of available jobs correspond to our dreams, a new dream job has to be created!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The vision of the Academy is a holistic school based in the countryside  open for adults and children irrespective of formal education results, offering a year training of creative life and a variety of specific, short courses. The first step is already taken in  Feburary 2008  courses “In search of one's own vocation” in workshop centre close to Lodz consisting of 2 five-day-long meetings. The focus group will be young graduates and students, however, the school will be accessible for middle-aged people looking for their own way.

 

 

 

The course focuses on the following subjects:

 

 

 

-         Insight into a person - bodywork, dance of life, awakening joy, getting to know our dreams and barriers that constrain us form making them reality, work on voice, singing, process oriented psychology

 

 

 

-         Insight into social relations – Non violent communication and conflict resolution

 

 

 

-         Insight into work - ecology of career workshop

 

 

 

-         Insight into world - discussions and readings on important social, economic, cultural and ecological questions of contemporary world, sustainable development

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Academy is a open for new ideas, critical remarks and offers of collaborations. If you are interested in receiving detailed information or in collaboration, please contact Piotr piotr@bialegawrony.org .

 

 

 

 

 

 

3) The stage for activists project (www.arenaaktywnosci.pl) started November 2007 is about inspiring people by offering stories of successful social, ecological and cultural campaigns and actions from all over the world. We want to provide people with positive news to overcome the negative image of the world full of violence created by the mainstream media. We want our site to be a tool-kit for young activities who want to change the world but are not sure what to do and how to start. Nevertheless, our site is also a fresh source of inspiration for mature activists. The part of the project is publishing a printed paper resuming the most interesting materials published on the internet site and organising meetings with inspiring and successful activists. Another part of the project are discussion meeting with experienced and inspiring activists. In December 2007 we hosted Rys Kulik, environmental activist and psychologist, author of the book “Discovering nature – discovering ourselves” for the discussion around such topics like relationship between humans and nature, spirituality, climate change.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4) Time Bank of Lodz

 

 

 

We have launched a time bank scheme, facilitating free exchange of services on the basis of one working hour. If you offer i.e. language classes, you can get a massage or art lesson in exchange. We have around 50 people in the scheme. The time bank holds regularly cheerful meetings usually on last Friday of the month at 5 PM. More information : www.lodzkibankczasu.pl or by contacting the coordinator Marta koordynator@lodzkibankczasu.pl or 504552414

 

 

 

 

 

 

IV) Plans and collaboration possibilities.

 

 

 

In the year 2008 we plan:

 

 

 

- opening the Workshop of Creative Activities in late March

 

 

 

- organising the Festival of Wschodnia street in June

 

 

 

- organising the street circus and fire show workshops in the spring and summer time

-       offering regularly interesting workshops in the framework of Academy of Creative Life

 -       launching together with Art Factory (Tymienieckiego 3, Lodz) the project dedicated to exploring with children the fairy tales and preparing artistic works and theatre performances based on their favourite legends. The project entails discussion on myths so that young people will have chance to reflect on their own life experience.

 

 

 

 

 

We are interested in getting in touch with diverse cultural and environmental organisations and collectives in Europe and even outside Europe to share our experience and look for networking possibilities. We would be more than happy to launch a collective project on cultural, social and environmental problems and a quest for better world and happy and creative lifestyles and societies with groups from different countries. The project may focus on theatre, singing, art, local community activisation, work with youth, alternative education... we are open for new ideas and want to get in touch with all open-minded people in the world!

Best wishes,
Agata, Agnieszka,  Irmina, Konrad, Marzena, Piotr, Radek,
The Foundation for a Living Culture “White Crows”

Our Contact:
Fundacja na rzecz Kultury Zywej “Biale Gawrony”
Wschodnia 45/31A
90-263 Lodz, Poland
info@bialegawrony.org
www.bialegawrony.org
phone (48) 042 6618257
(48) 605059339