After successfully carrying out the Demir Elma Festival project with Borçka Municipality, Gola continues to strengthen the cultural and artistic ecosystem in the Eastern Black Sea region. The association will work with Ortahisar Municipality in Trabzon and Hopa Municipality in Artvin to further develop interactive collaborations between the provinces. The project will focus on strengthening inclusive collaborations through the engagement of local governments and cultural-artistic actors from civil society.
The main goal of the project is to transfer knowledge from urban centers to rural areas, enabling local governments in multiple districts to collaborate with civil society and make original, context-specific policies. The process will ensure making inclusive, sustainable, and locally relevant cultural policies that involve civil society actors, especially those without organisational ties, in cooperative frameworks with local authorities.
In the process of preparing its unique cultural policy, Hopa Municipality will organise a workshop to share the experiences gained during the Demir Elma Festival in collaboration with Borçka Municipality. This workshop will serve as a platform for the transfer of expertise in civil society and cultural policies.
After listing the local civil society organisations, civil artists, craftsmen, and actors within the boundaries of Ortahisar Municipality, a workshop will be organised with the participation of cultural policy experts. The outcomes of this workshop will be documented, forming the framework forwriting the cultural policy.
A meeting will be held with the advisory board of cultural professionals working together in Ortahisar Municipality. This meeting will be used to identify the current structure of the municipality’s cultural department. The final report from this meeting will contribute to the formation of the framework forwriting the cultural policy.
With the support of the project team and the hired experts, the reports from the workshop and advisory board meetings will be documented. Additionally, an executive note will be prepared to guide the writing of the cultural policy.
A network-building and engagement call will be made for cultural and art actors and professionals in Artvin through Hopa Municipality, in Rize through Gola Association, and in Trabzon through Ortahisar Municipality. The meeting will focus on discussing not only the unique challenges and opportunities of the Eastern Black Sea region but also the current state of culture and art on both national and international levels. This event will provide opportunities for mutual learning and networking. The meeting is expected to have 75 participants.
The outcomes of the Eastern Black Sea Culture and Arts Ecosystem Meeting will be documented and reported by the project team. This will allow the locally produced knowledge and experiences to be assessed and valued by the region’s dynamics, ensuring that the results reach a broader audience. From the start of the project, data will be collected using pre-test and post-test methods for impact and evaluation purposes. Success indicators will be defined, and internal evaluations will be conducted. The evaluation results will be shared with the program implementers and stakeholders.
A one-day festival will be organised in Ortahisar, where culture and arts actors, the municipality, and civil society will collaborate from the design stage to implementation. The festival will highlight local culture and dynamics. This activity will be carried out by the project team.
GOLA Culture, Art, and Ecology Association was established in 2006 in Istanbul. The founding team of the association came together with the need to prevent discrimination towards the region of the Eastern Black Sea and specifically the Laz culture, where civil society was weak and local cultures were stereotyped. GOLA’s primary aim is to raise awareness through culture and art; to record, archive, and preserve the ancient life wisdom of the Laz people, an autochthonous group whose language is Laz, and to sustain Laz culture. The association aims to contribute to the spread of a peaceful and democratic language, both in the Eastern Black Sea region and globally. In this direction, GOLA focuses on developing a sustainable relationship between the environment and humans through cultural and artistic activities and knowledge production, primarily in the local Eastern Black Sea context. GOLA serves as a bridge between the center and the local, playing a hinge-like role in both cultural and social terms. In the first ten years following its establishment, GOLA organized the Yeşil Yayla Culture, Art, and Environmental Festival in various villages, gathering local knowledge. GOLA continues to ensure that peaceful awareness and knowledge collected at the centre are disseminated to local communities through culture and arts.
www.golader.org
Ortahisar Municipality
Ortahisar Municipality, led by Mayor Ahmet Kaya, has adopted a mission of implementing all aspects of social municipalism, maintaining an open-door and open-heart approach, and delivering services to every segment of society with competence, courtesy, and fairness. The municipality continues its efforts to make Ortahisar a more livable city, focusing on culture and art activities, and ensuring that all stakeholders contribute to making Ortahisar a city of happy people.
Hopa Municipality
Under the leadership of Mayor Utku Cihan, Hopa Municipality aims to enrich the cultural and artistic fabric of the city and increase public access to activities in these areas. With a vision to transform Hopa into a cultural and art city, Utku Cihan has proposed various projects to achieve this goal.
Goluri
Founded to support the sustainability of the GOLA Association, Goluri designs culture-art-centered trips and events based on local and slow living principles, focusing on experience and awareness. Among the periodic events organized by Goluri is “Elma Okulu” (Apple School), which emphasizes traditional life culture, climate awareness, and the relationship with nature. Goluri will transfer its experience in cultural tourism to its event designs.
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