Education strategy

Education Strategy of the Association for the Promotion of Old Crafts and Culture “Wici”

  1. Mission

The mission of the Wici Association is to inform, educate and promote the place of ​​handicrafts in society. We want to increase aesthetic sensitivity to hand crafted goods and how they are created. We work to restore the value of craftsmanship and the use of craft items in modern industry, design, art and as a leisure time activity.

  1. Vision

We would like the public to be aware of the time, skills and knowledge necessary to make a handmade product – to see and understand the differences between mass produced, and hand crafted and custom made items. If crafts and handicrafts are appreciated on the market, the work of craftsmen becomes economically profitable as a full-fledged and sustainable source of income. We want to create a common awareness of crafts and handicrafts in society translating into conscious consumer choices.

  1. Objectives

  • Building a group of handicraft consumers aware of its manufacturing process, and economic, artistic and technical characteristics;

  • Building relationships between craftsmen and their potential customers;

  • Promotion of institutions related to crafts, eg museums, open-air museums, and craft-related workshops and studios;

  • Inter-sectoral cooperation for promotion and dissemination of knowledge about crafts involving public institutions, the private sector and non-governmental organizations;

  • Creating reliable educational materials about crafts;

  • Creating and sharing good educational practices on crafts in the form of presentations, publications and exchanges;

  • Increasing the competence of Wici members in the field of educational methods and crafts of their choice.

  1. Actions

  • Creative workshops, teaching practical skills and knowledge, and stimulating participants’ creativity;

  • Educational and social projects in cooperation with makers, public institutions, companies and non-governmental organizations;

  • Organizing a mobile education stand for events dedicated to design and crafts;

  • Participation in craft festivals, fairs and historical reenactment events;

  • Participation in discussion panels, conferences and scientific and popular science seminars devoted to cultural heritage issues;

  • Study visits to museums, open-air museums, art and craft studios etc.;

  • Participation in trainings and courses aimed at increasing the competences of Wici members, and in consequence improving the quality of the Association’s educational offering;

  • Creating documentation (archives) from the crafting process and events in which the Association takes part or organizes;

  • Development of educational materials such as hand crafted items, photographs, multimedia presentations, and texts;

  • Running a blog, the Association’s website and profiles in social media as promotion channels for events on handicrafts and dissemination of information and educational materials;

  • Creating online and traditional publications on crafts and education in their field.

  1. Area of ​​activities

We carry out activities in Poland and abroad, as well as via the Internet.

  1. Target audience

We direct our activities toward all social and age groups, in particular people at risk of exclusion or with limited access to educational and cultural services. We would like to engage both children and adults. We want to reach everyone interested in crafts, design, reenactors, folk artists and craftsmen. Among the recipients of our activities are also educators, employees of cultural and art institutions, theoreticians and practitioners of crafts. At the institutional level, we address our activities to public institutions related to art and culture, other associations and foundations, enterprises, scientific and popular science institutes, publishing houses, traditional and internet media as well as international institutions and organizations.