What do culture animators do?

The term “culture animator” is used to denote both the employees of public institutions and non-governmental organisations, as well as independent artists, or freelancers. The common denominator for all these people is their combining creative thinking with planning and organisation, and, above all, the ability of engaging other people in an activity. To better understand what a culture animator does, what duties he or she usually performs and what characteristics culture animators ought to possess, it is best to have a look at a few specific examples.

Culture animators work with local communities such as a community of neighbours, villagers or the inhabitants of a district. The animator begins his or her work by getting to know the people and the specifics of the site, initiating cooperation, running workshops and supporting the community in organising local events e.g. as picnics, exhibitions and concerts. The animator’s goal is to strengthen the relationships between people and animate community events e.g. the Interwencje osiedlowe (District interventions), or the Yard Party (Podwórkówka) held as part of the Residency project.

One crucial area of the activities of culture animators is creating creative situations where the residents are invited to share their reflections and ideas on a subject of interest to them. This is how numerous participation projects are designed: performances engaging the community, exhibitions and films featuring their work or their performances, audio plays, graffiti, and even music albums recorded jointly. The initiatives of the graduates of the specialisation serve as an excellent example of such activities.

One of the topics that culture animators work with more and more often is the identity of a given place and its inhabitants, both in historical terms and in the present. Projects addressing local histories allow to include entire communities into the activities, to give people a voice and to listen to the stories they have to tell. Examples of such project is Malczak – Targ wspomnień (Malczak – The Bazaar of Memories) and Muzeum Społeczne (Social Museum).

Animators working at culture centres and art institutions are often responsible for establishing contacts with the audience and adjusting the offering of the institutions to the audience’s needs. In Warsaw, this function is performed by Local Activity Centres some of which are coordinated by graduates of the Culture Animation specialisation who make sure that the residents co-author the activities and events held in the centres.

However, it is not only culture centres that need animators, such positions are more often than ever set up in libraries which, apart from lending books, try to engage readers in other activities too. And so, a culture animator may design and run a project promoting books and reading, set up a book club or arrange an exhibition or workshop with and for the library goers.

Culture animators also work in galleries and museums, most often in the education or public projects departments where they work on events aimed at including the audience in creative activities and a dialogue about the programming of the institution or specific exhibitions. One example of such projects are the initiatives undertaken by the graduates of the specialisation.