opportunity for craft teachers in Scotland?

The way I read this someone living in Scotland and teaching traditional craft could apply for a fully funded trip to Slovakia looking at living heritage and cultural tourism. I would love to go.

There are six places available on the Slovakia  programme, please can you forward this information to those that would be interested in applying.  I have attached the programme and an application form.

A week long exchange hosted by Krajina, a small company specialising in cultural tourism in eastern Slovakia lead by Miro Knezo. An opportunity to discover this amazing country's tangible and intangible cultural heritage and the history, skills and traditions that are still very much a part of this regions daily life. This rich and varied programme incorporates visits to UNESCO world heritage sites and ethnographic museums to see how traditional buildings and war memorials are preserved and interpreted and offers participants the opportunity to take part in a Traditional Folk Festival at Svidnik Ethnographic Open Air Museum celebrating Ruthenian and Slovakian, culture, local crafts, traditions and way of life.  Participants will prepare local food in a traditional Slovakian home and attempt to learn a traditional Slovakian dance with Matej, Miro's son. 

Arch provides fully funded study visits for trainers from Scotland's cultural heritage and tourism industry to visit organisations in other European countries to exchange best practice and establish new contacts and partnerships for future cooperation. Our European Partners work in a variety of contexts including cultural tourism, ‘living heritage’, traditional construction techniques, reconstruction, tourist network development and museums. These study visits are funded by the Leonardo da Vinci programme; the costs of travel, accommodation and subsistence are covered by the grant.

CHIST ( Cultural Heritage Interpretation and Sustainable Tourism) aims to develop the skills of Scottish professionals who train or coach others in the field of heritage interpretation and sustainable tourism. This will be done through a programme of exchanges with partners in 5 European countries: Bulgaria, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia. 6 people will be sent to each country, spending 7 - 8 days participating in workshops, site visits, hands-on activities and seminars. This is intended to be an intellectual exchange – European partners will come to Scotland, but you are not obliged to host them. Although we do hope to initiate new projects from all of our partners.

CHIST offers wonderful opportunities to network with people doing similar work in Scotland. It’s a great way to fulfill you CPD requirements and personal training plans for 2013. All of our partners welcome input from participants, they are very happy to adjust their itinerary to cover topics that are of specific interest to Scottish practitioners

Details of all programmes and application forms are available at www.archnetwork.eu. Please return completed application forms to sheila@archnetwork.org

full program copied below

Eastern Slovakia

9th - 16th June 2013

A week long exchange hosted by Krajina, a small company specialising in cultural tourism headed by Miro Knezo in eastern Slovakia. An opportunity to discover this amazing country's tangible and intangible cultural heritage and the history, skills and traditions that are still very much a part of this regions daily life. This rich and varied programme incorporates visits to UNESCO world heritage sites and ethnographic museums to see how traditional buildings and war memorials are preserved and interpreted and offers participants the opportunity to take part in traditional Folk Festivals , local crafts, traditions, and way of life collecting, cooking and preparing food in a traditional Slovakian home.

Sunday 9th June

Flights from Prestwick to Rzeszow

Beautiful drive 150 km drive through Poland Slovakia to Stropkov

Monday 10th June

Andy Warhol Museum in Medzilborce.

A visit to the Andy Warhol Museum. Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburgh in 1928 to Czechoslovakian parents who were from a nearby village Miková a short drive from Stropkov. The museum was launched by Andy's brother John Warhola who visited the area in 1987 shortly after Andy's death and the museum opened in 1991

“Today the museum stands as a shrine to an urbane world light-years removed from Medzilaborce's backward and rustic milieu. Serial portraits of Marilyn Monroe greet the visitor in the museum foyer while aluminium foil awnings deck the ceiling of the museum café, which gives a nod to Andy's Chelsea Factory. In the main hall, Warhol's snakeskin jacket, Brooks Bros. ties, sunglasses, Walkman and ubiquitous camera are enshrined in vitrines, like relics of some saint. Photos of Eddie Sedgewick, Ultra Violet and other Factory personages grace the walls. A lot of this must go over the head of the average visitor. The upstairs mobile consisting of polystyrene dollar bills and the nearby silk-screen icon of four dollar signs strike a chord of empathy.”

http://www.tatra-domasa.sk/index.php?c=pamati&a=warhol&l=2

Short hiking trip in the local countryside followed by a discussion of Slovak customs

Tuesday 11th June

Visit to Spis Castle and Levoca. These are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  There are a huge range of interpretative techniques employed in these sites from first person interpretation, guided tours, leaflets, self guided walks, multi language listening posts, panels and pamphlets.  We will have a self guided visit to Spis castle and then travel to Levoca where we will meet and have a chance to speak with the curators from the city museum.

Lunch will be in a traditional Slovakian Restaurant.

http://www.visitslovakia.com/spisske-museum

http://www.slovenskyraj.sk/vylety/levoca/en.html

http://www.spisskyhrad.sk/en.html

Wednesday 12th June

Lecture at Presov university A lecture followed by  discussions with a lecturer about tourism in the Prešov University – Tourism Faculty. Participants will have the opportunity to make presentations about their own areas of expertise in Scotland

Watching of sheep hand milking, sheep cheese preparing and sheep cheese tasting.                         Visit to a sheep cheese producer to watch hand milking, the preparation of sheep's cheese and to sample Bryndza a slightly salty spreadable cheese fresh from the ewes.  Traditional local food which demonstrates the solid links between the people and their land throughout the generations

Thursday 13th June

Participants will have the opportunity to practise a Traditional Slovakian Craft, for example making corn dollies

Traditional Cooking Day.  Working with Margita from Brunisca (Brousnyitsa which means Cranberry) in her own kitchen she will teach you to make traditional Slovakian meals using local produce

Friday 14th June

Bardejov Health Spa and visits to Muzeum Ludovej Architektury  an outdoor museum of 24 vernacular buildings dating from the 19th - 20th century including two wooden stave churches. Mikulasova [Mecoulahshovah] church was built in 1730. It was enlarged in 1837, disassembled in 2003 and rebuilt and renovated with help from Archnetwork and Grampus Heritage and re-consecrated in 2005 and is now in regular use.

http://www.visitslovakia.com/open-air-museum-museum-of-folk-architecture-in/

Visit to Bardejov designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site We will have free time to walk around the town and to visit the museum of Icons, St.Aegidius Church and the Town Hall.                               The main square in Bardejov is designated a UNESCO World Heritage site because it is a ‘small but exceptionally complete and well-preserved example of a fortified medieval town’ Bardejov has retained its medieval character and the cobblestone central square Radnicné námestie is the most significant part of the town. The square is flanked on three sides by narrow burgher houses many of which are fine examples of Gothic and Renaissance architecture. On the fourth side of the square is the Gothic church of St. Egidius, which dates from the 14th Century

The Icon museum is the only specialised exhibition of icons in Slovakia and on display are icons painted on wood and canvas dating from the 16th-19th centuries. Also on display are religious vestments . We will have a guided visit to the Museum of Icons; the curator will explain the development of the symbolism in Icon painting.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/973

http://www.lemko.org/art/bardejov/ikona1.html

Museum of clothes displaying examples of traditional Slovakian costume throughout the centuries.

Saturday 15th June

Drive to Death Valley, http://www.tatra-domasa.sk/index.php?c=pamati&a=udolie&l=2

This is a haunting place, it was the site of one of the largest battles of the 2nd World War between Russian and German troops and some of machinery of war has been left in situ. It is definitely a topic for discussion for interpreters.

Over a period of three days the clash of Soviet T-34 tanks and German Panzer Pz IVs, along with supporting infantry resulted in more than 30,000 deaths between 24th - 26th October 1944 during which time the streams were running red. Altogether 90,000 soldiers and civilians died in the conflict.

Traditional Folk Festival  at The Museum of the Ukrainian and Ruthenian Culture in Svidnik.

 http://www.memoryofstones.eu/2/svidnik_open_air_museum_184323.html

An international folk festival organised by  The Ukrainian and Ruthenian Association                          The Ruthenians came to the area in the 15th century from the south and they used mountainous parts because they were shepherds. They are Slavs and use a language, which is something between Slovak and Ukrainian language. The festival will be a celebration of the Ruthenian culture and traditions, songs, dances, crafts and cuisine. Svidnik Open Air Museum is where you can see fabulous examples of reconstructed wooden buildings including a church, school farm houses and saw mill.

Sunday 16th June                                                                                                                                     Departure

Please note this programme may be subject to changes, amendments and additions.