"The way I see Kőszeg” – collaborative creative arts for the students of the secondary school
About this good practice
This GP answers to the problematic question of how to maintain the image (the brand),the identity of a town in the locals’ minds.This project of local high schoolers shows a great way of how to build or strengthen the image of a town living in people’s minds targeting firstly the locals.The arts and crafts teacher of the Jurisich Miklós Secondary School and her students decided on an art project:they started to plan different designs for T-shirts and bags,depicting Kőszeg and its main characteristics:its cultural heritage like buildings and their smaller details (eg. windows,doorknobs), typical landscapes and views (eg. the usually cloudy city), moments (eg. a cat sitting in a window) and traditions)or visualizing the colourfulness and diversity on the sketch of the map of the inner city.The students also prepared a short introductory video for the project, showing the progress and the results of their project.The video was shared through social media. iASK decided to fund the project: the Institute ordered the T-shirts and bags with the designs and organized an exhibition with the products to gain a wider audience.The opening of the exhibition was full house , “Our children made this, for our town”–it is an important aspect of the GP. But how to sell them?Local entrepreneurs found the project as a unique opportunity:it represents special marketable value that local students are planning and designing the products–products that are valuable for locals, but also for visitors.
Resources needed
Creative and proactive locals who are motivated to make an effort for the town; a public institution that sees realizes the opportunity and is able to cooperate. iASK financed the first batch of products, after that the local entrepreneurs have been investing in the reprinting of the product.
Evidence of success
The main evidence of success is that after 4 years the products are still on market.It represents that local initiatives could rely on the creative ideas of youth,creative ideas could be lead to productization which enhance the proudness,the sense of belonging of people through personal,institutional and geographical networks.The key success factor is the cooperation between the stakeholders:cultural and tourism organisations,the local high school,the public sector and the local entrepreneurs
Potential for learning or transfer
In general:it is always a key question how to involve locals to the improvements of a town,what could be the ways to address them.It is an especially important part of the identity of a town how the locals see and think about the given location.A project like this can help to bring closer the town as a brand to the locals with wearable products and with the images itself on it(as mentioned before, the iconic buildings, moments etc).But it is a two-way solution:not only works for locals,but also for visitors as these products are perfect souvenirs as well–made by locals, sold by locals.To go deeper:the way the youth of Kőszeg has been involved it is also a well adaptable solution.The promise of being useful,of getting a little bit of attention,of having the chance to be proud as they created something together that is now in the shops is catchy,it is something they will always remember of–that is a great way of how you can build the city’s identity into their personal level of identity.
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
Institute of Advanced Studies