The Urgent Artist Toolkit - from workshop to atelier

2023-10-30

The Urgent Artist Toolkit is a project curated and implemented by Destil Creative Hub with Bulevard Art and Media Institute. Aiming to support young emerging artists in Albania, a series of workshops was set into motion in the beginning of this summer 2023.

The overall theme of the Urgent Artist Toolkit is the relationship between art and education through a contemporary and historical lens. Within the scope of the project, a series of educational and interactive workshops for young artists were held this summer. The purpose of the workshops was to empower young artists and outline the urgencies and difficulties they face in the pursuit of their careers. In addition to this, give them specialized training, built on previous research regarding the needs of young artists, to equip them with the necessary tools and specialized skills for their future careers in the field of arts and culture.

An important aspect of the project was to be part of the decentralization of the arts and culture scene in Albania, which was why each workshop was held in a different city. Art and culture should be accessible to everyone regardless of localization; it was, therefore, a primary objective during the workshops in Tirana, Shkoder, and Fier to engage with local actors from these areas to be part of the development and retention of a wider ecosystem of cultural life outside of Tirana. Moreover, engaging with local actors and art spaces helped to paint the picture of the localized needs of young artists that varied from city to city.

The Urgent Artist ToolKit team consisted of Sonila Abdalli- co-founder and CEO of Destil Creative Hub; Valentina Bonizzi- an artist, researcher, and co-founder of Boulevard Art and Media Institute; Stefano Romano- an artist and founder of the Mobile School of Visual Art, and last but not least the visual artist and co-founder of the Albanian art space MINUS, Matilda Odobashi.

The first workshop took place at Destil Creative hub:s garden in the heat of mid July. The workshop began with an introduction of the vision for the Urgent Artist Toolkit and of the team. To start off the discussions the team discussed the urgencies and difficulties they themselves faced as artists and entrepreneurs. Matilda Odobashi talked about the challenges she has faced in her career and how she navigated them both as an artist and activist. She also talked about her work and program at the art gallery MINUS, a space for young artists to promote their work. Stefano Romano shared with the participants how he developed his artistic and curatorial practices in the early 2000s in Tirana as well as how he has steered through personal failures in his artistic career. In addition to this, he talked about his engagement with higher education through building the Mobile School of Visual Art. Sonila Abdalli talked about the challenges faced as a social entrepreneur and architect of Destil Creative Hub and Valentina Bonizzi told the story of Bulevard Art and Media Institute and its artistic research and politics, and how the friendship with Destil Creative Hub came to fruition in a time of difficulty. The presentation gave the participants perspectives on possible career paths in the art world and gave rigid examples of how one can navigate hardship through art and entrepreneurship.

After the presentation by the team, the young artists were encouraged to share their practices and to ask questions. The team worked with the participants to address their urgent questions and provided individualized feedback to each of them. A discussion that circled the needs and difficulties emerging artists face in the context of living in a capital city arose during the workshop. What became apparent in this discussion was the importance of listening to young artists' needs and learning from them to progress from past failures.

Stefano Romano, The Mobile School of Visual Art:

“The personal work with each of the participants was shared in parallel with all the others in order to generate a general dialogue, in which different aspects were touched upon; personal identity, collective identity, gender identity, roots, space, and time; which we verified were common to all the young artists to some extent. Each of the participants could see how the difference lay in the personal gaze that each of them had in developing their artistic research, despite the fact that themes were broadly the same.”

After the fruitful discussions in Tirana, the Urgent Artist Tool Kit team traveled to Shkodra for their next workshop which would take place at the art gallery Art House. The team was welcomed by Tea Çuni, the coordinator of Art House and also the head of the Communication and Promotion Department at Marubi National Museum of Photography in Shkoder. She would join them in the workshop.

During the workshop in Shkodra the participants expressed a greater need to receive tools for understanding and expressing their artistic research and the trajectory of their work. Discussions about artistic activism and artistic entrepreneurship transpired as well where the young artists had questions regarding the possibilities of opening up independent art spaces.

Tea Çuni:

“After the presentation, participants actively participated in a shared time that fostered the exchange of their diverse experiences across various fields. This influenced their perception of the local reality and deepened their engagement with broader topics in the arts, culture, and youth education fields. During this session, participants openly expressed their needs, and doubts, as well as their future projects and plans. The atmosphere encouraged fruitful discussions and allowed for the exploration of new ideas and potential collaborations amongst the young artists”.

The last workshop for the summer took place in Fier at the Fier Public Library “Dritëro Agolli”. Niku Alex Mucaj, an artist and the co-founder of the art gallery Galeria Bregdetit and of MAT (Media Art Tirana), who grew up in Fier, joined the team as a local guest for the workshop.

The workshop was filled with a sense of engagement from the artists that was not anticipated. The questions during this workshop were related to the personal study trajectory as an artist, similar to the discussions held in Shkodra. Structure and methodology in creative processes therefore became a central subject throughout the workshop. This allowed for a discussion of the possibility for artists to work with a multidisciplinary methodology.

Niku Alex Mucaj:

“The discussion created was very interesting in both ways, also for me as a presenter, and also for the participants. The young artists presented their practice and their urgencies in an informal way and I got the impression that this format we created was important for them, to understand their work and their practice”.

Mobile School of Visual Art, Stefano Romano:

“We shifted the attention of young artists from the formal outcome of their research to the main underlying question. With this method, we managed to make them reflect on the importance of the references they used in their work. From the feedback of all the participants, we understood the importance of having a methodology and structure in their creative process."

From the workshops in each city, it became evident that the importance of listening to young artists and their needs should not be understated. There is a clear engagement among young Albanian artists today which should be taken into consideration when outlining the future infrastructure of the Albanian art and culture scene. The Urgent Artist Toolkit team will bring these lessons into the future work of the Urgent Artist ToolKit!

Photos by Destil.