How do we increase citizens’ ownership of public space by putting its cultural programming entirely in the hands of its users?
With OMTA, we want to share cultural interventions with people for whom access to culture is not obvious. With the project “HOW TO OMTA”, we are developing a methodology to structurally let the cultural programming at Abattoir be determined by its users and thus increase their ownership of public space.
The project consists of 2 parts:
- A culture committee consisting of site users and local residents (read: all kinds of people who make Abattoir a unique, vibrant place) takes the reins! Over the past year, the culture committee went out to get inspired and have appropriated the right to culture in the city. In January and February, we developed a series of think sessions together with Visual Garden to create a methodology to “filter” all artistic proposals coming in for the site according to shared values. From March onwards, the culture committee takes action: using their shared values framework as a basis, they will work on the programming of the OMTA festival September ’23. The festival is a test event to test their method on the ground and will be the cultural high mass of Cultureghem, this year!
- A learning network of Flemish cultural partners invites the committee to visit them. Each partner is, in his or her own way, democratizing the decision-making process around artistic programming. The partners meet regularly to exchange on specific themes and are a critical sounding board for each other’s quest in participatory work.
The OMTA festival will take place from Monday 18 to Friday 22 September 2023 on the site of the Abattoirs in Anderlecht.
Any questions? Fancy taking part? anne@cultureghem.be
Credits
Think sessions in collaboration with: Visual Garden (Judith Du Faux) ; partners of the learning network: cultural center 30cc (Leuven), Kunstencentrum BUDA (Kortrijk), Park Poetik (Brussel), S.M.A.K. (Gent), Kunstencentrum VierNulVier (Gent), Voem ; accompanied by: Demos
Made possible thanks to the support of
