The Story of Lidice and Stoke-on-Trent: Towards Deeper Understandings of the Role of Arts and Culture

利迪策和特伦特河畔斯托克的故事：加深对艺术和文化作用的理解

• 批准号: AH/L014769/1
• 负责人: Jacqueline Reynolds
• 金额: $ 5.03万
• 依托单位: Staffordshire University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2014 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FL014769%2F1
• 关键词: Story; Lidice; Stoke; Trent; Towards

This project seeks to improve our understanding of the potential of arts and culture to develop reflection and empathy across geographical divides. It offers a unique case study: that of the relationship between Stoke-on-Trent and Lidice, a tiny village in the Czech Republic that was destroyed by the Nazis on 10 June 1942. In response to this horrific event, local Doctor and Councillor Barnett Stross launched the 'Lidice Shall Live' campaign in September of the same year, rallying the local working people of Stoke-on-Trent to donate to a fund that ultimately contributed to the rebuilding of the village after the war. That ordinary working miners and pottery workers donated in many cases up to a week's wages to this campaign in the middle of the hardship of the Second World War is an astounding testament to the ability of people to demonstrate empathy, compassion and understanding. The village of Lidice today expresses its story through arts and culture: visitors from all over Europe travel there to visit the largest rose garden in Europe, and the museum and art gallery that sit adjacent to the new village. A commemorative event takes place each year on the anniversary of the tragedy, attended by around 5000 visitors and Ambassadors from all over the world. In recent years, the links between Lidice and Stoke-on-Trent have been refreshed with cultural exchanges between the two places, involving a range of arts projects and events that celebrate the cultural ties between the two places. It is striking that in all of the civic engagement and partnership working recently developed between these places, we choose to explore, express and celebrate these ties almost exclusively through arts and culture. Our project addresses the limited understandings that we have of the relationship between arts and culture and empathy, compassion and understanding, despite the fact that evoking such responses is often an implicit objective of arts and cultural activities. Since there is little literature that directly addresses the topic in question, this project seeks to generate new knowledge and understandings by engaging with academics and creative practitioners to explore their understandings of empathy, compassion and understanding; how this impacts on practice, and in what ways this supports and demonstrates the value of arts and cultural activities. The research will focus specifically on story-telling approaches in the contexts of community and participatory arts projects and museums and exhibitions. It will therefore consider both active engagement and the visitor experience. A working group of interdisciplinary academics and creative practitioners will contribute to the development of new approaches and tools that will be utilised when designing and evaluating new arts projects. The findings and tools will be tested by applying them to the chosen case study. It provides a unique opportunity for creative practitioners in both geographical locations to contribute to addressing the research objectives in a variety of ways. As well as analysing existing arts and cultural activities by applying the research findings and outputs, there will also be a funding proposal developed for a new research-informed arts project. This further demonstrates the value of this particular case study, as the relationship between Stoke-on-Trent and Lidice is an on-going one, and there will therefore be opportunities to test, sustain, and further develop the outcomes of this research project in the context of future activities. The findings and outputs of the project will be shared in ways that reach academics, practitioners and the wider public. The project will offer new insights and understandings of the value of arts and culture in terms of empathy, compassion and understanding, and we anticipate that this will influence policy makers as well as contributing to more informed practice across a very wide geographical area.

这个项目旨在提高我们对艺术和文化的潜力的理解，以发展跨越地理鸿沟的反思和同理心。它提供了一个独特的案例研究：特伦特河畔斯托克与利迪斯之间的关系，利迪斯是捷克共和国的一个小村庄，于1942年6月10日被纳粹摧毁。作为对这一可怕事件的回应，当地医生兼议员巴尼特·斯特罗斯于同年9月发起了“利迪斯将活下去”活动，团结特伦特河畔斯托克当地劳动人民向一个基金捐款，该基金最终为战后村庄的重建做出了贡献。在第二次世界大战期间，普通工人矿工和陶器工人向这场运动捐赠了高达一周的工资，这令人震惊地证明了人们表现出同理心、同情心和理解的能力。今天，利迪斯村通过艺术和文化来表达它的故事：来自欧洲各地的游客前往那里参观欧洲最大的玫瑰园，以及坐落在新村庄旁边的博物馆和美术馆。每年在这场悲剧的周年纪念日都会举行一场纪念活动，来自世界各地的约5000名游客和大使参加。近年来，利迪斯和特伦特河畔斯托克之间的联系随着两地之间的文化交流而得到刷新，涉及一系列庆祝两地文化联系的艺术项目和活动。令人惊讶的是，在这些地方最近建立的所有公民参与和合作伙伴关系中，我们选择几乎完全通过艺术和文化来探索、表达和庆祝这些联系。我们的项目解决了我们对艺术和文化以及移情、同情和理解之间的关系的有限理解，尽管唤起这种反应往往是艺术和文化活动的隐含目标。由于直接涉及这一主题的文献很少，该项目试图通过与学者和创造性实践者接触，探索他们对同理心、同情心和理解的理解，从而产生新的知识和理解；这对实践有何影响，以及如何支持和展示艺术和文化活动的价值。研究将特别侧重于在社区和参与性艺术项目以及博物馆和展览的背景下讲故事的方法。因此，它将同时考虑积极参与和游客体验。一个由跨学科学者和创意实践者组成的工作组将为开发新的方法和工具做出贡献，这些方法和工具将在设计和评估新的艺术项目时使用。调查结果和工具将通过将它们应用于选定的案例研究来进行测试。它为这两个地理位置的创造性实践者提供了一个独特的机会，以各种方式为实现研究目标做出贡献。除了通过应用研究结果和成果分析现有的艺术和文化活动外，还将为一个新的了解研究情况的艺术项目制定一项供资建议。这进一步证明了这一具体案例研究的价值，因为特伦特河畔斯托克和利迪斯之间的关系是持续的，因此将有机会在未来活动的背景下检验、维持和进一步发展这一研究项目的成果。该项目的结果和成果将以学者、从业者和更广泛的公众的方式分享。该项目将提供对艺术和文化在同理心、同情心和理解方面的价值的新见解和理解，我们预计这将影响政策制定者，并有助于在非常广泛的地理区域内进行更知情的实践。