GMINNY OSRODEK KULTURY W KWIDZYNIE/ MUNICIPAL CULTURE CENTER IN KWIDZYN

The Municipal Cultural Center is a self-government cultural institution, working since 2003. It conducts activities related to the organization of free time, multidirectional development and satisfies the cultural needs of residents, disseminates and promotes local culture in the country and abroad. Tasks that belong to the Center include: 1. Organizing various forms of cultural education and education through art. 2. Creating, protecting and sharing cultural assets. 3. Creating conditions for the development of the amateur artistic movement. 4. Creating conditions for the development of folklore, as well as folk and artistic handicrafts. 5. Promoting creative teams and individual artists operating in the commune. 6. Organizing own cultural, entertainment and recreational events. 7. Organizing concerts, performances, art exhibitions, author's evenings, and literary meetings. 8. Conducting publishing activities. 9. Cooperation with regional press and media. The Municipal Cultural Center (GOK) in Kwidzyn covers the rural commune of Kwidzyn, numbering nearly 11 thousand residents and 28 villages. We do not have a permanent headquarters, which would be a kind of a centre of activity, a place for obtaining information or support by residents. We are distinguished by the fact that our operating model is remote - we have 15 extended cultural working space/club rooms throughout the commune, in 15 villages. On the one hand, this is a great potential thanks to which contacts and cooperation with the local community are established. On the other hand, it is a big challenge - it is connected with e.g. the need to create a separate offer proposal for each of these club rooms, and actually for residents who are detained in different environments and have different expectations and needs. The activities of the cultural clubs have an educational dimension on a cultural level by supporting residents from different age groups from rural areas. In addition, GOK's activity is focused on the cultural heritage of the Lower Powiśle region and undertakes many initiatives aimed at building the cultural identity of the commune and region residents. Initiatives and events organized by the Cultural Center include meetings related to the celebration of state holidays, religious holidays and their social dimension (eg. Christmas meetings), events related to creativity, art expression, local tradition and activity related to spending free time during holidays and vacations. In addition, tasks carried out by the GOK (alone or in partnership with other institutions, local government and non-governmental organizations and informal groups) include competitions, outdoor events, concerts, reviews. Interesting examples of the Center's work are three common rooms in Rakowiec, Pastwa and Podzamcze, which have profiled their activity around a specific way of expression and art form (Artistic Embroidery Workshop in Pastwa, Workshop of Sculpture in Rakowiec, Art Workshop "Podgórze" in Podzamcze) and made it a kind of business card associated with the commune and outside of it. An important and constant activity of GOK Kwidzyn is the organization since 2015 (from the moment of receiving funding from the National Center for Culture program under the "House of Culture + Local Initiatives"), a competition of Local Initiatives in the Kwidzyn Commune - consisting in the fact that GOK finances bottom-up ideas informal groups from their own resources, allocating 15,000zł for this purpose.