Euroculture IP 2023No Europe for the Young?
Euroculture IP 2023 One of the traditional parts of IP’s programme is students excursion. Unfortunately the last time excursion was part of the IP was in 2019 in Olomouc, when students went to Brno to vision Museum of Roma Culture. And this year in Olomouc we are happy to announce that the excursion is back on the programme! What have we planned for you?
We were thinking really hard to find a place that would somehow correspond with this year’s overall topic, the young. After a long debates and brainstorming, one of the team members suggested Dolní Vítkovice area in Ostrava. If you Google it and have a look at the pictures, you might wonder why have they decided to show us an old industrial and mining area? How does that work with the topic young? Not at all? Well…
Yes, Dolní Vítkovice used to be a heavy industial area including coal mining, coke ovens and blast furnace operations, almost in the middle of Ostrava. Area was operational from 1830 until 1998, and after that noone knew what to do with it – options included to destroy everything and find a new use for this part of Ostrava. Luckily, those in charge decided that Dolní Vítkovice will be turned into national site of industrial heritage in 2002, and in 2008 it was listed on the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites under name The Industrial Complexes at Ostrava.
Year 2009 marked the beginning of the project to bring life back to the area and to find a new use for it, with financial support of European Union. Since then, first parts of the vast area found a new purpose, as it became a host of various cultural events, music festivals as world famous Colours of Ostrava, museums, concerts and more. One of the parts of the area is the Science and Technology Centre, where its mirrored facade hides four permanent interactive exhibitions: Children’s World, World of Science and Inventions, World of Civilization and World of Nature. There you can try out over 200 different exhibits and to have fun and learn at the same time.
In the future, there are plans to have a regional library relocated into one of the many buildings now waiting for renovations, or to build a new campus of Ostrava University between two of the former coke ovens.
So, does it make more sense why we chose this place now? We think that Dolní Vítkovice area is an amazing example how old can be reused and transformed into something new, something that young can experience and influence if they are interested.
During the excursion, you will have a chance to visit parts of the area, you will learn more about its history, present and future, which looks quite bright now.
