Creative Danube through joining the higher education staff in built environment & spatial development (2)
LEARNING FROM CREATIVITY AND CULTURE IN MIDDLE-SIZED DANUBIAN CITIES
2nd Joint Staff Training event within the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership DANUBIAN SMCs
Venue: COUNTRY BUILDING (ŽUPANIJA) IN SOMBOR
25101 Sombor, Trg cara Uroša 1
June 15-17, 2021
Sombor, Serbia
The second short-term joint staff training in the “CREATIVE DANUBE” Erasmus+ Project, coordinated by University of Belgrade – Faculty of Architecture (UBGD), took place in Sombor, Serbia, on June 15-17, 2021. The topic of the training was “Learning from creativity and culture in middle-size Danubian cities” and it was chosen due to the rich local culture, tradition and heritage of the host city of Sombor and nearby Danubian villages. The main organiser of the training was the team from the Department of Urbanism from the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Architecture, while local organisers were the city administration and “Prostor” (Space) Public Enterprise in Sombor, which is also the member of Serbian Town Planner Association (STPA), an associated partner at the project. In total, 17 participants from four partner universities (UAIM, BME, UNS and UBGD) attended the meeting in-person, while 14 participants from three other partner universities (STU, DUK and TUW) took part through a videoconferencing mode due to still pending limitations for international travel in the case of partners from Austria and Slovakia. This situation required the necessity of all sessions be held in a hybrid format, i.e., combined in-person + online attendance.
As the main focus of a short-term joint staff training is (by project application) “to stimulate all participants to an innovative approach of teaching activities”. Hence, this format of training is to set out intensive programmes for both higher education learners and teaching staff. This is in line with the intentions of this training, pointed out by project application – to create cooperation between universities along the Danube through joining the higher education staff in built environment and spatial development. The important objective of the second short-term joint staff training events was the practicality and direct applicability of planned actions, interventions and onsite testing activities, which were implemented through the cultural tour and contacts with local stakeholders.
The first day of the training was a cultural tour. During this day, all in-person participants visited in situ the best local practice in international and cross-border cooperation and local stakeholders in creativity and culture and heritage preservation and promotion. The main purpose of this tour is to show the local elements of a slow-city life and the proximity of the Danube which incorporated into the city branding and urban (re)development of Sombor, which is shrinking, as well as many smaller cities and towns along the Danube.
Also during these days the Danubian team meet DANUrB+ consortium to prepare cross-project events as Creative Danube. Challenges And Opportunities of Living In Shrinking and Peripheral Cities Danurb+ Section 3_ Regional Conference and Stakeholders Workshop that will be held in Bucharest and Ruse between 10-11 March 2022.
Thematic sessions of the next two days were arranged into several presentations and discussions in а hybrid format, to enable the equal participation of both in-person and online attenders. All of them were held in presentation rooms in the country building “Županija” and “Laza Kostić” Culture Centre in Sombor.
