DANISH DAYS IN PINCZOW
The city library in Pinczow invited The Danish Institute of Culture to organize Danish Days in Pinczow in the autumn of 2000.
Pinczow is a picturesque city with great traditions and well functioning cultural institutions. The joint project, under the honorary patronage of Swietokrzyskie's Voivode Wojciech Lubawski, gained enormous interest. The main events of the programme were made up of exhibitions at the Institute's disposal that year, namely the photo exhibition Moment by Tove Kurtzweil (See Events: Photo exhibition by Tove Kurtzweil) and the exhibition about Karen Blixen (See Events: Exhibition Karen Blixen - Life and Work). In connection with the latter exhibition, two video films were shown: Babette's Feast, based on the writer's short story, and a documentary film about the writer. Both films were also shown in Pinczow schools. In order to spread word about the event within the local cimmunity, the library organized a radio contest on Denmark. On the inauguration day three lectures were given: One on Danes and the EU delivered by the Honorary Consul, Janusz Kahl; one about Karen Blixen and her work by Hieronim Chojnacki; and one about the today's Denmark and Danes by Boguslawa Sochanska. Another segment of the project was organized in Elementary School no. 1, where the exhibition of posters by Bjørn Wiinblad was presented and the director of the Institute delivered a lecture on Denmark for the audience consisting of the pupils from the 2nd class. The young people were encouraged to write projects on the basis of materials they had received, of whom the best was awarded a trip to Denmark. The award was founded by the Danish Tourist Board. That project, which lasted a whole month, ended with workshops on Self-government, in which approximately 80 members of the local government, teachers and other interested people from the whole region participated. Such great interest proves the necessity of initiating the exchange of experience. The workshops consisted of 2 groups. The one where ecology was the dominant subject had the opportunity to listen to a lecture by Consul Janusz Kahl. The other group, attending a lecture by Vagn Bindsail, was able to get acquainted with the methods of culture and education management on the communal level. The lively discussion following the lectures prompted the Institute and the lecturers to try and organize a study tour to Denmark for some of the participants of the workshops. If no obstacles arise, the study tour will take place in the autumn of 2001.