BON VOYAGE!

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24.07 2012 Grundtvig D.I.Y. Closing Meeting 

on board MS Stubnitz,

Royal Victoria Docks , London

As we approach the end of this two year project, we agreed it fitting,  to  meet on board MS Stubnitz  to  look at  parts of the project evaluation and the final report. We also  wanted to use the opportunity to meet with Fair Tunes to check out how they could be involved in the new partnership despite the fact that  they did not get any continued  funding - which we did not expect. The occasion was also an opportunity to plug in with the Stubnitz crew in their great new adventure and massive trans-european mobility of a 48 strong crew of teachers and learners from the continent to the island.

In its impressive new surroundings in Londons East End Docklands, the MS Stubnitz had its  fair share of problems, firstly, to physically sail into the docklands area known as London Pleasure Gardens , where a new pontoon crossing bridge had been erected especially for the impending Olympic Games , allowing only the smallest of gaps for the 2500 ton ship (90cm on each side) and the grace of the wind (the main engine is switched off as tug boats manoeuvre the “dead ship” through the dockland waterways)

Hosts for the Stubnitz visit were the Bloc organisation and a two day electronic music festival, with a line up which included Steve Reich, Amon Tobin and Shackleton were planned . However, after only a few hours of opening, the event was closed down at the request of the organisers due to security errors leading to dangerous overcrowding, leaving some 20 thousand disappointed guests out in the rain...

Light installation at the cancelled Bloc Festival

The Stubnitz, after undergoing a small financial disaster because of the cancelled festival and loss of income to “pay the gas home”, together with its crew of volunteers is miraculously still in London , without official funding and “without perspective” , yet still making cultural events after twenty years.

Meanwhile, from the legacy of “ Grundtvig D.I.Y. - Do it Yourself! - Self Empowerment Through Skill Sharing” Czentrifuga , Kulturpark 3000 and WSPN in Poland reconstitute together with new learning partners “Association Spiral Tribe” in France and Druckerei Reitschule in Bern (with perhaps more partners to be verified) as the “D.I.Y. Skill Sharing Network” with a first meeting already planned in September  2012 . One network is imagined to merge organically into the next as old and new partners become introduced amongst themselves, share and utilise each others skill sets and the knowledge that is “learnt by doing”. to be continued....