Project: Village Voices
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Project: Village Voices

Project: Village Voices Sustainability & Identity in Rural Cyprus. The theme of our project was Sustainable development through cultural heritage and rural community activities. The cultural and natural heritage of Cyprus, community heritage and engagement, craft and rural development. The aim of this project for me was to look at how small local and traditional […]

Sustainable Development of Cultural & Natural Assets in 2 Cypriot Mountain Villages
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Sustainable Development of Cultural & Natural Assets in 2 Cypriot Mountain Villages

Looking to the communities of the past can directly inspire the answers to these questions. Maybe people could connect to their heritage to feel a sense of place, a sense of identity and ‘rootedness’, in a way that is relevant to their lives. Maybe wider communities can be created in museums by ensuring that people from disenfranchised backgrounds find a ‘home’ and share learning possibilities in the museum environment. Maybe it is extending beyond the academic/intellectual framework that informs traditional museum culture, to also engage with, in a sustainable way, skilled craftspeople, artists, storytellers and musicians to form creative spaces, who intersect with, and are informed by, the collections held in the museum. Maybe by having such an inclusive environment, we can directly mirror the coherent, collectively organised communities of the past.

The Great Cyprus Brick Off
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The Great Cyprus Brick Off

The participants of the Cyprus visit take part in the great Adobe brick making contest, and along the way encounter silver smiths, mosaic artists, lace makers, and pottery makers. 

Sustainable Rural Communities  – Cyprus 2017
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Sustainable Rural Communities – Cyprus 2017

Our structured course led our two car convoy through the mountains to visit many examples of innovation and practical solutions to the issues facing the rural economy. We visited traditional producers of almonds, figs, grapes (raisins), herbs, cheese and smoked sausages. At Kato Drys museum the connection with people from the past and their stories was both moving and engaging, and personal tours reinforced that authenticity.

Sustainable Rural Development Cyprus 2016
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Sustainable Rural Development Cyprus 2016

One major similarity between Lefkara and Ayrshire is that both places have a tradition of lace-making. Seeing how the Green Village project utilised the skills of older generations by incorporating traditional textiles and patterns into contemporary fashion was inspirational and could easily be transferred to Ayrshire, or indeed anywhere in Scotland. Ayrshire lace, houndstooth, tweed, tartan – any of these traditional patterns could be used to create contemporary fashion that will engage a younger generation. This model could also be reproduced in other areas, such as traditional crafts like willow-weaving.

Home and Away – Cyprus 2015
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Home and Away – Cyprus 2015

Key Objective: Living and working in a remote rural area in the far North of Scotland I applied to participate in the Cyprus Programme to see if there were any useful comparisons between the two countries to explore opportunities for sharing/learning from one another as to how best to incorporate traditional skills back into fiercely competitive economies.

Cyprus 2015
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Cyprus 2015

Cyprus September 2015 Travelling to my birthplace, I have seen Cyprus from a different perspective looking at places I have been too before, with fresh eyes. I have seen slightly out of the way areas, cultural skills, well seen places and areas with added enthusiasm. This structured educational course funded by Erasmus+ programme and delivered […]

Empowering Communities – Cyprus – Kato Drys – September 2015
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Empowering Communities – Cyprus – Kato Drys – September 2015

September 2015 saw myself and four other cultural heritage professionals travel from Scotland to the island of Cyprus under the Erasmus+ cultural research exchange programme through ArchNetwork. The theme of the programme was entitled ‘Empowering Communities’ and took the form of a structured training course. Our home for the week was to be in Pano Lefkara […]

Report: Empowering Communities in Cyprus – Sept 2015.
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Report: Empowering Communities in Cyprus – Sept 2015.

In September 2015, I was able to participate in a Erasmus+ cultural heritage exchange to the island of Cyprus. Our base camp for the trip was a set of apartments called Althlesi Heights in Pano Lefkara, a village in the south-west foothills of the Troodos Mountains. There were five of us who travelled on the […]

Scran goes to Cyprus
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Scran goes to Cyprus

Learning about Lefkara  Tuesday 15th September 2015. Our all-female, party of five had travelled from Scotland to engage with the Erasmus+ course, Empowering Communities in Cyprus. The group consisted of heritage & education professionals with definite interests museum practice, interpretation, learning and community engagement. Although, through the week other interests & skills would surface as we […]

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