Local workshop in Potenza

Empowerment strategies for upcycling artists and designers

The EU COM local workshop in Potenza took place on Saturday 24 February 2024 from 9:00 AM till 1:00 PM at the MOON Museo Officina Oggetti Narranti in Potenza, operational headquarters of the Il Salone dei Rifiutati Cooperative.

Following a survey conducted among possible participants and interested parties, it was decided to organize the meeting on Saturday morning to allow better participation of people busy with work during the other days of the week.

The participants were contacted directly by the cooperative’s operators, choosing among the contacts those most connected to the project’s themes: this allowed for more targeted participation and a response from people who were truly motivated because they were interested in the contents of the workshop, as well as responding to the target specific to the project.

The response in terms of numbers was in fact very satisfactory: 20 participants were registered, some of whom traveled from outside the region to reach the venue and participate. The participants were:

6 self-employed artisans (in particular leather and wood artisans, a screen-printing artisan and a taylor);
4 artisans who are part of a drug addiction recovery association (in particular leather artisans);
4 individual artists (painters, a sculptor and a filmmaker with an environmental vocation);
3 creatives with remarkable manual skills, who use waste materials for the upcycling of pieces of furniture and home decoration;
2 operators of a social cooperative, who are starting a production section of eco-sustainable gadgets to be created with their users (adults with disabilities).

The workshop began at 9.00 am and closed at 1.00 pm, with a break at 11.00 am during which, in addition to drinks and snacks, a selection of books was made available to the participants: books were connected to the topics of the laboratory and participants could browse and consult them freely to gather new ideas and suggestions. Some participants were happy to stay beyond the closing time to continue talking and interacting, exchanging contacts and impressions.

At the end of the workshop, all participants were asked to complete a written evaluation questionnaire consisting of:

9 items in which you are asked to respond by indicating a satisfaction value from

2 open-ended items in which you are asked to indicate if there were any critical issues to share and indicate any suggestions to improve the experience.

Overall, the experience was evaluated very positively by all 20 participants with the majority of responses in the first 9 items with the selection of a maximum value of 4/5, underlining the enthusiasm and recognizing the usefulness of participation.

No critical issues of any kind were identified and two suggestions were made to improve the experience:

use multiple objects
more opportunities for networking with participants

Only some items received a value of 3:

to item 5: How useful did you find activity #1 Hybrid design?

1 in 20 people selected the value 3

item 6: How useful did you find activity #2 Buyer Persona?

3 out of 20 people selected the value 3

to item 7: How useful did you find activity #3 Digital Storytelling?

1 in 20 people selected the value 3

item 10: Did you learn new things during the session?

2 out of 20 people selected the value 3

to item 12: Would you recommend other people to participate in similar courses?

1 in 20 people selected the value 3

In conclusion, considering all the questionnaires, the workshop was appreciated by all participants with a highly positive comment on the work team and the tutors who piloted the activity, considered professional and extremely helpful.

More people asked for more similar activities and also showed themselves to be very interested in the project and its phases, in particular the upcoming Art Contest, presented at the beginning of the session.