The Chamber of Aetoloakarnania organized 2 training workshops: “Folk music. Presentation & explanation of terms: The folk, the traditional or ethnic, the neo-folk. Ways of listening and functions of folk music in the past and now and “ZELIOS GI – Theme Parks, Experiential Experiences of Culture”, within Creative@Hubs project.
During the first seminar, held in Mesolonghi on 10 April, the key-note speaker, Mr. Manos Achalinotopoulos (Music-University Professor) explained to the 61 attended people the differences between folk, traditional, ethnic and neo-folk song. He encouraged the young musicians, to immerse themselves in the experiences of folk music and to process them while maintaining its authentic character.
The second workshop, held in Mesolonghi on 15 May, focused on the Botanical Garden of Mr. Aristotle Zelios, by describing its purpose and philosophy, how and when it was created. During the workshop the 53 participants have the chance to live a rare and emotional experience, creating ceramics and candles from beehives, listening to myths and historical stories related to the area, in contact with nature, in an unexplored green paradise, an oasis with 3500 plants, 24 marble busts of Greek history and art, with deer, rich vineyards, varieties of roses, rare varieties of flowers and herbs, and a variety of aromatic and medicinal plants.
It was a good occasion to highlight the advantages of contamination among cultural and creative activities with naturalistic ones.
The organization of workshops by the Chamber of Aetoloakarnania is a concrete reply to the needs of the local creative and cultural industries, emerged after a survey conducted in 2020 by the Institute of Regional Development – Panteion University. The local creative industries can contribute to the local economic development however, they lack of significant skills as creativity, economic knowhow related to the innovative business models, so they need to be trained about these topics in order to become more competitive.
It is possible to see again the Workshops via the Chamber’s Facebook page.