VAHA Phase 1 Evaluation & Ideas Camp Meetings

VAHA Phase 1 was all about hub formation and experimentation, developing an efficient working practice among three partners within the hub, exploring the local cultural infrastructure, and piloting some local activities. Hence this stage was named ‘Defining the ground & Seeding’. After nine months of hard work, all VAHA hubs discussed their experiences and shared the local activities and events they developed at the Phase 1 Evaluation Meeting. It is not surprising that the pandemic has been a large blow to our physical spaces, activities and access to the public, which represent the core elements of VAHA as well. It was not easy for any of us to navigate in these uncharted waters. However, our hubs proved that it was meaningful even though the spaces were shut down most of the time, and that it still made a difference to support the teams either financially, strategically, and psychologically through creating these local and cross-border solidarity circles. 

Herewith we present you ‘A Collective Tale from 16 VAHA Hubs’, exploring some of the key moments and aspects from the hub stories and connecting them in one mosaic. We have witnessed the formation of very resilient and creative hubs; all kept producing either online or offline and adapting to the challenging circumstances. We are so happy and proud to see all the hubs survived Phase 1 and are motivated to continue to Phase 2 with us. 

As we enter into the Phase 2 of the programme, what is waiting for us is the formation of collaborations among fellow hubs. This phase is called ‘Planting & Harvesting’ as the hubs will mingle with one another, and we expect VAHAs will become even more fertile grounds with the support from each other. The Ideas Camp Meeting was an initial step to generate and discuss ideas and explore the shared interests and common concerns to decide in the upcoming months what can be done together, and how we can support each other and in which ways. 

Before diving into partnership discussions, we first charted out the diverse territories that we are operating and living in by using the Cynefin Framework to discuss and better understand our circumstances and decision-making processes. The session challenged all of us to reappraise our perceptions and how we act on them when it comes to teamwork, communication, organisational capacities, demanding contexts etc.. Below is the ‘Complexities Map’ showing the landscape that came out of this session led by Olha Kotska, our colleague from MitOst. 

In the hub collaborations, the hubs can either scale up their pilot projects from Phase 1 with an international partner or come up with completely new ideas that they will jointly develop. Here is a sneak peek at the ‘Ideas in the Making’ from the meeting, capturing the themes and issues that are highlighted by the hubs, questions that we dig in concerning translocal practices and format  insights on community engagement from the VAHA community. We are looking forward to seeing how these initial ideas and questions will transform into international collaborations in the near future that will feed the local contexts as well as regional ecosystems.

We warmly welcome all VAHA hubs to the next part of our collective journey!



Text by Aysu Arıcan - from VAHA Coordination Team

Visual harvesting by Julia Hoffmann - from Mosaics & Circles