On 17.09.2016, in the framework of the project “Readers of the Future”, supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, was held the first joint meeting among the three partners of the project “Readers of the Future”. The meeting was held at the......
#ReadersOfTheFuture, The Cooperation Project between Publishing House DITURIA, Publishing House TABERNAKUL, Macedonia, and the Associazione Agenzia ARCIPELAGO ONLUS, Italy, that will be implemented with the support of the Creative Europe Programme, made its first successful step. At the Friend’s Book House Bookshop, on 27 September......
From October to December 2016, in three countries (Albania, Macedonia and Italy) were distributed 3 000 questionnaires, 1 000 for each country.
The subject was schools in the city centres, but also in the suburbs of the cities, where usually live disadvantaged groups of society.
This process passed in two phases:
– The distribution of the questionnaires, drafted by experts, cultural operators, psychologists,
scholars of literature and the collection of the completed questionnaires.
– Drafting of the reports – survey.
A special staff of each partner, for two entire months, was engaged in the manual distribution and collection of 3 000 questionnaires.
The questionnaire circulated even in social networks and via e-mail.
The main objective of this research :
– to investigate the reading habits of stories, legends, myths, fairy tales, etc., beliefs and attitudes of children and young readers in Albania, Italia and Macedonia.
The aim of survey:
– to support parents, teachers and other literacy professionals in promoting wider reading.
The main target: children and young readers (6-15 years old).
From the survey data, the specialists will draft a report which will be published in February.
With the pupils of secondary schools in various cities of each region, in the months from February to April, will be organised creativity competitions: in literature and painting.
The purpose of the competition will be: to promote creativity, the desire to write stories, to arise the imagination, to make children protagonists of the literary creation, but also to help them find another opportunity where children express themselves about their rights to learn and read.
In Tirana, on April 26, 2017 will take place an international seminar, in which will participate publishers, EU experts (from France, Italy, Portugal, Greece), representatives of public and private institutions, cultural and educational ones, teachers, bookshops, readers, journalists, etc. The seminar will be a good opportunity for exchange of experiences and improving professional cooperation, peer learning, but also for the better training of book operators. In this seminar, among others issues, will be discussed and compared even the data derived from the survey in the three countries.
At three different periods, in Tirana (Albania), Napoli/Campodimele/Formia (Italy), and Skopje (Macedonia) for the first time will take place such a big event with these three countries in focus, a festival for children. These periods will serve as the culmination of the project. The Festival will specifically aim: transnational mobility, audience development, but will create opportunities for children and youths, and even for their parents, to share experience in an array of different art forms and styles, to introduce new promotional and presenting programs.
The festival will include tens of events (workshops, roundtables, meetings with writers, creative labs, reading, acting and painting corners, etc.), involving over 100 artists and thousands of children and young people.
On our website you will have the opportunity to find and read three volumes published in three languages (Albanian, Macedonian, Italian): one (e-book) with the creations of the winnres of Competition in literare and painting “Little Readers” organized in months February-April 2017 in the three partner countries, entitled “With Books in Heart”; one book (book and e-book) with stories of authors from the three partner countries entitled: “Readings for Children and Youths. Stories from Albanian, Macedonian and Italian authors”; and one book (book and e-book), with fairy tales by authors from the three partner countries entitled: “Readings from Children and Youths. Fairy tales by Albanian, Macedonian and Italian authors”. Published books are donated to schools and public libraries, while e-books can be accessed for free on the project website and respective websites of the partners, as well as on social networks.
The works (sketches, illustrations, etc.) of illustrators of children books from the three countries were part of a joint travelling exhibition presented in Tirana, Naples and Tetovo. For seven days, the wide Albanian, Italian and Macedonian public was able to visit these exhibitions in their respective countries. The travelling exhibition was aimed at promoting the illustrators, whose works traveled in all three countries, thus creating new audiences and opportunities of collaboration.
In collaboration with MultiMediaStudio “NOSITI”, a film production house with many years of experience, a film documentary was produced about children’s access to books, without any social, gender or race differences, and about the best promotion of children’s literature. The documentary film is air has been trasmitted on TV and can be easily accessed on YouTube, social networks, and official project website, entitled “Readers of the Future”. The film documentary transmitts promotional messages for the book and its reader. Here’s how the movie begins:
“A book can help us all live a better life, talk together about the pleasures of literature, art, knowledge, about the joy of discovering relationships between people, exercising our right to seek the sense of life and beauty , to experiment with freedom of imagination and the power of literature to change things. A book is a way to take an active part in our lives and society, a source of joy and satisfaction in our daily lives. “
In Tirana, on June 11, 2018, was organized the Final Conference of the Project “Readers of the Future”, with the participation of Macedonian and Italian partners, publishers, librarians, cultural and educational operators, journalists, representatives of educational and cultural institutions, etc. In the proceedings of this conference, which was widely reflected in the press some of the conclusions of the project “Readers of the Future” were discussed. Speakers and numerous speakers, after congratulations to the organizers of this project, expressed the need for the development of programs for the promotion of reading for children from an early age, as an investment for the future; the example of this project should encourage us to do the same thing to design the best policies to bring children closer to books and inject in them with love for reading.
