Ongoing projects
Below, you will find an overview of projects related to the UT Viljandi Culture Academy.
Viljandi has been a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network since 2019. The network covers seven creative fields: film, crafts and folk art, design, gastronomy, literature, media arts, and music. From Estonia, the network includes Tartu as a Creative City of Literature and Viljandi as a Creative City of Crafts and Folk Arts.
The Creative City board is led by Ave Matsin, Programme Director of the Native Crafts curriculum of the UT Viljandi Culture Academy. The team also includes representatives of the Kondas Centre, the Museum of Viljandi, the Estonian Traditional Music Centre, Viljandi Town Government, the Bonifatius Guild and the Estonian Folk Culture Centre, as well as volunteer contributors.
At the beginning of each year, the Creative City board draws up the topic and plans activities for the year. Also, a new Master Craftsman is elected each year.
Time
1 March 2021 – 28 February 2022
Goal
The Covid-19 crisis made it impossible for the performers and the audience to be physically present in the same space. Theatres started to look for the possibilities to perform online, and elektron.art was one of the first platforms to provide a virtual venue for performing artists. The biggest problem of online theatre is the lack of real-time communication between the audience and the performers, making it hard to assess the success of the virtual performance without knowing how the audience felt during the show.
This experimental project aims to develop a framework where new software tools and methods allow to construct online performances based on the audience engagement index (AEI). To measure audience engagement, the team mainly focuses on facial affect recognition based on analysing the viewer's webcam footage. The resulting AEI will be used for creating and analysing new online performances during two semesters at Viljandi Culture Academy. The project will assess the feasibility of a new service extending beyond performing arts to evaluate user experiences in various online services and events.
Cooperation partners
The project is funded from the University of Tartu development fund under the Feasibility Fund measure. The financial volume of the project is 32,619 euros. The team includes Lecturer of Performing Arts Multimedia of the UT Viljandi Culture Academy Taavet Jansen, neuroscientist Aleksander Väljamäe and Project and Development Coordinator of the UT Viljandi Culture Academy Anu Almik. Students and teaching staff of the Performing Arts curriculum of the UT Viljandi Culture Academy are also involved. The team cooperates with Andres Kuusik from the UT Laboratory of Neuromarketing, a very important role is performed by Hugo Silva and Patrícia Botaga – Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT-LISBOA) and the team of Elektron.art.
Time
2021–2022
Goal
In the summer of 2021, in cooperation with Viljandi, we tested the format of a Creative Entrepreneurship Incubator-Accelerator, in the framework of which four new enterprises were created and registered in Viljandi by the teams who had completed entrepreneurship courses at the UT Viljandi Culture Academy. In 2022, the project is planning to involve ten teams in the incubator taking place in summer, with the aim to create ten new enterprises in the Viljandi region.
Cooperation partners
In 2021, the Viljandi Town Government supported launching and running the Creative Entrepreneurship Incubator-Accelerator with 10,000 euros. For 2022, the project team has applied for a 20,000-euro support.
Time
5 October 2020 – 30 June 2022
Goal
It is a joint project of different faculties of the University of Tartu, in the framework of which training courses are organised in the Community Education and Hobby Activity curriculum of the UT Viljandi Culture Academy to develop the practical training system of the curriculum.
Cooperation partners
Financed by the State Shared Service Center.
Time
1 December 2020 – 30 November 2022
Goal
The project aims to study and test the quality and properties of wool from indigenous and most common sheep breeds in Estonia and Norway, to create study materials and pilot wool study programmes for textile students. The broader goal of the project is to increase the use of local sheep's wool in textiles. In Estonia, there is a lot of prejudice about the quality of local wool and most of it (85-90%) is destroyed as waste. There is no Estonian wool quality system, and not enough research has been done about the properties and suitable usage areas of local wool that could support the broader use of local raw material. In Norway, there is a very good system for collecting, sorting and processing wool, but as in Estonia, textile students' understanding of the properties and quality of local wool should be better.
The project helps to find suitable ways for using local wool in making different fabrics and promote and develop the use of local wool among crafters, artists, and consumers. Local wool factories involved in the project can use the results of the project to promote their products better. Estonian wool gets more research-based attention as a valuable textile raw material.
Cooperation partners
The EEA/Norway Cooperation Programme in Higher Education supports the two-year project with a total amount of 128,657 euros. The leading institution of the project is the UT Viljandi Culture Academy. Project partners include Tallinn University of Technology and the wool factory Muru Villavabrik from Estonia and the University of South-Eastern Norway and Selbu Spinneri AS from Norway.
Time
1 November 2021 – 1 November 2024
Goal
Project partners plan to develop a joint study module and an online platform for learning, teaching and sharing repertoire, and to organise student exchange as intensive weeks in all partner countries.
Cooperation partners
The project has been funded by the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships Programme in the total amount of 354,700 euros. The leading institution is the University of South-Eastern Norway. Other partners apart from the UT Viljandi Culture Academy include higher education institutions from France (Pôle Aliénor), Spain (Conservatorio Superior de Música de Vigo) and Greece (University of Ioannina) and the European Association of Conservatories (AEC).
Time
1 January 2022 – 1 July 2024
Goal
The project aims to analyse ways in which universities can help cultural heritage institutions to recover from the crisis caused by the pandemic, to create a tool for universities to use open innovation methods and practices, to create a methodology for using higher education-led open innovation in cultural heritage institutions, to pilot and analyse the methodology.
Cooperation partners
The project has been funded by the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships Programme in the total amount of 341,935 euros. The leading institution is the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Apart from the UT Viljandi Culture Academy, project partners include Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Web2learn and OSYGY Women's Association in the Cyclades .
Time
28 September 2021 – 27 September 2022
Goal
The project aims to create strategic tools to raise awareness of intellectual property in Estonia, particularly copyright, including educational materials, visual identity and core messages, and an awareness campaign toolbox.
Cooperation partners
The project has been funded by the European Union Intellectual Property Office with 60,000 euros and the Estonian Association of Phonogram producers with 3,000 euros.