23rd of May until 1st of June 2017
Phini village, Limassol District, Cyprus
“Trade Clay”: From TRADition to Employment: Clay Creations” was a youth exchange funded by Erasmus+ to promote entrepreneurship through traditional arts. The project was hosted by the NGO “Plan Be Plan It Be It” where 36 individuals from the countries of Cyprus, Portugal, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania and Spain came together in Cyprus full of creativity, fun, learning and innovative ideas.
The aim of the project was to provide insight to the village’s traditions and customs and through this experience to transform and reinvent their own traditions as well as creating new job opportunities by coming up with innovative ideas to implement in today’s entrepreneurial world.
The focus of the project was on Phini’s ceramic traditions as the village is well known for its red soil which participants could explore and experience, through study visits and hands-on workshops, and create one of a kind ceramic pieces. Through role playing activities and simulation games the participants had the opportunity to live in the business world by coming up with a product to sell and experience the process of the labor market. Of course, apart from the ceramic workshops and study visits, the participants got the chance to bond with each other and make lifelong friendships through team building activities, energizers and intercultural evenings as well as through teamwork during the workshops.
In addition, the participants had the chance to meet the locals at the local ceramics museum and the ceramics workshop of the village and discuss about the ceramics tradition of the village. The best thing was meeting with veterans of the art, a 92 year old woman, who demonstrated how everything was done 50 years in the past. Finally, the highlight of the project was the project exhibition where all participants exhibited their creations at the central square for all the locals to see and admire as the tradition of the village is passed down to people from different countries. We can all agree that this has been a life changing experience and will be forever locked in our memory vault as a true treasure.
Here you can see the Facebook photo album that was created for the youth exchange Trade Clay.
