Engaging local talent
Wissekerke Castle in Kruibeke, a fortress with roots in the Middle Ages, is due for rejuvenation. That rejuvenation will benefit the people of Kruibeke – and they are also the ones who make it happen. Professionals and amateurs join forces. ‘Participation’ is the buzzword. But how do you turn good intentions into good practice? Here are a few insights.
©Jan Maris
1. From theory to practice: the flourishing community
Tomorrow’s tourism will be rooted in local communities...
...writes Tourism Flanders in its manifesto, Travelling to Tomorrow. In our commission for Wissekerke Castle, the request was explicit: open up the castle, commit to collaboration, make sure the community in Kruibeke continues to flourish. How do you connect residents and visitors with a special place? How do you appeal to their sense of pride? We committed 100% to ‘co-creation’: intense teamwork between designers, the client and local talent.
2. Start at the beginning
How do you see the future of Wissekerke Castle? We took this question to local residents right at the very beginning, in the ideas phase.
September 2020
We join the castle’s current users for coffee. We hear all kinds of inspiring ideas. And incorporate them into our design.
Pupils at the art academy, couples getting married, event organisers: the people who use Wissekerke Castle today are a diverse bunch!
November 2020
We invite local residents to a ‘kick off’. More than seventy people turn up, ask questions, share their opinions. Forty of them commit to becoming ‘thinkers and makers’ for Wissekerke Castle.
January 2020
A historian, a food archaeologist, a graphic designer, an illustrator, a storyteller, a lacemaker... a core team of local talents is coming together. They are the ‘makers’ who will really make a difference at Wissekerke Castle.
3. Two-way traffic takes time
For us, as designers, the new collaborations are eye-openers. The ‘makers’ contribute unexpected opportunities and contacts. They are the first to see the designs emerging, with all the trial and error involved. This is an intensive process that demands plenty of follow-up and coaching. But the results we achieved together would never have been possible with the traditional combination of ‘professionals’ from the sector.
Isabelle Dubois - illustrator
"Getting to know Wissekerke Castle from the inside out, with all its stories and anecdotes: that was an enormous source of inspiration. I absolutely threw myself into it. I experienced a lot of artistic freedom and support from the designers, the village and other creative people involved in the project."
Meneer Zee - storyteller
"Imagine you have to come up with a guided tour of a castle for kids. The castle is entirely stripped bare. But you need to talk about it as if it were completely up and running again. No two ways about it: you say yes, right away! It was the most fantastic job I’ve had in years."
Sofie De Schutter - project coordinator
Municipality of Kruibeke
"You feel the love our local talents have for the castle in everything they have made. We needed extra time and had to let go of the reins a bit, but now we want to shout it from the rooftops: ‘Come and see your rejuvenated castle, it’s bursting with homegrown talent!’"
4 . Embrace unpredictability
How far does the commitment of local makers go? What can they do? What do they want to do? How do we define a task if we don’t exactly know yet what Wissekerke Castle needs? This unpredictability demands flexibility from everyone involved, but this is where it has taken us!
Most of the illustrations for Wissekerke Castle are linocuts made by Isabelle Dubois.
Illustrator creates special identity for Wissekerke Castle
She is an illustrator by trade and loves the craft of lino cutting. Her portfolio is impressive. But we could never have predicted that Isabelle Dubois would define Wissekerke Castle’s new visual identity so strongly. Her linocuts and sketches are the thematic thread running through the exhibition and the face of Wissekerke Castle.
Design for a magic mirror in the castle and a first test in the studio: what do people think of the 19th century fashion accessories?
Author explores the archives
Inge Misschaert, an art historian, archivist and young people’s author, knows the archives like the back of her hand. She tracks down attractive engravings, arranges for high-quality scans and... keeps us on our toes. She regularly slaps our wrists if we select a fashion print that is fifteen years ‘too old’ for our story. “Fashion changed incredibly fast in the nineteenth century,” she points out, “and critical visitors will notice that right away.”
Fashion in our region in the 1820s-30s
Storyteller dreams up a talking castle
Jan De Mayer, a history teacher known in the region as the storyteller Meneer Zee, took charge of the children’s tour. He doesn’t shy away from a healthy dose of absurdity. Meneer Zee dreamed up a talking castle, with conversations between a bedpan and a chamber pot or the two sides of a door. He recorded all these characters himself as well – in his own inimitable way!
5. Ask for opinions (and take them into account)
Young people are an important target group for Wissekerke Castle. We collaborated with Yesmade on a musical audio tour of the castle. Does it sound right? Is the music we’ve chosen relevant and up to date? We tested it on a panel of local teenagers. They tweaked it and tightened it up... and mercilessly scrapped a whole story by one of our valued makers. Uh-oh... We gritted our teeth, but this was important: if you ask for an opinion, you have to respect the answer.
The popular band Krutown from Kruibeke turned a story about Wissekerke Castle into a hip-hop song for the young people’s tour:
6. Tribute to amateurs
Een tentoonstelling maken is niet alleen een zaak van specialisten, maar ook van amateurs en vrijwilligers. Zij realiseren méér dan met louter professionele medewerkers mogelijk is. Het is ook een uitgelezen kans om een breed publiek te betrekken.
Negen buurtbewoners nemen plaats voor de camera ...
...for portraits by the local photographer! People from Kruibeke will recognise Nadia from the library or Gunther the postman on info panels in the castle gardens.
Our models come to the studio...
... of our multimedia partner Create.eu. They are helping to define one of the highlights of Wissekerke Castle: a life-size projection in Salon Vilain XIIII.
Isolde Coens creates...
...a customised lace tablecloth (designed by Lieve Pollet) for a parlour table at Wissekerke Castle.
7. Conclusion
We have created the conditions for Wissekerke Castle and its surroundings to continue growing into a special place for local residents, a place that people return to again and again. This warm setting is especially attractive to tourists: you can have spontaneous encounters ‘with the locals’, making it a place for memories that stick.
"Places with a soul, like Wissekerke Castle, speak a language we don’t always understand these days. The renovation of the castle and study of the documents, photos and objects revealed many secrets. The stories associated with the Vilain XIIII family and the village appeal to our deepest sense of ‘home’. Knowing where we come from and where we belong helps us ground ourselves better and feel safer. That explains why the local community has embraced this castle so thoroughly in its heart."
Peter De Wilde - administrator-general
Onroerend Erfgoed