Our project won the Award of the Czech National Agency

In September 2020, the Prague Botanical Garden was nominated for the award of the Czech National Agency for International Education in the field of adult education of the Erasmus + Program with the project Botanical Garden: COME IN! ENTER! COM IN! WEJDŹ! GYERE BE!

This international project focused on the accessibility of botanical gardens and arboretums not only to visitors with special needs. More than seventy employees of our garden worked on the project during three years (2016-2019). This project won the highest possible award – was named the best project in the category of adult education in the Czech Republic (Award of the Czech National Agency for International Education, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports).

A big thank you to all our colleagues and friends from Gothenburg Botanical Garden (Sweden), The Adam Mickiewicz University Botanical Garden (Poland) and The Hungarian Association of Arboreta and Botanic Gardens (Hungary). Without their commitment, energy, experience and humor, we would never have achieved such excellent results. It is an appreciation of our joint work!

Due to the limitations associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, there could be no award ceremony as was in previous years. In cooperation with the Czech National Agency for International Education we made three short videos related to the awards. This will further promote our project and its results.

The Hungarian media also paid attention to our project. An article about it is available at:

https://nyeromagyarok.eu/magyar-arboretumok-es-botanikus-kertek-szovetsege.html

Various news

In October 2019, we visited the Sanatorium of Hamz and its gardens, which are a member of the Union of BGs. Together with our colleague Jana Zavřelová we started preparing the presentation for the Chamber of Deputies of Czechia, where we will inform about the social role of BGs and about what we do for visitors with special needs (including the outcomes of the COME IN! project). We also took inspiration from the information system of the arboretum. The sensory trail for bare feet reminded us of our dry Kneipp walkway. Compared to ours, we must admit that the walkway in Košumberk is better executed and has railings.

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On the Small conference of garden therapy at Jabok, Prague we shared our experience with visitors with special needs and working with them. We also presented the outcomes of the project Botanical Garden: COME IN! The presentation had very good feedback and interest in the methodology was great.

We were intrigued by the presentations and experience of other participants. We very much liked “suitcases for the memories” from the programme for clients with dementia.

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For the first time we are taking part in the conference of the international association Hands On! International, this year held at Frankfurt am Main. It is aimed on accessibility and inclusive education of children. The meetings with employees of museums, galleries and other cultural institutions are very inspiring. There are lectures, workshops, discussions and even visits to modern expositions and exhibitions.

In Sweden, the outcomes of the project were presented to BGs in Lund, Bergianska and Uppsala by the Gothenburg Botanical Garden.

End of the project & media report

This week the three-year project period has come to an end! Thanks to brilliant cooperation of all partner organizations we managed to send the project final report a month sooner than to the original deadline. Now we are eagerly awaiting the word from the evaluators. ✔

We believe that the end of the project does not mean the end of our international partnership. In 2020/2021 the exhibition for all senses should be organized in Goteborg and Budapest. Hopefully we will stay in touch and continue to improve accessibility of botanical gardens and arboreta for all. 🍀

The media report related to the finishing of the project can be downloaded here (English).

International conference – book of abstracts

Here you can view the book of abstracts.

Complete information about the conference can be found here.

Visitors with Special Needs in Botanical Gardens – Methodology

We’ve finished the methodology. You can download it here:

• methodology
• inserted table

Accessibility workshop in Hungary

GARDENS FOR ALL – NOT FOR THE EYE ONLY!

HAABG held a workshop as titled above on February 7, 2019, in the National Botanic Garden at Vácrátót, Hungary. Participants came from our botanic garden member institutions and specialists working with people with special needs were also invited. The meeting that scored a great success has been organized in the frame of the „Botanical garden – COME IN! VSTUPTE! KOM IN! WEJDŹ! GYERE BE!” ERASMUS+ project. The goal of the workshop was a joint thinking about the possible occupation and service elements feasible in botanic gardens targeting the involvement of visitors with physical or sensory impairment in enhanced experiencing and learning. A presentation was given on the project’s results achieved so far, an imaginary botanic garden was „made accessible”, then participants were provided with a sensitizing training lead by our special guests. Following the sharing of a methodology text to be published soon as part of the project we intend to have further joint work in this field next autumn.

International conference

An international conference “Botanical Garden: A Green World for Everyone” will take place from 9th to 12th July 2019 in Poland. It will be the main dissemination activity of the project. You can find more info about the conference in the respective section of the project website or on the conference website itself.

Annual report: exhibitions for all senses

Prague Botanical Garden has been organizing exhibitions for all senses since 1996. In this annual report we offer their overview from 2007 to 2015 and some additional information – all translated into English.

Posters about the project

You can see how our project has been presented at conferences:

Launching the book about people with visual impairment

On Wednesday, November 28th, Jarmila Skružná and Eva Novozámská from the Czech team took part in the festive launching of the book Self-Help Movement and Education of Visually Impaired at the Beginning of Czechoslovakia by the authors M. Mužáková and M. Pešák. The launching took place in the premises of the Invisible Exhibition in Prague. The book was published thanks to a grant of Municipality of Prague on the occasion of celebrating the 100th year of independent Czechoslovakia by the association e-Inkluze, which fosues on propagation of digital literacy and removing bariers for using digital technologies by older people or people with a handicap. The publication is both in Braiile and enlarged latin type so it can serve as a workbook or reading-book for those who learn to read Braille later in their lives.

We met numerous colleagues that share the goal to openly approach people with specific needs. The encounter was warm and very inpirational for us. Especially the speech of the author M. Mužáková about the person of K. E. Macan, a blind musician, publisher of first magazines and books for people with visual impairment, the propagator of Braille type and tenacious caregiver of wounded soldiers in the first world war touched us very much. His difficult fate, but fulfilled life, interest us even after the hundred years. We look forward to reading the book!

Those interested in the book can contact info@e-inkluze.cz.

Exhibition video with English subtitles

You can see the video from the exhibition for all senses here, with English subtitles included:

Creative meeting in Sv. Jan pod Skalou

From 17th to 18th November the Czech team met at Svatý Jan pod Skalou, a small village hidden in the rocks west of Prague. ⛪ We worked on the methodics and created a draft, but also discussed how Prague Botanical Garden will use the outcomes of the project in practise.