TAIGA - an Unlearning and Empowerment Program for women, trans, and non-binary folks working in arts and culture; creating practices and spaces for change in Eastern Europe and the Baltics.
We offer holistic education and transformational leadership approaches rooted in deep longing for safe space and learning transformational and non-patriarchal ways of working, leading, and being together.
The past cohorts have gathered artists, designers, cultural workers, storytellers, embodiment practitioners, and community organisers — people whose practices strive for connection, meaning, and change.
TAIGA cycle consists of 6 facilitated workshops (Opening circle, Willow, Moss, Elm, Maple, Closing circle) and 3 learning circles between the workshops, bringing participants together every week; as well as listening sessions and an evolving toolkit of practices for tending care and change in the cultural sector co-created with the participants of the program.
During the program, participants have opportunities to practice new approaches - co-create space for support and connection, develop small change initiatives in their organisations/projects that are centered on earth-care, human-care, and fair share of resources.
TAIGA was possible thanks to the generous support of Guerilla Foundation.
microTAIGA Participants
Testimonials
“MicroTAIGA is very inspiring and safe space pushing me to develop and expand myself. Exchanging experience in an original way, using female ways of expression makes me reflect my way of thinking. Those meetings make me to trust more in my instinct and beliefs!”
“The spaces they have facilitated have been created and planned very thoroughly from the beginning to the end, creating a safe container and holding space for deeper sharing and experiences to surface up. The workshops welcome true selves of the participants. Here, it is okay to feel and be the way I am at that moment. I have received a versatile set of tools and methods, as well as sharp insights and lessons to share an array of topics. It’s touching delicate subjects in a very supportive way, gently guiding to empowering. The workshops gave me a sense of sisterhood. I finally connected with, and felt belonging in my community. The workshops therefore gave me a sense of peace, and opened me for showing more sides of my authentic self. The process of collective self-care helped me realize that I’m stronger than I thought. It Is safe to be vulnerable here, and I felt a huge power in it. ”
The four core areas and learning modules are:
Self- and community care
Focused on exploring interdependence with others (humans and more-than-humans); reflecting on what care means and looks like; acquiring embodied and relational tools for self- and community care.
Activism
Focused on exploring social power structures with an intersectional lens; reflecting on how we are all part of the problem and part of the solution; and acquiring approaches and practices for being proactive and reactive in face of injustices.
Human and Planet-Centred
Entrepreneurship
Focused on exploring different systems of economic organisation; reflecting on how all our practices are connected with other areas of work and the world; acquiring new perspectives on organisational structures that challenge capitalism.
Stewardship
Focused on exploring and broadening understanding and approaches of leadership; empowering oneself and one another; reflecting on stewardship that drives positive change, self- and community care.