Workshops and seminars
A variety of educational workshops and seminars are being designed in the scope of the research activities of the Centre for Industrial Heritage of the University of Rijeka. The aim is to familiarize the wider public with the development of the Galeb project, which attempts to turn the ship into a cultural and tourist attraction. Besides providing educational activities for children, an emphasis is also placed on the education of tourist guides and other workers in tourist industry. Workshops designed especially for tourist workers are meant to expand and enrich the tourist offer of the city by introducing themes from industrial and intangible heritage.
At the seminar “Industrial Heritage of Rijeka – a Seminar for Tourist Workers”, the participants were acquainted with the walkway, facilities in the process of conversion and themes related to industrial heritage of Rijeka with the aim of creating a unique cultural and tourist product that will contribute to general recognizability, increase the inflow of visitors and ultimately boost development at the local and regional level.
The first seminar for tourist workers was held on 28 and 29 November 2018 in colaboration with the Centre for Industrial Heritage and the Centre for Advanced Studies of Southeastern Europe of the University of Rijeka. On the first day, Ivana Golob Mihić and Velid Đekić led a guided tour of the future cultural-tourist route, while on the second day a series of lectures were given at RiHub.
The next seminar was organized on 11 February 2019 at the University campus, where a number of lectures were given to people working in tourism industry. Julija Lozzi Barković, the head of the Centre for Industrial Heritage, gave a lecture about the industrial zone to the east of the city, while Ervin Dubrović, the director of the City Museum of Rijeka, talked about Andrija Ljudevit Adamić. The second part of the program started with the lecture by Velid Đekić from the Museum of the City of Rijeka, on the topic of Rijeka as industrial city of the past viewed in the historical and tourist context. Kristina Pandža followed with her presentation on the factories of Rijeka in the immediate aftermath of WWII.
A different workshop concept is directed towards development of the industrial heritage interpretation, focusing especially on the reuse of Galeb and the Sugar Refinery Palace. In September 2018, Rijeka welcomed international volunteers, young professionals who took part in the Summer School of Innovative Industrial Heritage Interpretation. In collaboration with Culture Hub Croatia, the platform for education, creativity and promotion of development through culture, and European Heritage Volunteers, a two-week workshop on innovative interpretation of industrial heritage of Rijeka took place. The outcome was a document that laid out proposals and ideas for the 2020 presentation of the restored facilities. Ten volunteers from Germany, Italy, Hungary, Chile, China, Taiwan, Russia and Croatia participated in the work of the summer school. The main idea of the workshops was to interpret the facilities as well as inspire, intrigue, entertain and involve the participants.This type of workshop covered the topics of heritage interpretation, interpretation planning and cultural tourism regarding the heritage potentials of the Galeb and the former Sugar Refinery compound.