Description
The project aims to raise general awareness of the Koigi manor house and through this local development. The project includes restoration of the manor’s flower garden and garden paths. Visitors to the garden will get a chance to buy the plants cultivated in the garden. Decorative plants will be marked with signs and contemporary QR codes that will run a short video after taking photos with mobile phone. In spring 2014 two festivals will be held. Weed Festival which will be held in spring involves top chefs holding workshops and introducing Norwegian cuisine and the use of fresh plants (incl. weeds) in kitchen. Entrepreneurship training will be organised as a side activity to ensure greater participation at the Jam Fair to be held in autumn. At the Jam Fair, local population will be offering products, made with the knowledge from entrepreneurship training. As the outcome of the described activities, the awareness of Estonian population of the manor house is expected to increase, in addition to self-awareness of the local people and better understanding of the value of the manor house and its surroundings. Gamle Hvam Museum (Norway) is the Donor project partner in this project.
Summary of project results
Koigi manor is run by a local basic school. The aim of the development project was to take a challenge of the strategical geographical position on the main highway to create new services on the basis of manor park. During the project the park was restored and developed with the assistance of Norwegian partner Gamle Hvan Museum. The new concept enables to enjoy the garden, get the information about different plants with QR codes and also to purchase different plants. Two popular new traditions – Herb fair in the spring and Jam fair in the autumn were initiated. The fairs with exhaustive programme, a variety of pop-up restaurants and different activities have already become popular events among local people but also attracted a lot of attention all around Estonia. The number of different enteroreneurs and companies participating on the fair is ca 45. As a part of the project the trainings on entrepreneurship were carried out for local people. The participants of the training have actively taken part in the fairs selling their products. The project reached its goals and was well promoted in local and national media, but it was also very visible in social media. The number of reflections in media is ca 30. The activities carried out support regional development, the sustainability of the school and the better use of the protected monument. As a result of the project new tourism and community services were created and the activity of local inhabitants in development of new products has significantly grown. The awareness and the visits to the park and manor have significantly grown, the number of participants at the fairs during the project implementation period reached 1500 and has continued also after the project period. A good and sustainable partnership with Norwegian partner has been created.
Summary of bilateral results
Koigi Municipality and Gamle Hvam Museum created a very fruitful platform of cooperation. Both organisations are very small but they had shared interest. Good partnership adds credibility to the project activities also among local community. Bilateral cooperation helped to learn from each others experience, exchange of ideas helps to be more efficient. Koigi's partnership project was also well promoted to other participants of the programme activities. For example they gave a presentation at a bilateral seminar in 2014.