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Description
The project “iLi-Lab of literary criticism” is focused on literary critics – the editorial staff of the iLiteratura.cz journal. Its intention is the professional development of the editors – their further education in some key aspects:
- Art criticism (including its new online forms - podcasting, vlogging);
- Running a cultural institution in the virtual space (online promotion, platform development, possible business models for online cultural media, identity in the online environment);
- Soft skills development (collaboration and communication in the online medium).
We will implement the project as a series of workshops. At least one external expert will be present at each meeting to discuss the chosen topics. He/she will evaluate our literary critical magazine and its future independently and bring new perspectives and experience. Besides improving the quality of our magazine, the project also aims to develop our cooperation with experts from related fields who can enrich cultural criticism with their experience (including, for example, business or IT experts). At the same time, we want to open the Lab to critics working in other media and to open a broader discussion beyond our journal, to discuss the quality of contemporary literary criticism in general.
The output will be: improvement of our work, clarification of the intent of the daily practice of the magazine, discussion about fundamental issues of our future development and about long-term issues (redesign of the website, paid access). As a result, the project will contribute to the quality of literary criticism as such, attract new readers (not only to our literary magazine, but generally to literature) and improve the acceptance of literary criticism (and understanding its role) among the wider public.
Summary of project results
Initial brainstorming: we defined our expectations of the new project, assigned roles and tasks.
Survey: we approached a wide pool of those who are in touch with the magazine asking for
feedback and change suggestions. The results were very beneficial to us, we will use them in our
next activities.
Workshops: in the end, all workshops took place online. So, we lost the possibility of direct
communication, but we were able to invite international trainers (Mirko Kraetsch, Xavier Galmiche),
it was easier to involve those who are not based in Prague, editors on maternity leave, on sick leave
etc. The response to the workshops, both internal from editorial staff and external from trainers, on
social media etc., was unexpectedly good.
Final report: the advantage of the outcome summary is that we can continuously go back to it, even
during editorial discussions.
Compulsory publicity: used to promote the project, we also learned to work with new tools and
established a new marketing team.
After 20 years of existence, iLiteratura.cz''s position on the cultural scene is strong. But conceptual
changes happen on a one-off basis and without deeper reflection. The editorial staff is stricken by
fatigue (the project has no employees, everyone does more than this job) and burnout. Benefits:
The iLiLaboratoř project allowed us to assess what we do and how and to say what we should do
and how. External trainers’ involvement was an advantage. Issues: The project was hindered by the
pandemic.
In general, the project improved the atmosphere among editorial staff – everyone was able to
express their opinion on problems and suggest improvements or new activities (critical writing,
editorial communication and processes, magazine promotion, financial context).
We received specific feedback from 12 external experts and a clear opinion on questions which have
long been contentious (we