ShutterTea

This project is about combining community, art and coffee. Great main objective is to make youth centre for teens, kids and young adults that is totally free.

Before this project began we went through a bit of length to gather up teens and young adults. I have asked them about the places they go to - they all stated that local cafes are expensive, the centre for kids is costly, so they mainly stay at home. Otherwise they "chill" outside wandering around town. They literally have no place to be in if it's not home. Although there were complaints about home being quite a tough place to be as well. So I decided to just round them up and take them out to places that would be less costly and available for us to be in. Still, they have to pay for their time there, which is sad. But still, when they attend - they have the fun of their life chatting and playing music, terrorizing Xbox, having long chats and plainly smiling and laughing. That's what I wish to accomplish - their smiling faces, radiant, bright and enjoying life.

* Full Project Summary *

This centre will have facilities for kids to study programs on computers that are hard to get even in schools; they will have photography\filming room, dance studio, book stands with literature in English, Russian, Lithuanian and many other languages for youth to advance their knowledge and attain more practice in their studies. Game room will be included with Xbox, PS4 and board games. There will be a kitchen corner with coffee machine, tea and snacks, so that they’ll have something to refill them during their productive time.

To keep everything free for them – the café downstairs will be using percentage from sales to upkeep centre. This centre is aimed for kids and young adults to have place for them to grow, additionally providing information and help to them.

Not many are lucky to have pocket money, so they can’t spend time for fun or pay for extra classes they wish to indulge in, or learn things because payment is essential to many. I wish to have enough programs, information and possibilities available so they can learn languages, use professional software for film, design, music, animation, photography and many more. There will be teachers coming in to give lectures for free, psychologist and social worker visiting to help them in need.

Government does not provide enough for youth, so we wish to change that, we wish to help youth see world brighter, grow confident in skills and abilities, see everything differently and become change of this contemporary world.

Café will host customers with love and care. It will have sandwich stand with homemade sandwiches and baguettes, hot sandwiches included. Also as a “personification” in addition, Café will include homemade sweets: cheesecakes, muffins, croissants, cakes and many more.

Some sweets will be made in idea related or influenced by movies, games, anime, comic books, books and manga. To enrich the experience there will be seasonal and event themed food, that will be served. It will be related to different cultures and influences.

We decided to create events like “stand up” nights, “live music” events with musicians that are local as well as from different countries, also the “battles” between the Make-up/Hair/Nails stylists, Designers and Artisans, Fashion Shows will be included too, as they’ll mostly be hosted once every 3-4 months. Such events will mainly be free for anyone to attend and see (In some cases we’ll have a 2-3 euro fee for entry – which will add up to prize pool of winner, depending on event).

Participants will have a great set of prizes for their work and contributions. Rewards such as flight for a week to holiday destination, special café card with options of free food for certain period of time, special events created specifically for the winner, online promotions and much more.

One of the most “magical” workshops/events hosted shall be food based. Consumers will be able to create desserts or gourmet food with help of Chef and Café Staff. Chefs that will participate in such events/lessons will be mainly from abroad, so that food will be as authentic as possible. Such events will encourage youth and grown-ups to try new ways in cooking and enjoy time spent learning something new.

This sort of events will engage consumers in more art diversity and will show them the differences and wide range of interests that cover art world.

As a slight perk of Shutter Tea Café – there will always be some sort of exhibition going on inside: paintings/photography/digital design art pieces hanging on the walls, 3D art bits here and there. One main thing that will be available only here will be the special merchandise with plush toys, keyrings and other bits that are replicas of our seasonal and thematic sweets and food. This merchandise will help maintain youth centre.

With all this going on we still will maintain the airy feel inside, so the atmosphere won’t be clustered up, in some cases like overdose of furniture or any other items compilation – we won’t have that. We shall keep it modern and easy acceptable. So that customers will feel at ease, able to relax, enjoy their stay and share the experience.