BALKAN
CULTURAL
CO-OPERATION
CULTURAL
CO-OPERATION
International Cultural Cooperation: Who? What? Where? How?
In Belgrade has just ended an one-day conference on international cultural cooperation between European cultural networks, international foundations and programs and national foundations. The conference was dedicated to our cultural practitioners as one possible way to find answers to the eternal disturbing questions that plague international cultural cooperation: Who What Where and How to promote and finance culture.
More than 200 participants from all over Yugoslavia took part in a gathering that should contribute directly to the improvement of our cultural production by developing international networking, exchange and mobility of our cultural practitioners, their works and ideas. In addition it should facilitate free flow of information and acquaint cultural practitioners with international institutions, their programs and fund-raising principles.
FOREIGN EXPERIENCES
Representatives of international institutions and foundations from Denmark, Germany and Austria and directors cultural centers in Belgrade presented their programs, plans and experiences. Possibilities for entering into international cooperation were discussed by several experts from our various institutions. These included Prof. Dr. Milena Dragicevic-Sesic, Rector of the University of Arts, Belgrade, Branislava Andjelkovic, Center for Contemporary Arts, Jovan Ratkovic, the Yugoslav Office of the Stability Pact for SouthEastern Europe (SEE), and Dimitrije Vujadinovic, Director of the BalkanKult Association.
Among the lecturers who presented international organizations and programs was Danielle Cliché, researcher and coordinator of projects for the European Institute for Research of Cultural Policies and Arts (ERICArts) in Bonn. Mrs. Cliché manages several big transnational research projects in the field of cultural policy and media and cooperates with the European Council, various European foundations and the European Commission... Danielle Cliché was born and educated in in Canada, and she has been working for ERICArts since 1997.
Mrs. Cliché said: "Up to 1997 ERICArts had been a cultural network, but served mainly as a good idea; since then, we have done some important projects, although we are not institutionally financed, which is a completely new concept in culture." Mrs. Cliché cites the most important projects she works on within this network - Cultural Policies in Europe, Compendium, Creative Europe, Creative Policies in Culture, Arts and Media and Cultural Industries in Europe...
Mrs. Cliché came to Belgrade for the first time as the guest of the Ministry of Culture of Serbia through BalkanKult in order to take part in this conference. Her main aim was to advise our cultural practitioners on how to apply for transnational projects, how and when to apply and how to gather and use all the necessary elements for fund-raising for joint projects.
"In December, 1999," Mrs. Cliché said, "ERICArts organized, on the initiative of BalkanKult, and in the wake of the wars and troubles in the Balkans, the Sarajevo Conference on cultural production in this region. We were also the first to establish contacts with cultural practitioners here", she added . "We are very happy because we have since experienced an unexpected follow-up. We are all very pleasantly surprised by reactions after Sarajevo. It is obvious that people want to cooperate! It is really impressive that in the region there are being established the processes of cooperation, of education for networking or, to put it more exactly, re-education to recreate networking that used to exist here many years ago..."
"INGENIOUS " PROJECTS = MONEY?
According to Mrs. Cliché, it is important to sustain such processes and projects, and this is what ERICArts does. "We don't have the money to finance projects, we are not a funding body. But, we can share our experiences with local people, help them in this way and advise them on how to help themselves." She adds that she was impressed by the will, vitality and energy of the Yugoslav people, their ambition to succeed and to get out of crisis... She said she is amazed by the number of Yugoslav cultural practitioners who visited the conference and wanted to learn who, what, how and where in terms of European culture.
"They numbered almost 200," she said "and they were all very interested to learn how to get money necessary for cultural projects. Finally, they realized that in the world the dominating rule is not: I have an ingenious project, so give me money. I am positive that they will learn everything necessary for applying for financial support from various institutions and foundations, from filling out applications and registering to building the project in all its phases, including fund-raising. It is wonderful when someone from outside sees that there is cooperation between the Ministry of Culture, independent research organizations and the University! I do not know how it will be manifested in the future, but it is important that the entire process works right from the very beginning. And this is happening here. Your people just have to apply their know-how and their experience. It's they who should inform the managers of cultural institutions and cultural policy. I think that everything is going well..."
Published: 2001-04-24
Updated: 2003-11-20
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