CALL: Cultural Diplomacy – Training Programme For Eastern Partnership Cultural Managers

The Contrapunctum Foundation together with the Centre of Cultural Management in Lviv and New Art Union in Tbilisi are pleased to announce the 1st edition of the Polish-EaP cultural cooperation programme “Cultural diplomacy - training programme for EaP cultural managers”.

We invite to participate all cultural managers active in the Eastern Partnership countries: from the city officials in charge of cultural policies, representatives of Ngo’s and public institutions to freelancers.

The programme will enable the participants to analyse the European and Polish system of culture management, fundraising and lobbing opportunities, international cooperation and partnerships building, linking culture and commercial sector within the creative industries.

The project will also create the platform for meetings and collaboration between Polish and EaP cultural managers.

PROJECT SCHEDULE

1. Application procedure: July 26th – August 25th

2. Local seminars:

a) Lviv: September 22nd

b) Tbilisi: September 27th

3. Study visit to Warsaw: October 18th – 28th

4. Sum-up conference – Kyiv: November 9th

PROJECT SYLLABUS IN SHORT

1. Local seminars in Lviv & Tbilisi:

- diagnosis and analysis of existing and preparing cultural policies,

- European legislation; financial and non-financial support mechanisms,

- international cooperation & networks

- top European subjects: market intelligency, audience development, creative sector, media literacy, copyrights and media freedom

2. Study visit to Warsaw:

- strategies of cities and regions development

- Polish models of culture management: public, private and 3rd sector;

- Preparation of international projects

- Meetings and visits to the Warsaw leading cultural institutions

3. Conference in Kyiv:

- EuroEast culture – good practices;

- The future of support programmes for EaP countries;

- Creative Europe and its planned shape;

- Presentation of results and recommendations after the “Cultural diplomacy” programme.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

The project is open for all cultural managers, having the EaP country citizenship and working actively in one of the EaP countries. You don’t have to already get the Schengen visa in advance; the valid passport will be enough to apply for the visa, once you are accepted for the programme.

The official language of the whole programme is English. To be an active participant, it’s compulsory to have a good knowledge of English: both written and spoken.

HOW TO APPLY

To apply for the participation in the programme you need to go through 2-phase application form. The 1st part contains mostly your personal data to be verified by the application operator. Then, you will get the instruction for your e-mail address about how to access the 2nd part of application. In the 2nd part you will have to put all the important information about your education, experience, previous career & plans for the future.

The link to the 1st part of application:  

creatives.waw.pl/cultural-diplomacy-part-1

The deadline for submitting the 2nd part of applications is: August 25th, so please start to fill the forms at least 5 days earlier, so that we could verify your personal data.

Once you sent the application, by clicking the button “Submit” you will no longer have the access to correct or change it.

The results of application process will be announced by August 31st.

The list of qualified participants will contain the people we would like to invite for the opening seminars:

- from Belarus, Moldova & Ukraine – to Lviv on September 22nd;

- from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia – to Tbilisi on September 27th.

After the seminars, the final decision about the participants of study visit will be made. Please note, that participation in the seminar is one of the requirements of approval for the study visit.

COSTS REIMBURSEMENT & LOGISTICS

For the people qualified for the local seminars we cover the following costs:

a) accommodation costs for the people travelling over 200 km;

b) travel costs on the basis of valid train/bus/flight ticket - reimbursement;

The study visit to Warsaw participants will be offered:

a) bus/train/flight tickets provided by the programme operator;

b) accommodation in 2-/3- rooms in the nice hostel, located in the Warsaw city centre

c) full board

All the participants of Warsaw study visit will be also invited to attend the Kyiv conference; for the best selected by the project team we cover the costs of accommodation & travel.

The project is organized due to the cooperation and financial support of the City of Warsaw.

ART PROJECT: GeoAIR project “undergo. The parallels”, Tbilisi, Georgia, May-June 2012 (geoair.blogspot)

Opening 24th of may

The notion of a “public space” together with an “Art in a public space”, has acquired a new significance in the last period worldwide. The word “public” means democracy, and includes “clearness”, “openness”, “involvement”, “participation” and “responsibilities” not only from the governmental side towards people, but between people in general as well. Discourse about Art in a public space, is not only definition of the word public, but it is also realization of the idea of democracy.


The exhibition project “undergo the parallels” has to be held in about 10 underground passages of Tbilisi, images can be seen under: picasaweb.google.com

An exhibition project "undergo. the parallels" will take place in Tbilisi pedestrian underground passages. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, these underground passages have experienced different stages of existence: first they were completely abandoned and became dangerous places of muggings and robbery. The outcome of this was that people entered them more and more seldom, choosing to cross streets loaded with traffic arbitrarily, which led to a significant death toll. Later, these undergrounds became places where alternative, unofficial selling points arose. The more efficient sellers developed kiosks, shops, gambling places etc. Some of these underground passageways developed their own life, parallel to "normal" city life in the open air. These passages somehow turned into spaces of meeting and communicating, the youth are gathering in gambling houses, some musicians and students meet to play and listen to the music, the shop keepers are in close contact with the passengers and potential customers.

Today these undergrounds are still under development, in some of them new “organized” commercial infrastructures are built, some of them are under the danger of collision, also there appeared some passages which regardless of their necessity, has lost their practical function, and became place for garbage, or turned into public toilets.

There are two direct goals to be achieved with the project „undergo. the parallels“: practical and artistic.

In term of practical goals we hope to animate the population of Tbilisi to more frequent usage of underground passageways. For these artists will work directly on site in the passageways, some of the works will be displayed during the whole project period, but also temporal actions and performances will be held in different passageways... Project guide, which will inform about all the activities, will be spread out to general population.On the one hand activities carried out during the project will animate pedestrians to enter the passageways and on the other hand they will give an input to officials for improvement of the given situation.

On the artistic level, site-specific works (light installations, sound installations, photography, street art etc.) produced especially for the passageways will address socio-political and concrete practical issues mentioned above. Tbilisi and Georgian audience is not used to art in public space and in participatory art. With the project "undergo. the parallels" we aim to confront the general public with unconventional ways of perceptions of art and engagement with it. Some artworks as street art, light installations, produced during the project, could also remain on-site and act as a long-term attraction in both practical and aesthetical ways for the passageways.

Project is part of an international cooperation project SPACES: Sustainable Public Areas for Culture in Eastern Countries. The SPACES project is financed by the European Union through the Eastern Partnership Culture Programme.


Tbilisi project "Undergo. the parallels" is also supported by Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia and Tbilisi Centre of Cultural Events..