Creative Collaboration is a British Council project in partnership with artists, cultural leaders and creative entrepreneurs across South East Europe and the UK (the British Council SEE region includes the following countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Austria, BiH, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Israel, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia).
The project uses innovative approaches to networking to encourage arts and cultural leaders from different countries and different art forms to talk together, learn from each other and develop new partnerships for effective cross-border working.
Launched in Istanbul last year, with support from the UK’s award-winning theatre group ‘Improbable’, the project is bringing together leading arts professionals to work on the issues that are most important to them such as public space, arts and professional development, social inclusion, cultural leadership and creative cities.
We want to help the region’s artists and cultural leaders to develop the networks and skills they need to build a better society, support economic growth and enrich the cultural life of Europe and its surrounding countries.
During May and June 2008 we held four Open Space events throughout the region.Montenegrin artists and cultural leaders had the opportunity to participate in three of them:
- Bucharest, Romania 14-16 May, Public space (Varja Djukic, Karver Café Bookshop & Edin Jasarevic, City in the Park Project)
- Athens, Greece, 23-25 May, Inclusion through Arts (no candidates)
- Varna, Bulgaria 6-8 June, Creative Cities: How can we develop our cities to be more creative and diverse? (Ratimir Martinovic, Kotor Art & Petar Pejakovic, FIAT)
- Jerusalem, Israel 16-18 June, Looking In and Facing Out: how can we best use international partnerships to enrich professional development in the arts? (Janko Ljumovic, Faculty for Dramatic Arts, University of Montenegro & Sanja Jovanovic, Faculty for Visual Arts, Mediterranean University)
- Be part of an international networking event – enabling participants to build networks of influence across the region and in the UK, and in their own area of professional interest
- Experience a unique and innovative method of working – Open Space Technology
- Be inspired by art relevant to the theme of the space.
‘The most useful part of the meeting was the discussion in the coffee break’. Have you ever felt like that after a meeting? Open Space Technology works like one long coffee break. It is an unusual but highly effective way of getting people to work together because:
- All participants are invited to define the agenda and convene a session on the issue they feel is important
- Participants are then free to choose the sessions they want to attend and contribute to
- Participants are passionate about the issues being discussed.
This fund was opened in 2008 with the aim to support successful collaborative cross-border arts project in South East Europe and the UK.
Currently, there are 11 large scale and 17 small scale projects including performances, publications, exhibitions, installations, networks, websites and workshops.
- More then 400 artists, cultural leaders and creative entrepreneurs have neen connected through Open Space events
- All art form are covered within the 28 projects including design film, literature, music, new media, theatre, dance and visual arts
- Out of 28 projects in 20 countries, 16 projectss were initiated in South East European countries in partnership with British organizations
- 12 projects were initiated in the UK in partnership with SEE regional organisations.
One of the 28 successful projects is the Culture Lobby, in which Montenegro is involved.
Canadian artists Cindy Blazevic and Pascal Paquette, in cooperation with the Belgrade based NGO Kiosk created this project in 2007. The project was launched as part of the Creative Collaboration platform in Bijela, Montenegro in August 2009.
For further information about this project, please contact Vanja Madzgalj in our Podgorica office.
| 
