Last Friday at the Youth Cultural Centre Palach, certificates of attendances were awarded to everyone who participated in the educational programmes organised by the Classroom learning programme of Rijeka 2020 – European Capital of Culture.
The goal of the Classroom programme is to help participants acquire new knowledge and skills in order to create even better cultural programmes, get to know new forms of cultural organisation management and cultural spaces in general, learn how to use the potential of the industrial heritage in Rijeka and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County to develop tourism, and to better involve citizens in cultural events as both the audience and active participants.
All of this is done through workshops, summer schools, mentorships, lifelong learning programmes, professional training, seminars and conferences. There were over 20 such events throughout 2017 and over 300 pupils, students, cultural agents, entrepreneurs and workers in tourism participated in the educational programmes.
Tanja Kalčić, Classroom programme head, noted all of this on Friday and announced the most important programmes taking place in 2018 which will focus on three thematic areas: space and technology, management and leadership in culture, and international project management.
One of the first activities is the seminar Activating the Community, Socially Engaged Practices taking place in March in collaboration with the 27 Neighbourhoods flagship. It covers the topic of contemporary artistic practices based on working in the community or with communities, and it is intended for communities, employees of city, county and tourist institutions and organisations, employees of RIJEKA 2020 LLC, members of the 27 Neighbourhoods team, as well as participants of the Tandem Fryslân international project.
At the end of May an educational programme is planned as part of the conference Financing in Culture, where participants will learn more about additional sources of financing cultural organisations – public funding through direct and indirect supports, funding from EU structural funds and programmes, support from the private sector and other sources.
The summer school International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts (IETM) will be held in Fužine this summer, in collaboration with the IETM. It is intended for young artists and producers, and it will enhance their experience in working in an international environment and teach them how to give their own careers and international dimension.
Later this year, the workshop Lights and Sound will be held, where participants will acquire practical skills in managing light and sound equipment and their application as site-specific installations, in theatres, concerts and dance, sports and other public events.
In October, an education will be held on the options of using so called site-specific spaces (public an ex industrial spaces) for cultural events. The education will take place after the EASA international meeting of students of architecture which is also taking place as part of the European Capital of Culture programme.
There will also be an opportunity to learn about cultural production. Several workshops, trainings, seminars and professional trainings abroad will be held for different participants with the goal of improving skills in management and cultural event management.
Additionally, there will be public relations workshops, a seminar on cultural tourism, continuous education programme on audience development and community engagement, and a continuous education programme Financing in culture, project management and volunteer management. Applications for all programmes will be announced and published on the rijeka2020.eu website.
Looking back at 2017, one of the most significant educational programmes was the Applause Please seminar on audience development at which around a hundred participants deepened their understanding on how to increase audiences for cultural events and how to attract new attendees.
The seminar New models of management in culture was also significant for representatives of organisations working on the development of social-cultural centres based on models of participatory governance, which involves the cooperation between the public, civil and private sectors.
Many participants, particularly those across the county who are engaged in the 27 Neighbourhoods flagship learned about project management and gained insight into EU funds, while many workers in culture found out how communicating the European Capital of Culture project looks from the inside at the international seminar “How to communicate ECoC”.
Two international educational programmes conducted by the Classroom in 2017 in partnership with other ECoC cities should be emphasised – LAB for European Project Making and Tandem Fryslân.
The LAB for European Project Making is an international project jointly run by Novi Sad 2021, Timisoara 2021 and Rijeka 2020, and it is intended for cultural project managers and creative producers from those cities. Eight participants from Rijeka already had the opportunity to network with their colleagues from the other two cities at the education held in Timisoara on the topic of Audience, and the following two LABs will take place in April in Novi Sad and in July in Rijeka.
The collaboration realised with the Dutch project Tandem Fryslân based in Leeuwarden (ECoC 2018) enabled two people from Rijeka – Ivana Lučić from the Creative Collective Kombinat and Ivona Miloš from the Cultural-Artistic Society Praputnjak – to get the opportunity to develop their artistic projects with financial support and mentorships in an international environment.
Finally, starting this academic year, the students of the Department of Cultural Studies of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka are getting the opportunity to see how culture works “from the inside”. Following the collaboration between the University of Rijeka and Rijeka 2020 – ECoC, the course Professional training in culture was started, and students will get the unique opportunity to engage in practical and professional work with a team of workers and managers in culture in order to develop skills related to the European Capital of Culture projects.
Photo: Igor Crnković
