Friday, February 21st, 2020, Cluj Cultural Centre organized the “Open Day for Projects” on Fluierașului Street, a series of public consultations open to our member organizations and to the local community.
The event included 13 consultation sessions on the Centre’s main work subjects: increasing the capacity of the cultural sector, contemporary art, emotional and mental well-being, cultural and artistic education, urban regeneration, social inclusion, cultural industries, heritage and rural development, social and urban innovation, international cooperation, research and development of cultural policies. Approximately 80 representatives of the Centre’s member and non-member local organizations and institutions participated to the consultations.
“For us, 2020 is the year of settling down and consolidation. 18 months after the organization became operational – a period during which our main challenges were related to creating the team, strengthening the internal procedures and the participative mechanisms for our members, identifying diverse and stable sources of financing –, the beginning of this year is a good moment to restart discussions on the directions of our programme and to ensure that our member organizations and the community have the opportunity to express their opinion on this programme. We are glad to see that the interest of the local community in contributing is as high as always”, says Ștefan Teișanu, Executive Director of Cluj Cultural Centre.
The suggestions of the Centre’s members and those of other organizations present at the Open Day for Projects were linked especially to the need for the Centre to become a real support to the local cultural sector, to focus more on the social innovation processes necessary in the city, and to have a strategic role in increasing the visibility at local and European level of some cultural themes and practices having social impact. We identified new collaborations for the Centre’s actions and themes which channel the collective interest and energy, such as making experimental artistic interventions in institutions and public areas to increase the psychological well-being of the community, identifying a space for rehearsal that could be managed by the Centre for its members, the need to develop a support program for Roma teachers, and others.
“This year we will put our energy into delivering and strengthening our cultural programme, into activities that support the cultural sector and that consolidate the strategic role of culture in the social transformation and in the sustainable development of the city and the region”, said Rarița Zbranca, the Centre’s Programme Director.
Since the beginning of the year, Cluj Cultural Centre is engaged in a wide process consisting in assessing its activity until now, and in planning the current year. In response to an evaluation questionnaire applied at the beginning of this year, approximately half of the Centre’s 94 member organizations and institutions sent feedback on the 2019 activity of our organization, judging that the Centre’s most visible projects were the Cultural Voucher, Culturepreneurs, Concentric, Remarkable Romania, and Innovation Unit, and expressing their intention to contribute directly especially to developing the following projects: European Centre for Contemporary Art, Inner Space, Culturepreneurs, Art’n’Play, Urban Innovation Division, and Academy of Change.
Also, the Centre’s member organizations and institutions replied that what they expect most of all is for Cluj Cultural Centre to carry out activities of research and development of cultural policies, to mediate the relationship between the cultural sector and the public administration, and between the cultural sector and the business environment, to organize cultural and artistic educational programs for the general public, as well as training and professional development programs for the cultural sector.
The consultations with the member organizations on the subject of this year’s cultural programme will continue during the following period of time as well, and the detailed action plan for this year is planned to be discussed in the General Assembly of the association’s members at the beginning of March.
Until then, any organizations or institutions active in the city can express their intention to become a member of Cluj Cultural Centre. In this respect, concluding the Open Day for Projects, an information session was held on Friday with the participation of 12 organizations interested in becoming a member in 2020.
