On Friday, March 12, Cluj Cultural Center organized the online meeting of the General Assembly of the Association’s Members – cultural organizations and institutions, universities, business clubs and clusters, civil society associations, local and regional administration.
On this occasion, the activity report for 2020, the planning for 2021 and the adherence of eleven new organizations to the Association were approved, bringing the total number of members to 112. The newest members of the Association are Civitas Foundation for Civil Society, Cluj Folk Craftsmen Association, Untold Association, Plaiuri Noi Association, Something New Christian Association, EvoCariera Association, Sunday Culture Association, Animaart Association, Muzeon Association, “St. Moise Arapul” Orthodox Social and Cultural Missionary Association for Roma and the Peace Action, Training and Research Institute of Romania (PATRIR). The complete list of the members, the activity report for the previous year and the planning for 2021 can be consulted on the organization\’s website: www.cccluj.ro/documente.
The General Assembly of Members also approved the draft budget for 2021, with a total value of 2.2 million euros, of which 56% comes from European funds, 22% from private funding, 6% from members’ contributions and 16% is the expected contribution from the local budget.
\” For us, the great challenge of 2021 is the advocacy work to support the cultural sector of Cluj, as well as the national one, which face so many challenges and benefit from so little support from the authorities in the pandemic context. Internally, we have great difficulty in covering the co-financing in the European projects that we manage to attract in Cluj and on a national level, and that is why we publicly ask for the support of the business environment, with which we are ready to start creative, even spectacular collaborations. It is also very important for us and for the local art scene that by the end of the year we convince the public authorities to unblock and start the European Center for Contemporary Art, our most important project, for which we have not yet been able to identify a suitable space and a good financing source\”, said Ștefan Teișanu, director of Cluj Cultural Centre, at the end of the annual meeting with the members.
The Center\’s 2021 plan includes, among other things, a cultural voucher program for well-being, the creation of Cluj School Network, for culture and education collaboration, a new edition of Quantum Questions, the science festival, as well as organizing the Cluj Future of Work festival, concluding the large project of the same name carried out by the Urban Innovation Unit. In order to promote and support Cluj culture in 2021, the Center will initiate the culturaincluj.ro platform, as well as an observatory of data and studies on the cultural sector, will continue the Academy of Change training and mentoring program and will coordinate the process of elaborating the metropolitan area cultural strategy.
This year, the Center aims to launch the Culturepreneurs Hub, a space for collaboration and development for initiatives in the field of culture and cultural industries, which will operate at the Regional Excellence Center for Creative Industries, and is preparing to open two more spaces: Qub – a center of STEAM educational resources (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) dedicated to schools in Cluj, as well as the ECCA contemporary art pavilion. Also the legal proceedings for the reconversion of the former military garrison on 21 December Boulevard into a resource center for the cultural sector are expected to start this year. The new centre will be co-managed by Cluj Cultural Centre and Cluj-Napoca City Hall to serve the needs of cultural organizations in Cluj.
