Cluj Cultural Centre has joined a new European cooperation network that focuses on the development of cultural policies, collaboration strategies and on strengthening the cultural sector capacity. The \”Southern Coalition\” initiative is led by the Portuguese network Artemrede, bringing together 14 partners from 10 countries who will work together from 2021. The network\’s first project, \”Stronger Peripheries\”, received funding this week through the EU Creative Europe program, along with 20 other approved projects.
The “Southern Coalition” network supports connections between members through cultural projects, encouraging close dialogue between artists, cultural operators and communities.
Through the “Stronger Peripheries” project, the network intends to facilitate real changes in the activity of artists and cultural operators. In order to do this, it will promote new artistic productions (which will be presented in 9 countries), workshops, conferences and documentary activities, with an emphasis on alternative models that take into account the reality of the peripheries. The project aims to involve 2,000 professionals and have an impact on 10,000 people.
With a total budget of over three million euros, \”Southern Coalition\” mobilizes a consortium of universities and cultural organizations from Portugal, Spain, Serbia, Greece, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, Italy and France. Regardless of their geographical location, these organizations share the idea of belonging to Southern Europe, as they are committed to overcoming the structural problems faced by the cultural sector and society in their specific context, the use of community artistic practices and collaborative practices.
\”This initiative was born from the need to develop new support and training frameworks for cultural professionals, to increase collaboration opportunities, to promote the social importance of art, as well as inclusive and participatory artistic practices,\” says Rarița Zbranca, program director of Cluj Cultural Centre. \”We are delighted to be able to do these things on a larger scale, together with our European partners,\” she added.
The involvement of Cluj Cultural Centre in the “Stronger Peripheries” project will allow European presentations of performances by Romanian artists, as well as the involvement of hundreds of art professionals in other initiatives.
The budget for the Centre\’s activities in this project is € 238,706.30, of which € 116,966.09 is the funding from the Creative Europe Programme.