Saturday, 14.11.09, 10:00 – 13:00

Over the last two decades the national cultural policies – both in this region and in New Europe – have generally stuck to the paradigm of cultural identity, opening a vast space of co-operation in the region and across Europe for local cultural policies to step into. This opening has a particular potential as the majority of such transversal cultural practices are related to the activities of independent cultural actors, which are at the same time prominently engaged in their local urban environments. Unfortunately, local cultural policies rarely take this potential into account. There are many obstacles standing in the way to stronger development in this direction – varying, in different countries of the region, from the institutional cultural framework that has never undergone a transformation, to the political voluntarism in local cultural policies, the underdeveloped cultural infrastructure, or ethnically divided local communities.

Moderator: Teodor Celakoski (Multimedia Institute, Zagreb)

Speakers: Kristian Lukić (Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Currator & initiative For Cultural Policies / Novi Sad); Andrea Zlatar Violić (Faculty of Philosophy, Professor / Zagreb), Aldo Milohnić (Peace Institute, Researcher / Ljubljana), Iskra Geshoska (Kontrapunkt / Culture Center Tocka, Executive Director / Skopje), Davor Mišković (Drugo more, Director / Rijeka)