The fourth Academy Camp of the Capacity Building for the European Capitals of Culture project will take place from 2 to 4 March at the Centrul de Proiecte in Timişoara (Romania) and will be directed to Timişoara ECOC 2023 delivery team and stakeholders. The topic addressed will be ‘Community development through creative action’. Based on the principles of cultural democracy, community development and participatory art, the programme was elaborated by François Matarasso in cooperation with the Timişoara Centre for Projects and Interarts.
The three-day Academy Camp will combine theoretical inputs with practical group work of the on-site participants and build participants’ skills and confidence in working with artists, citizens, NGOs and other groups interested in developing projects with the community.
The Academy Camp 4 will be a space for training, peer learning and exchange on the growing importance of cultural participation, and on community development and empowerment through cultural action. The programme will draw extensively on two publications by François Matarasso:
- A Restless Art: How participation won, and why it matters (2019) describes the history, theory and practice of participatory art in Europe, with over 50 case studies from 17 different countries.
- Living Heritage: Community Development through Cultural Resources (2005) is the report of a 4 year local cultural programme run by the King Baudouin Foundation in Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Bosnia Herzegovina.Herzegovina.
Other experts will be Ed Carroll, Vita Geluniene, community artists from Kaunas, Corina Bucea, Cultural Manager and member of the Timișoara 2023 Curatorial Team, Teodora Borghoff, Director at Fundatia Comunitara Timişoara, James Bingham, Studio and Outreach Producer at the Irish National Opera, Eugene van Erven, Professor of Media and Performance at Utrecht Unviersity, Sajida Carr, Director of Operations and Development at Creative Black Country, Yuriy Vulkovsky, Deputy Minister of Culture in the Bulgarian government.
The needs and challenges faced by the ECOC delivery teams are common to the entire cultural sector. Therefore, one of the objectives of the program is to share the knowledge generated by the multidisciplinary group of experts contributing to the Capacity Building for ECOCs project. Audiovisual materials and publications from the previous Academy Camps are available online:
- Video summaries of the Academy Camp 1 (Audience development), Academy Camp 2 (Digital approaches to ECOCs) and Academy Camp 3 (Enhancing European and international cooperation).
- The podcast series ‘Capacity Building for European Capitals of Culture‘ recorded by 15 experts on audience development, digital approaches to ECOCs and European and international cooperation.
- Other training materials and publications.
The project is also seeking, until March 4, professionals from a variety of disciplines to join its pool of experts, with the aim to help bridge skills gaps and build capacity in the implementing teams of European Capitals of Culture (ECOCs).