Creative Europe Info-day

In cooperation with the Matica Srpska Library, the Antenna of the Desk Creative Europe Serbia has organized an info-day on Creative Europe today at the ceremonial hall of Matica Srpska. On that occasion, the audience was addressed by Slaviša Grujić, Provincial Secretary for Culture and Public Information, Siniša Lazić, Director of European Affairs Fund-AP Vojvodina, Selimir Radulović, Director of Matica Srpska Library, Dimitrije Tadić, Head of Desk Creative Europe Serbia, and team members of the Antenna of the Desk Creative Europe Serbia.

In cooperation with the Matica Srpska Library, the Antenna of the Desk Creative Europe Serbia has organized an info-day on Creative Europe today at the ceremonial hall of Matica Srpska. On that occasion, the audience was addressed by Slaviša Grujić, Provincial Secretary for Culture and Public Information, Siniša Lazić, Director of European Affairs Fund-AP Vojvodina, Selimir Radulović, Director of Matica Srpska Library, Dimitrije Tadić, Head of Desk Creative Europe Serbia, and team members of the Antenna of the Desk Creative Europe Serbia.

The Info-day, whose aim was to encourage a larger number of institutions and organisations in Serbia to participate in the Creative Europe programme, was targeted at the representatives of all institutions and organisations of culture of AP Vojvodina – public cultural institutions, civil society organisations engaged in culture, moreover, education, scientific and research institutions, as well as independent artists, curators and cultural managers.

The topic of the Info-day was the possibility for institutions and organisations to participate in the Creative Europe programme, therefore, the discussion touched upon the key questions related to application submission: how to draft project ideas, how and with whom to establish partnerships, what documents were required to lodge an application, how to manage a project.

By signing the agreement on participation in the Creative Europe Programme, each country committed themselves to establish an implementation body of the Creative Europe programme, which would operate at the national level. The Republic of Serbia signed the agreement in Brussels in June last year, and after having opened the Creative Europe Desk in Serbia, the Antenna of the Desk Creative Europe was opened at the European Affairs Fund of AP Vojvodina in January 2015, which created conditions for implementing the programme in the province. The mission of the Antenna was to take care of the specific needs of AP Vojvodina – strengthening of the programme and organisational capacities of institutions and cultural organisations operating at the level of AP Vojvodina, preservation of cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue and internationalisation.

“Creative Europe seeks specific and creative projects in the area of culture, which will be both in the interest of local communities and the province and republic”, said Secretary Slaviša Grujić in his opening remarks. “The Provincial Secretariat for Culture and Public Information strongly supports the Creative Europe programmes, which on the initiative of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia have led to the opening of the Desk and Antenna, for the sake of common goal in the implementation of different types of projects. Behind that goal is a treasury of culture and creativity is the key to that door, which is opened by the Desk and Antenna and makes such projects serious, interesting and important topics in filtering projects, whose essence is the common good“. Within the European Affairs Fund, the Antenna will take special care of the specificities of Vojvodina, as a multinational and multi-ethnic environment, and its programmes of interregional cooperation. The fact is that these two institutions, the Desk and Antenna have begun to work and today is an opportunity for the representatives of different cultural institutions in Vojvodina to learn how to draft, present and implement a project under Creative Europe and I wish you a successful cooperation”, concluded in his speech Secretary Slaviša Grujić.

Siniša Lazić, Director of European Affairs Fund of AP Vojvodina, welcomed the participants hoping that the meeting would mark the beginning of cooperation and provision of advisory services regarding such a high-profile programme offered by Creative Europe. The field of culture was broad and the meeting was organised to increase the institutional capacities for developing projects funded under the programme, because the area of cultural heritage such as ours deserved to be on an equal footing with the counterparts across Europe.

Dimitrije Tadić, Head of Desk Creative Europe Serbia, specified that that 21 cultural institution from Serbia had submitted applications from June 2014 to the present day, which was a good start, since the programme was to last until 2020. The contribution of each institution was 30% of the project value, and it was up to us to assist them in the knowledge and skills necessary for applying.

Luka Kulić, Coordinator of the Antenna of the Desk Creative Europe Serbia, emphasized that the representatives of cultural institutions in Vojvodina were being informed about the programmes offered by the Desk and Antenna, as well as about the necessary conditions and documents required for project implementation.