Stronger Peripheries: a Southern Coalition

The Faculty of Dramatic Arts joined a new European network focused on cooperation strategies, capacity building and cultural policies in 2020. The initiative “A Southern Coalition” is led by the Artemrede network from Portugal and connects 14 partners from 10 countries, who will work on joint activities from 2021 onwards. The first project of this network – “Stronger Peripheries” – is one of 20 major projects at the European level funded by the Creative Europe program.

“Stronger Peripheries: a Southern Coalition” is a project aimed at opening a dialogue, examining and discussing the concepts of “south” and “periphery” from socio-political and cultural aspects, through various collaborative and artistic strategies, as well as capacity-building activities. The projec’s goal is to rethink identity through culture and cultural differences, and to reassess dominant models of cultural policy in Southern Europe.

The Southern Coalition is an informal network of eleven artistic organizations and three research institutions from 10 European countries. Besides FDA, faculties and universities involved in the network include the University of Barcelona and the Institute of University of Portugal, with the University of Montpellier also being a project collaborator. The network connects local cultural practices and aims to overcome the isolation and marginalization of individual initiatives, as well as to empower and encourage the development of capacities and skills of artists, cultural professionals and the audience. The project is expected to involve around 2,000 professionals and have a broader impact on over 10,000 experts and interested individuals.

The project is funded by the European Union through the Creative Europe program and it i supported and co-financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia. With a total budget of over three million euros, the Southern Coalition encompasses organizations and institutions from Portugal, Spain, Serbia, Greece, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, Italy, and France.

The team from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts working on this project includes Professor Emerita Dr. Milena Dragićević Šešić, Dr. Ksenija Marković Božović, a Research Associate, Professor Dr. Maja Ristić, Associate Professor Dr. Jovana Karaulić, Tatjana Nikolić, a Research Assistant and Teaching Assistant Jelena Knežević.

More about the project can be found at the link: https://strongerperipheries.eu/