FDA success within “Stronger Peripheries: A Southern Coalition”

End of September the fourth partners meeting as well as a workshop “Connecting Dots” on the topic of challenges and obstacles in networking of cultural and artistic organizations within  the large European project “Stronger Peripheries: A Southern Coalition” was held at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade in a hybrid format (combined live and online).

Stronger Peripheries: A Southern Coalition is a project by which we want to open a dialogue, examine and discuss the terms "south" and "periphery" from the socio-political and cultural aspect, and to strengthen organizational capacity through various cooperative and artistic strategies and activities. The aim of the project is to rethink the issue of identity through culture and cultural differences, and to re-examine the dominant models of cultural policy in southern Europe.

The Southern Coalition is an informal network of eleven artistic / independent cultural organizations and three research institutions from 10 European countries. In addition to the FDA, the faculties and universities included in the network are the University of Barcelona and the Institute of the University of Portugal, and the collaborator of the project is the University of Montpellier. The network connects local cultural practices and wants to overcome the isolation and marginalization of certain initiatives, as well as to strengthen and encourage the development of capacities and skills of artists, cultural professionals and the public.

The project is funded by the European Union through the "Creative Europe" program, and with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia. With a total budget of over three million euros, the Southern Coalition includes organizations and institutions from Portugal, Spain, Serbia, Greece, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, Italy and France.

The workshops were led by dr Milena Dragićević Šešić, Professor Emerita of the University of Arts, based on a pilot study on the needs and obstacles in connecting and networking of artistic and theatrical organizations in Southern Europe. The program also included two lectures by experts from different parts of the world, all on the topics of networking, collaboration, exchange, and sustainability and advocacy in this context.

Lectures were given by: dr Mike van Gran, President of the African Network for Cultural Policy and Professor of Drama at the University of Cape Town  dr Christos Carras, Executive Director of the Onassis Foundation while Marijana Cvetković, Co-founder of the Station Service for Contemporary Dance and Nomad Dance Academy canceled due to health reasons.

The conference was attended by almost 30 experts in the field of theater, performing and performing arts and other fields of culture and art who are members of various world and European and local networks, who shared their knowledge and experiences on these topics. In addition, as part of the event, some of the most relevant theatrical and artistic organizations from the domestic scene presented their work: Karkatag, Cirkusfera, Center for Cultural Decontamination, Dah Theater and Reflector Theater all held half an hour presentations on the stage of FDA "Mata Milošević". The participants were also introduced to the regional project connecting independent scenes, in which the Association of Independent Cultural Scene of Serbia participates.

The event wasn’t open to the general public, and was realized by a project team led by Professor Emerita dr Milena Dragićević Šešić: dr Ksenija Marković Božović, Research Associate, dr Jovana Karaulić, Teaching Assistant and Tatjana Nikolić, Research Assistant. Students also gave their contribution.

The team of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts is looking forward to the next activities within the project and further cooperation with colleagues around the world. In December 2021, the partner meeting and the next workshop will be held in Lisbon, and in January 2021 a seminar “Towards fairer international cultural cooperation: visions from the peripheries” in Barcelona, in which researchers from the FDA will also take an active part.