Marijana Roksić, museum documentarian of the National Museum Zrenjanin participated in the four-day Festival Academy, organized by the British Council in Serbia. The Academy gathered representatives of numerous projects from the region, which were supported by Culture and Creativity for the Western Balkans (CC4WBs) implemented by the British Council, in cooperation with UNESCO and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation.
Ms. Roksić is the Project manager of the project “Festivals as a new multi-sectoral practice in the preservation of the cultural heritage of the Western Balkans”, funded by British Council. Oon behalf of the Office for Cultural Diplomacy, the CSO partner of the Museum, at the Festival Academy participated Ms. Gordana Bekčić, director of the Office. The second partner of the project is the Mirko Komnenović City Museum and the Josip Bepo Benković gallery.
The Festival Academy was organized as a building capacity training for project teams in all important areas of festival management. The format of the training was conceived as highly inclusive, to a large extent organized through workshops and exercises, in order to efficiently adopt knowledge and skills.
Some of the topics discussed were new audience development, fundraising and financial sustainability, innovations, festivals as a platform for cultural tourism, the usage of digital technologies, festival management, risk management, security issues, community inclusion, partnerships and collaborations at the EU level and many other issues.
The participants came from all the countries of the region, had the opportunity to introduce themselves to each other through demanding and intensive workshop work, to become familiar with the European and Balkan festival scene, to discuss their information and doubts, to open numerous topics and problems they face, but also to network, make contact and raise discussions about potential cooperation.
The Academy’s lecturers were experts from the countries of the region as well as from the EU. The seminar was organized in cooperation with Napier University from Edinburgh. On the third day of the Academy, in the European House in Belgrade, the participants also attended the 12 British Council Spotlight Awards Ceremony of the British Council for successful projects of civil society organizations.
