Competence Centre for Cultural Managers in Eastern Europe/Central Asia

The training will consist of three phases: It begins with basic workshops in Berlin where they will enhance their practical skills in cultural management. This is followed by a four-week internship with renowned cultural institutions in Germany after which they will realize their own projects in their home countries with the support of the respective local Goethe-Institut. Many people come to the west and then return home and attempt to imitate western culture. But, its not the culture we need to adapt. Its the targeted training and support and the creative freedom in Germany that we need to emulate, says Tamar Janashia, a cultural manager from Tiflis and participant in the first round of courses.

In early 2011 the ten cultural managers of the second round of courses began their training in Berlin. As previously, they come from Ukraine, Belarus and Uzbekistan and for the first time also from Kazakhstan, Armenia, Tadzhikistan and Azerbaijan. The six female and four male participants work at institutions such as the Almaty Academy of Arts (Kazakhstan), the Tadschikfilm state film studio (Tadzhikistan) or are curators or work for festival organizations such as the Lviv Literature Festival (Ukraine). Following the great success of the first group, the new kids are also highly motivated to discover the arts scenes of Berlin, Munich and Cologne, to share experiences with German experts and to try out new ideas, techniques and formats in the workshops, underscores project manager Katrin Ostwald-Richter, who is also the director of the Goethe-Institut in Minsk.

Following the theoretical phase in January, which delved into such subjects as project and budget planning, cultural marketing, public relations and presentation techniques, curator Aleh Kursahou from Gomel, Belarus said, I am very impressed by the great diversity of methods that the training spotlighted. The theoretical aspect is constantly illustrated by practical examples and vice versa.

Now, from February until April 2011 the cultural managers will be interns for four weeks at German cultural institutions. They will be given insights into the projects and work flows of ON-Neue Musik (Cologne), Neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst (Berlin), Lothringer 13 Städtische Kunsthalle (Munich), German Historical Museum (Berlin), Volksbühne (Berlin), Platform3 (Munich), Filmproduktion Blinker (Cologne), Grips Theater (Berlin), Kunsthaus Tacheles (Berlin) and the Berlinische Galerie.

Between May and December 2011, the cultural managers will then implement their own projects.

More information: http://www.goethe.de/ges/prj/kue/kon/bqu/koz/enindex.htm