After two cultural stations Egység and Caravan, the life of another cultural station begun with the ‘24 Hours Svilara’ event within the ‘Novi Sad 2021 – European Capital of Culture’ project, which contributes to decentralisation of cultural events in the city.
The former factory for silk dyeing, as one of the most important facilities of industrial heritage of Novi Sad, will be the central place of culture of Almaš Neighbourhood that will focus on cultural heritage, its reinterpretation through programmes that will improve the participation of local community and citizens in cultural programmes.
The youngest citizens of Novi Sad painted stools within the children’s fine arts workshop ‘Stolica – Hoklica’ organised by the Svilara cultural station in cooperation with ‘Ivan Gundulić’ Primary School at the plateau in front of the Svilara cultural station, on Saturday, 3 November.
Interesting programmes are expected for the next half of November within the Svilara social centre, while the December programme of Svilara will introduce the exhibition entitled ‘Shades and Silhouettes’ by authors Ms Anica Draganić and Mária Szilágyi, dedicated to industrial heritage of Vojvodina. The history of Svilara will be presented within the exhibition, while this cultural station will be the starting point of promotion of multilingual multimedia mobile app ‘Guide through Cultural Heritage’. The idea of the application that will be finished by the end of the year is to present monuments of cultural-historical importance in the city centre and Almaš Neighbourhood, including the facility of the Svilara cultural station. Furthermore, the annual exhibition of the Academy of Arts entitled ‘Differences’ will be organised in the main hall of Svilara.
Svilara brings different projects of management and improvement of spaces to Almaš Neighbourhood with diverse programme. Besides new cultural contents, Svilara inevitably spreads its actions over spatial management of Almaš Neighbourhood, thus the plan is to make new square, place where citizens gather and set up monument, as the tribute to the ‘Novi Sad 2021 – European Capital of Culture’ title. Artist from Novi Sad, Timişoara and Eleusis, three European Capitals of Culture 2021, will work on the implementation of the artistic work. Horticultural cultivation of this neighbourhood is planned to be implemented within the project of PUE ‘Gradsko Zelenilo’. It is planned to revitalise alley in the Đorđe Rajković Street, as well as to revitalise lawn. According to the project, this area will be enriched with 55 seedlings of common ash and hill cherry and 152 seedlings of decorative bushes.
Park and playground were restored within the ‘Good for Life’ International Volunteer Programme in the immediate vicinity of the Svilara cultural station in September. During the programme, 12 volunteers from all around the world, together with citizens of Almaš Neighbourhood, with the support of the ‘Environment Engineering Group’ Association, work on the restoration of playground and park in Podbara. Besides the International Camp, the ‘Silk Road’ mural was painted on the building in Đorđe Rajković Street, with the aim to increase visibility of Svilara and involve fellow citizens.
Numerous programmes, spatial projects and landscaping are the proof that Svilara cultural station contributes to the ‘culture as the way of life’ idea in Novi Sad. With such programmes, the new cultural station will become one of the most important cultural ‘spots’ in the city, which presents the image of ‘new platform of good practice of revitalisation of devastated industrial areas using creative industries’, said Ms Ana Brnabić at the gala opening of the Svilara cultural station.
