The official contract signing for 21 cultural institutions that received funds for the audience development project implementation within the ‘Audience in Focus’ public call of the ‘Novi Sad 2021 – European Capital of Culture’ Foundation was held in the hall of the Provincial Government on 20 June 2018, at 11 a.m.
Ms Dragana Milošević, Provincial Secretary for Culture, Public Information and Relations with Religious Communities, awarded contracts to the representatives of the cultural institutions, while Mr Nemanja Milenković, CEO of the ‘Novi Sad 2021’ Foundation, attended the event.
On behalf of the ‘Novi Sad 2021’ Foundation, Mr Nemanja Milenković addressed the audience, and stressed the importance and specificity of the ‘Audience in Focus’ project and he added: ‘It symbolically occurred that in the selection process 20 millions was awarded to 21 cultural institutions for raising capacities and potentials of the audiences that was put in focus. The audience is the bridge between institutions, city, province, republic and general public.’
After thanking to the cultural institutions for identifying the importance of development of the audience capacity, Mr Milenković added that this years’ focus are institutions in the context of their development through different activities – conversations, education, workshops and calls such as The Call for Mobility of Cultural Workers, Conference and open call for accessibility, ‘speed dating’ meetings between representatives of cultural institutions and EUNIC claster. The newly established fundraising team, which works with the institutions within its first task, will help the institutions to strengthen their programmes for audience development through EU funds. ‘Cooperation between local and foreign institutions is being planned in the following period in order to develop capacities, and we also plan to work on documents of the Strategy of Cultural Institutions’, concluded Mr Milenković.
Mrs Dragana Milošević. Provincial Secretary for Culture, Public Information and Relations with Religious Communities, stressed that the title of European Capital of Culture is of great importance for the city and cultural institutions: ‘The main goal of this call is to make the artistic content accessible to citizens and foreigners. Our task is: to build capacities of institutions and cultural workers, and in addition to investing in cultural infrastructure, introduce innovations and changes in the way projects are developed. Today, on this place, the Provincial Government expresses its willingness to provide funds to help and support networking of cultural institutions from Vojvodina.’
