In the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv, which was declared the European Capital of Culture for the year 2019, a symposium on the evaluation of the project European Capital of Culture was held.
The symposium was held on the initiative of the international Platform LOKOP (Platform of local operators), an independent research „laboratory“ specialized in the field of culture research. This platform is currently developing „tools“ for evaluation ECoC projects, from the perspective of local participants in the cultural system of the community.
Participation in such a meeting is particularly important in order to generate in one place various positive and negative practices, when it comes to monitoring and evaluation of Cultural Capitals of Europe. Conclusions from this symposium are also the guidelines and recommendations for further actions in this field currently marginalized in our system.
Lazar Jovanov, PhD, a member of the Application Team of Novi Sad 2021, who took part in the Symposium, points out its great significance for Novi Sad.
– First of all, because the Cultural Development Strategy noted the absence of evaluation practices, which means that the work of cultural organizations, institutions and individuals are not monitored, not evaluated and not assessed adequately. ECoC Project provides a new model that will serve as an example to other operators in the city. In this way it affects setting up of evaluation „culture“ in Novi Sad – said Jovanov.
According to him, when it comes to future work of „Novi Sad 2021“, which will finally get the legal shaping at the beginning of the following year, it is necessary to establish effective cooperation with the University of Novi Sad and other domestic anmd foreign experts, to establish a collective expert body, so-called the Evaluation team, which will have full autonomy in monitoring and evaluating the ECoC project in various stages of operation.
– When the team is set up, and strategy for monitoring and evaluation defined, it is necessary to carry out several different studies that analyzes the existing situation in the field of culture of the City of Novi Sad which will represent information base, which will serve as a basis for further action. After that, it is important to clarify the list of indicators of development not only of the ECOC project, but also the entire cultural system of the city, and then accurately assign responsibilities to future researchers – said Lazar Jovanov.
Symposium on the evaluation of ECoC project in Plovdiv was held on the initiative of the international platform LOKOP, within the project „Local perspective“, and in cooperation with the University of Plovdiv, Foundation „Plovdiv 2019“, the Goethe-Institut and local operators.
