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CULTURAL STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Narrative report
within the frames of
Caucasus Cultural Initiatives Network CAUCULT
(1st Training course for Key Dialogue Workers)
17-21 October, 2012
Aghveran, Armenia
Introduction
Background
The Cultural Strategic Management training course was organized within the frames of Caucasus
Cultural Initiatives Network CAUCULT project. The main goal of CAUCULT is to empower the Key
Dialogue Workers (KDW) from selected communities of Armenia, as well as to establish a network of
cultural actors, which will promote the activation of cultural life, cultural diversity in communities and
promoting participation of people/groups with other cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds in
cultural events in the communities.
The Cultural Strategic Management training course was the first event planned within the CAUCULT
with the participation of all Key Dialogue Workers on the national level. The training course was also a
good opportunity for the participants to meet representatives of other organizations with similar
activities, exchange experiences, as well as to generate new project ideas.
Aims and objectives of the TC
The aim of the course was to provide KDWs with basic project management skills, present the
peculiarities of cultural projects' and events' management, as well as provide them with strategic
tools to promote cultural diversity and rebirth of cultural life on regional and national level. To
achieve the abovementioned goals the participants were provided with some information on basics of
fundraising, with special emphasis on international cooperation.
The training course was a kind of preparation to the community art events (foreseen by CAUCULT on
the nest phases of the projects) where they will apply the gained knowledge and skills.
General overview of participants
The Key Dialogue Workers are the main participants of the CAUCULT throughout the whole duration
of the project. The group consists of 20 representatives of NGOs, cultural centers, national minority
groups and other culture-related institutes.
According to the KDW Needs Assessment conducted before the training course participants are
expecting to enrich their knowledge in the following fields:
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How to find money and other support for events
How to create unique cultural events
To get theoretical input about cultural management
How to work in a team and motivate people
How to make your events more visible in the society
How to lead a project and organize a project team
What are the best practices other people do, share experience.
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Methodological approaches
Training course was built on concepts, approaches and principles of non formal education, promoting
self reflection, active experimentation, learning cooperatively. The course was diverse and balanced in
terms of theoretical inputs, practical exercises, expert panels and active knowledge sharing among
participants.
Programme of the course and its thematic content
The programme was constructed in a way to give as much as possible opportunity to get better
acquainted to each other individually, but also to know the work each participant’s organization
doing. Moreover we had an aim of sharing the current situation with cultural diversity and
intercultural dialogue in represented communities. As the group itself is very diverse, there was also a
need to bring people to similar starting point with the theme of cultural management,. Since some
organziaions are from art and cultural field specifically who would like to bring art to social field and
field of dialogue promotion, other are using art techniques in their work, third ones are interested in
using art media to tackle social issues with their target groups, the programme tried to answer these
diverse needs and expectations.
Programme elements
Opening and introduction, message from the CAUCULT, presenting the programme.
Getting to know each other, Introduction to CAUCULT, Icebreaking and team building, NGO market.
This session gave a chance to participants to get to know each other on individual level, to come
closer, to know each other strong and weak sides, motivations, backgrounds of work in th
organization. It also gave a first taste for working together and challenges which can exist when being
involved in a 3-year long process. The NGO work presentation opened a space for people to share the
tools they work with and the targets they want to reach, through cultural media and competences
that each involved organization has.
Culture: Concepts, classification, definitions. Cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue: Preservation
and promotion of cultural heritage: Expedition projects to India, Nepal, Tibet, Russia, Iran
Guest speaker Tatul Davtyan, President of ICIRLD
The session had an objective to introduce the concept of culture, its different layers, levels, definitions
and clusters, to better understand what we mean when we talk about cultural diversity. Approaches
from anthropological viewpoint were presented though Iceberg model of culture with its visible and
invisible parts. This session gave a chance to broaden the understanding of culture from simply
looking at it as arts and applied arts, to social cultural manifestations and differences. This also gave a
base to a broader understanding of cultural diversity.
Situation of cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue, cultural life in communities in Armenia
Even though the course was in a national group, the participants are coming from different
communities and there was a need to share the situation on diversity, cultural management, legal and
government presence, specific programmes and structures managing the cultural field and issues of
diversity. Word café was proposed as a method for this sharing, and had subthemes such as main
issues in the field of culture and cultural management, understanding of diversity, cultural
stakeholders in the community, cultural life. The general feeling after discussion was that there is a
need and issue of understanding of one’s self, understanding of who you are to be able to look at the
other. Another idea was that there is a need for legal framework for managing the field of culture and
dealing with the diversity. People felt strongly that cultural field needs a new methodological
framework to be able to develop it and also use it as a tool to tackle social issues, as at the moment it
is rather functioning in esthetic side of it.
Peculiarity of cultural and art management. Cultural marketing and PR
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Guest speaker Armen Sukiasyan, Deputy Director of National Chamber Music House, Musical
producer
The session was based on a theoretical input and practice sharing from our guest speaker, who is also
author of Cultural management manual for art sector. A number of culture management models were
presented and discussed, parallels were drawn between different political and cultural settings in
terms of most appropriate model for work. Issues with management competences were tackled.
Cultural producing in Armenia. Legal aspect of cultural management and the current situation with
national and regional stakeholders
Guest speaker Aram Sukiasyan, Advisor to the Mayor of Yerevan on issues of Culture and Tourism,
Director and producer, head of ASQ cultural centre NGO.
The lecture of Mr. Suqiasyan was rather an open space to discuss daily issues facing the cultural, art
and social fields and challenges existing in the work. A lot of projects (such as the movie “wandering”,
City days, theatrical and movie cultural festivals), programmes existing at the moment were
presented. A specific part in the input was dedicated to organizing from A to Z a cultural event, with
its objectives, specificities, things to keep in mind.
Cultural actors: Cooperation and coordination on community level
The session was based on an exercise called Making Links, where actors in the field have to identify
their functions in the society, and come up with their expectations from 3 other sectors. The sectors
suggested were people from the community, government and municipal structures, artistic circles,
youth and cultural organizations. The exercise showed how much need there is to know exactly who is
doing what and who should be doing what in a community to be able to link and cooperate and work
together to solve existing issues.
Convergence of cultural/art and social sectors: First taste
The work on the issue aimed at trying to bring together the social and cultural sectors and fields. The
work started with a brainstorming on possible art and cultural tools/media that exists in modern
world. The list included theatre an drama, place making, landscape structuring, photo and video, ecoart, expo etc. On the next stage, the group was proposed to come up with 5 main issues facing their
communities also in terms of diversity and dialogue, and they had to think about art/cultural media to
use to tackle the issue. The second level of reflection was to see in which region, community what
method could work most efficiently.
National and international financial possibilities
Guest speakers Anahit Minassian (KASA Swiss Humanitarian Foundation, Youth in Action Programme
Multiplier), Artur Sargsyan (ICIRLD, EVS Programme Coordinator)
The group was presented the Cragrer.am Grant programme from the Armenian government,
European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe, Youth in Action from the European Commission.
Evening programme facilitated by participants, movie screening, cultural quiz
The evening programme was also contributing to getting to know each other’s competences, work a
bit better and to come closer for future joint work. Some of the evenings were facilitated by the
participants (small discussion on adapting and localizing cultural tools, dancing and poetry)
themselves, others (movie screening) were proposed by the team.
During the training course there were taken video interviews from all the KDWs telling about their
organization and their activities, completed by expert inputs. Based on those video materials will be
created a short educational movie reflecting the current situation of cultural life in Armenia.