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1 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: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 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. 2 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 3 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.