Moving Culture (Info in Greek)
Qualification on cultural management

"Cultural/Arts Management is the organisation and management of cultural projects and cultural institutions. It contains the developing of project concepts, fundraising, PR, as well as the execution of the projects. It may also be the management of a cultural enterprises. Cultural Management is a quite new job description, which first appeared in the middle of the 1970s and got more and more concrete during the years. It met the concerns of the cultural sector to professionalize. Since the 1990s, Cultural Management can be studied at universities in Germany and the UK, as well as in some other countries."

General Background

The analysis of the Cypriot cultural scene from UNDO Contemporary Arts in Nicosia in 2008 has shown that in the various cultural institutions exists a great need for qualified project orientated cultural managers. The problem exists not only in the lack of project management instruments, but also in the networking of the scene on a national and an international level.

Idea and Goals

The goal of the qualification is on the one hand the acquirement of knowledge in the field of cultural project management through job shadowing, internships and further education and on the other hand the networking of cultural actors in Cyprus amongst them and with German, Polish and Hungarian actors. The project should contribute to the qualification of persons on cultural management and in the long run support the professionalization of the Cypriot cultural scene.

Profile of the participants

For this purpose six Cypriots that aim at practicing cultural management in Cyprus will be chosen to participate in a qualification program. The candidates will originate from the four cities of Cyprus (two from Nicosia, two from Limassol, one from Larnaca and one from Paphos) and can be employees (personnel) of cultural institutions, but that will not be a premise for their participation in the program. Necessary skills are the very good knowledge of English and the very good acquaintance with computers.

Program structure

The plan foresees that the six candidates will initially gather at the opening conference in Cyprus, and together with Cypriots experts and personnel from German, Polish and Hungarian cultural institutions analyse the local cultural scene and compare it with that in the other European countries. The goal is to identify the appropriate instruments for the training and further education of the Cypriot cultural managers. (October 2009)

In the following months the participants will be hosted by Cypriot cultural institutions in their cities for job shadowing. The aim is the first contact with cultural administration and with the cultural scene. (November/ December 2009)

A two month residence in Berlin will follow. There, the participants will work at cultural institutions, according to their brunch, where, in collaboration with the institutions, they will develop an idea for a project, in which further Cypriot cultural institutions will participate. The goal is to have each participant working at two different institutions. The residence will be completed by eight training days (once a week) in which the participants will be introduced by trainers with practical methods to the cultural project management.

At the beginning of the second half of the residence a five day workshop will take place under the title “European Project Management”. After a brief theoretical input the workshop participants will be visiting different cultural institutions which participate in one of the projects sponsored by the program of the European Union “Culture (2007-2013)”. The projects will be presented to the participants with an emphasis on the application procedures, the execution of the project and the accounting. The goal is on the one hand the exchange of information on the experience and on the other hand to initiate the creation of a network among the participant persons and institutions. The executives of the Cypriot cultural institutions, in which the participants will be working when they return to Cyprus, will be invited to the workshops together with the participants of the program. Furthermore, personnel from German, Polish and Hungarian cultural institutions will also be invited. (February/ March 2010)

After their return to Cyprus the participants will work at the cultural institutions, by which they were hosted during the previous winter. These persons will contribute with their newly gained knowledge, contacts and ideas to the daily work of the organisations. The working hours per week average thirty hours, including the work on the individual project. These individual projects should be implemented in Cyprus in collaboration with the German institutions and other Cypriot partners. The program management and the trainers will support this procedure.  (April- December 2010) 

The results of the projects will be presented in Berlin in a form of a Cypriot Festival. (January 2011)

At a closing meeting in Cyprus the partners and participants of the project will evaluate the passing year and will suggest further steps for the collaboration and the professionalization of the Cypriot cultural scene. (Beginning of 2011)

Funding

The funding of the project will be secured from different sources. The funding of the European Union will be supported by public and private funding. Potential sponsors in Cyprus are the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Youth Board, the Tourism Organisation, the NGO Support Centre and the German embassy in Nicosia. In Germany the potential sponsors are the Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut and the embassy of the Republic of Cyprus.

Partners

Partners of the project are UNDO Contemporary Arts in Nicosia and MitOst e.V. in Berlin. UNDO Contemporary Arts is considered an expert on the cultural field in Cyprus due to its knowledge of the Cypriot cultural scene and its contacts.

MitOst e.V. has a multiple expertise in the field of qualification of cultural actors through the Cultural Management Program of the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the Project Perm-Duisburg-Pécs which is funded by the European Commission and the degree program Cultural Management in Pécs.

Project management

The project will be managed by Stephanie Polycarpou (UNDO Contemporary Arts) and Sarah Herke (MitOst e.V.). They are responsible for the organisation and preparation of the program modules, the fundraising, the communication with the partners and the participants, and for the public relations, the documentation and the financing.