Engine Room Europe empowers TEH to build a sustainable independent sector
Thanks to a grant from the EC Culture Programme, TEH has been able to set up a three-year project (May 2011 – April 2014) of activities dedicated to independent cultural workers and their creative processes. With a total budget of €2 095 297, Engine Room Europe acts as a platform of support, helping both the network and the TEH Members to move into a new phase of development.
“Independent culture is the research and development engine of European civic life and this project, Engine Room Europe, will contribute to its sustainability and vibrancy into the future.”
– Sandy Fitzgerald, Process Leader Engine Room Europe
The project is initiated by Trans Europe Halles (TEH) and co-ordinated by Melkweg (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) in association with 10 co-organizing TEH members: Factory of Art (Łódź, Poland), Mains D’Oeuvres (St Ouen, France), Stanica (Žilina, Slovakia), ufaFabrik (Berlin, Germany), TNT (Bordeaux, France), REX (Belgrade, Serbia), NOASS (Riga, Latvia), Röda Sten Art Centre (Göteborg, Sweden), La Friche Belle de Mai (Marseille, France) and Tabačka Kulturfabrik (Košice, Slovakia). As part of Engine Room Europe, the 12 co‐organisers will offer a wide variety of programmes. An online TEH Resource will hold the memory and spread the experiences and know-how from the programmes.
Upcoming activities
Creative Strategies of Sustainability
The first one-week seminar took place on September 10-16th, 2012 at ufaFabrik (Berlin, Germany).
The programme is a three-year research and
practice on green strategies for the cultural sector. It gives a chance
to 20 interested
cultural managers and practitioners to work on a strategy for their home centre
and learn about straw bale buildings, intercultural gardening and make
study visits. Read more here or see photos and updates on their facebook page, facebook.com/CreativeStrategiesOfSustainability
220Volt!
Capacity building programme for young volunteers.
Do you have experience volunteering in a cultural organisation within TEH and wish to work in the cultural sector in the future? Would you like to take part in and international project, meet new people like you from all over the Europe, participate in professional training and learn how to run culture projects (both in theory and in practice)? Here is your chance! The project runs from December 2012 to July 2013 and you will receive all training, travel, food and accommodation. Read more at the website of Factory of Art (Lodz, Poland).
European Artists in Residency (EAR)
The call for artists closed on 31st May. To learn more, click here.
The programme started in September 2011 in Riga, Latvia. Its first part
hosted four artists for a residency period of two weeks, starting from
September 2011. The programme is managed by NOASS
(Riga, Latvia). The goal of the residency is to provide artists with
the chance to discover Riga, one of the region’s most beautiful cities
and its eclectic cultural life, thus inspiring them to create.
Crossroads East West
Debates and residencies on intercultural dialogue. The latest debate took place on the 27th of April 2012 at REX (Belgrade, Serbia) and discussed the art work Gypsies and Dogs by Zoran Todorović.
The main goal is to analyze different processes
and projects of intercultural dialogue in a variety of existing cultural
and artistic project activities. During the first year of the project, cultural center REX/B92 Fund will continue to enrich its practice of mapping intercultural dialogue (in Serbia) in Europe. Read about the ongoing call for practitioners and the interview with Project Coordinator Nebojsa Milikić here and visit the website of REX here.
Capacity Building Workshop Programme
The next workshops will take place at TEH Meeting 75 at Culture and Arts Project NOASS in Riga, Latvia, on 23–26th May 2013.
From 2011 to 2013, the programme is part of the TEH biannual meetings.
It already took place at TEH Meeting 72 in October 2011 at TNT
(Bordeaux, France), TEH Meeting 73 in May 2012 at Tabacka (Kosice, Slovakia) and TEH Meeting 74 at Röda Sten (Gothenburg, Sweden). In 2013 and 2014 the hosts of TEH Meetings will be NOASS (Riga, Latvia), La Friche La Belle De Mai (Marseille, France) and Melkweg (Amsterdam, The Netherlands).
A-Team: Artists for Change
Tackling community issues through creative action. The A-Team has now kicked off!
Four artists have been selected to work with their A-Teams consisting of a cultural manager from the TEH centre and a local mediator in Bulgaria (PRAC, Bostina in the Rodopi mountains), Latvia (NOASS in Riga), Slovenia (Pekarna, Maribor) and Sweden (Not Quite in Fengersfors). The German artist Agricola de Cologne is already working at NOASS on the theme of tolerance towards minorities in local communities. Follow A-Team´s blog to know more about the project developments!
Leaders Lab
Leaders Lab #4 took place on October 22–23rd 2012 at Interzona in Verona, Italy.
Leaders Lab is a 2,5 year process-oriented training programme for 13 leaders of independent cultural centres in the Nordic-Baltic (Norway, Sweden, Finland and Estonia) and Latin European countries (Italy, France, Spain and Portugal) and a connected series of public seminars. Read more here.
BEEznes
The conference was held September 6th and 7th, 2012 in Łódź, Poland at Fabryka Sztuki (Łódź Art Factory).
One of the main goals of the conference is to make corporate volunteering develop more in the cultural sector, establishing in this way a cooperation between arts, culture and the business sector.
ERE Staff Exchange
Mobility Programme for non-artistic cultural professionals, taking place from October 2011 till August 2013. Deadline for the latest application round was 1st October 2012.
The Staff Exchange creates mobility opportunities for cultural workers
to exchange knowledge through practice-based learning at another TEH
Member centre. 30 cultural workers exchanges will take place over two
years. The programme is open to staff from
all levels of artistic management and production. Read more about the Staff Exchange Programme
here.
Living Under(ground)
International workshops and residencies on alternative architecture and creative spaces at Stanica (Žilina, Slovakia).
Living Under(ground) is a project by architects, designers and cultural activists. It is a creative laboratory focused on public space, however, with limited budget and workforce created by participants. Check out the Living Underground Blog and read more about the 2012 summer workshop here. Several residencies related to the workshops have already kicked off with three artists coming from The Netherlands to Stanica to work with the public space connected to the cultural centre. At the end of the programme, a book about alternative design and architecture will be published.
TEH Resource
An interactive and free resource web platform for the independent cultural sector. The Resource public beta is now open for everyone.
The development of TEH Resource aims at creating an interactive resource incorporated in the TEH website that records, stores and makes available to the wider European cultural sector experience, tools and information gathered and built by TEH members and participants. The Resource Beta is now public so please read, share and interact with the Resource.
Reclaiming the Public Space Through Culture
Conference empowering the independent cultural sector in Spain and beyond. it will take place in June 2013 in Barcelona, Spain.
Want to take part? Subscribe to the TEH Newsletter, which includes information about open calls, upcoming activities, events and much more!
Engine
Room Europe, with a total budget of €2,095,297, is one of 10 projects
selected for funding by the European Commission’s Culture Programme
2007-2013 Strand 1.1 budget 2011. Engine Room Europe was awarded a grant
of €960000. For a list of selected projects, please consult the EACEA
website, http://eacea.ec.europa.eu.