Description
The project addresses the closure of the Literary Museum in Stara Zagora for 23 years now aiming to revive the literary cultural heritage of the city. The project tries to solve the issue by raising public awareness, training local NGOs to carry out advocacy campaigns and attracting broad public support. The first group of activities includes developing a strategy for an advocacy campaign to restore the Literary Museum, training local NGOs to hold advocacy campaigns, holding an information campaign and attracting young people to join the cause as well as holding talks with the local authorities and a round table with the stakeholders. The second group of activities focuses on an awareness campaign via a flash mob, an online platform and dissemination of printed materials. Finally, a broad coalition with local NGOs will be sought to increase inclusion of NGOs in local decision-making. The target group is not only the policy-makers and NGOs but also the local community in general.
Summary of project results
The Museum of Literature in Stara Zagora has been forgotten by local decision-makers and citizens for many years. Its building was taken away years ago to serve other irrelevant purposes. Nowadays, the whole literary heritage of the city is scattered among basements and ruined buildings. This is a unique heritage since most of the prominent Bulgarian authors have been either born or lived in the region of Stara Zagora. The project acted as a wake-up call for locals to realize what has been neglected so long and that without preserving cultural and literary heritage the development of local civil society will not achieve maturity and completeness. The goal of the project was to organize the process of obtaining an appropriate building for the Museum of Literature in Stara Zagora through a comprehensive and complex advocacy and lobby campaign. Results are already sustained since the problem raised through the project is solved in its core part – a suitable building for the Museum is provided by the mayor of the municipality. The main objective of the project was to contribute to an increased involvement of NGOs in policy and decision-making processes with local, regional and national governments outcome. The project impact on local civil society is unprecedentedly huge. Numerous stakeholders from different social and public domains have actively participated in all project advocacy and lobby initiatives. This massive social campaign gained official recognition and local decision-makers decided to revive the Museum and bring the literary heritage to future generations. Last outcome, but not least, is the mobilization of the entire community, incl. formal and informal organizations to advocate their rights to culture. Active involvement of young people is another significant output as a promising basis for initiating further advocacy campaigns in the city of Stara Zagora. People involved in the establishment and maintaining of the Museum of Literature, all contemporary poets and writers, critics and other artists who are professionally bound with arts and culture were a natural engine of the advocacy campaign together with local NGOs, journalists and media. They all were engaged based on the popularity of the Open Society Club - Stara Zagora as a local community center, through many personal contacts, meetings, round tables, discussions, flash mobs, contests, and other creative tools for mobilization of a huge amount of civic energy.
Summary of bilateral results