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Description
Thanks to the project, Art Cafe will bring cultural activities to young people, seniors and excluded communities who, despite the growing interest in culture in Banská Štiavnica, are not traditional target audiences of cultural events. At the same time, it will support the functioning of the cultural centre, which has been operating for 21 years, by partially funding its permanent activities and exchanging experience with the cultural centre in Iceland. As part of the cultural exchange, leading Slovak artists, singer Katarína Malíková and dancer Soňa Ferienčíková, and Icelandic musicians IDFR and Sóley have already expressed their preliminary consent to perform in the IÐNÓ Club in Reykjavik and Art Cafe, respectively. Thematically, cultural activities of Art Cafe will focus on inclusion of the local Roma minority, anti-discrimination and general political and civic rights.
Summary of project results
The project addresses following issues or challanges:
- Long-term social exclusion of Roma in Banská Štiavnica, their discrimination in public life, employment and education, extremism and intolerance.
- Ageism and limited access to arts and culture for young people and seniors.
- Under-representation of women artists in the contemporary art world
- Promotion of artistic freedom and freedom of expression.
- Promotion of cultural cooperation between Iceland and Slovakia (with special focus on representation of women in art).
- Promotion of human rights, gender equality, social reconciliation.
Thanks to the project, Art Cafe brought various cultural activities to young people, seniors and excluded communities (mainly Roma inhabitants and Ukrainian refugee families) who, despite the growing interest in culture in Banská Štiavnica, are not traditional target audiences of cultural events. We organized 2 festivals and around 15 events. We are most proud of the amazing Together Sobov festival, which brought together residents of the town of all age groups with the residents of the Sobov settlement.
Cultural activities of Art Cafe focused on inclusion of the local Roma minority, and since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, also refugee families, anti-discrimination and general political and civic rights. At the same time, the project supported the functioning of the Art Cafe cultural centre, which has been operating for 25 years, by partially funding its permanent activities and exchanging experience with the cultural centre in Iceland. As part of the cultural exchange and support to representation of women artists, leading Slovak singer Katarína Malíková and dancer Soňa Ferienčíková, and famous Icelandic musicians Jófríður Ákadóttir and Sóley Stefánsdóttir performed in Art Cafe and in Reykjavik.
Abovementioned activities contributed to the outcome named Access to contemporary arts improved. Within the project, capacity of cultural players was supported as well as the audience development. Above mentioned challenges were addressed.
Beneficiaries: performing artists, general public (in particular the age groups of young people (14-18) and seniors (65+) both in Banska Stiavnica and Reykjavik, cooperating institutions such as local schools, Centre for Community Organizing and local Roma community center, segregated Roma population and Ukrainian refugees living in Banska Štiavnica (approx. 150).
Summary of bilateral results
The partner''s extensive experience with international productions or the operation of a professional center for arts (IÐNÓ and Hafnar.haus) and artists in Reykjavík, his cooperation with artists and contacts in the arts and education, were a great professional benefit for both project collaboration and professionalization of Art Cafe cultural management. At our meeting in Banska Stiavnica in May 2023, our partner managed the Jofridur Akadottir’s event. We used this opportunity to discuss inclusion of minorities through arts with local actors. We had several work meetings with various institutions and individual experts. Thanks to the partnership, mainly an artistic and cultural exchange took place between our countries, within Activity 4 of the project, formal and informal relations between Slovak and Icelandic experts in the field of culture and artists have been established. The most significant benefit and a result of the project was a direct support of 4+ female artists, whose representation is generally much lower than that of men. With great success we organized 4 performances in Banska Stiavnica and Reykjavik. In a joint effort we supported audience development, artistic freedom, and helped remove certain barriers in an access to art for various social classes in Banska Stiavnica. Thanks to the project, professional capacities were increased, and there is a greater chance of maintaining our team and space for further artistic activities in the future. Our team traveled to Iceland in November 2023 to take part at the Iceland Airwaves conference and to attend meetings with our project partner and his collaborators with the aim to discuss SLICE sustainability and the plan for future joint activities. We are planning to apply for joint projects.