Moldova

ECF has been active in Moldova since 2006. With our local partners we have created a long-term strategy to assist the development of a cultural Moldovian network that works for social and political transformation.

We are strengthening a coalition of cultural institutions, NGOs and local public administrations that can move forward in supporting national advocacy actions for cultural policy reform and continue to connect both creative work and policy development in Moldova with the rest of the Europe and beyond.

With  high-level grassroots mobilization the country’s cultural network is in an excellent position to increase its visibility and actions trans-nationally. We are working towards this through our capacity building training, cultural management exchange programme and arts management training.

Activities

Tandem - Cultural Managers Exchange Programme

In 2011, we launched a new exchange programme for cultural managers called Tandem. Co-devised with MitOst and delivered in partnership with local organisations, the programme supports long-term cooperation, knowledge development and networking opportunities between cultural managers from European Union (EU) and non-EU countries.

Throughout the year–long period, each manager works together in a Tandem to co–develop a cultural project, taking part in a work placement at each other’s organisation. Next to these exchange visits the entire group meets several times a year and receives support, capacity building and arts management training from the programme organisers.

The creative projects that emerge from the collaboration lead to a wide range of newly–fused ideas and cross–border concepts: connecting virtual to non–virtual exhibitions, producing unique publications, creating collective exhibitions and putting on public—participatory performances.

Having exhibited their productions across their own regions, the Tandem group will come together to showcase their work in Chisinau, 25 - 27 May 2012.  This approach of learning from each other in a new cultural environment stimulates new lines of understanding, cultural distribution and intercultural dialogue and prepares the ground for long-term collaboration of the established Tandem partnerships across Europe and locally. For more go to their own website.

In partnership with: Centre for Cultural Management (Lviv), Culture Action Europe, MitOst and the Soros Foundation -  Moldova. Kindly supported by the European Commission through the CULTURE-Programme and Robert Bosch Stiftung.

A stronger cultural sector will reinforce future development

Since 2007, ECF and Soros Foundation Moldova have been partners in the project funded under the Matra programme, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This ambitious project seeks to help Moldova’s general social transformation by supporting its cultural sector.  As a first step, ECF began in 2006 to evaluate the observations of local cultural activists who expressed the urgent need to professionalise the structures supporting cultural life in Moldova. Local and international expertise was brought together, and a cultural lobby was formed from arts professionals, cultural NGOs, public cultural institutions, local government offices and officials from the Ministry of Culture. Ending in mid-2011, the programme not only provided a framework for future work in the region but also produced a publication to arts management and stuctural planning for cultural organisations, by Lidia Varbanova, available in Russian and Romanian and an alternative arts and culture guide which will be available in June. 

Puzzle Up ChisiNOW, Chisinau - Nicola Mullenger

Moldova's First Cultural Congress 2009 - reform gathers pace

On 12 December 2009, 1000 people entered Moldova’s parliament for the nation’s first cultural congress. Supported by Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Matra programme, the event was organised as part of a larger lobbying and advocacy campaign that sought to give voice to the needs of Moldova’s cultural sectors. 

As ECF’s European Neighbourhood Programme manager Philipp Dietachmair observed: ‘This congress and the entire movement behind it, is very impressive. We have never had comparable support from such high-level politicians and such a large number of professionals, media and artists in such a short time in any other country we have worked.'

With Moldova’s President, Mihai Gimpu on hand to speak in favor of cultural reform, the lobby has made important steps towards realising a Moldovan cultural fund in 2011. Also in partnership with Centre for Cultural Policy (Chisinau), Soros Foundation - Moldova and The National Association of Creation Unions (ANUC).