International Forum
CULTURE AND EU STRUCTURAL FUNDS?
Accompanying event within 4th Front@ of contemporary dance festival

August 28, 2009, from 9.30 to 14.00
Murska Sobota Castle, Slovenia

We invite you to international forum Culture and EU Structural Funds?, which will take place on Friday, 28th of August, from 9.30 to 14.00 in Murska Sobota Castle. The aim of the Forum is to give emphasis to the importance of culture while implementing the European cohesion policy, especially in the domain of regional development and social cohesion.

European cohesion policy with the budget estimated on 347 billion EUR for the period 2007-2013 represents the largest financial source for investments in growth and better jobs for improvement of all regions to become more equal on the internal market. For the period 2007-2013 4,2 billon EUR will be allocated to Slovenia from European Structural Funds. More than 66% of these funds are intended to strengthen the economic growth and create new and better jobs.

Did you know that projects from the field of culture can also be funded by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF), two financial mechanisms better known as Structural Funds?

Guests from Austria (Beatrix Vreca, Bad Radkersburg Museum), Croatia (Manuela Hrvatin, Euro info point, Pula), Hungary (Zoltan Rostas, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest) and Slovenia (Ivana Strkalj and Drago Bratoz, City Municipality of Koper, Aljoz Kavas, Mozaik Association, Murska Sobota) will present best practice cases - cultural projects made possible with the support of EU Structural and Pre-Accession Funds.
Representatives of Slovenian Ministry of Culture (Irena Mars) and Government Office for Local Self-Government and Regional Policy of the RS (Tanja Rener) will present EU Structural Funds and Pre-accession Funds (IPA) programmes and funding possibilities for cultural projects.

Forum will be concluded by Matjaz Faric (Flota Institute) and project partners from Austria (Dance Identity in OffenesHausOberwart) and Hungary (Pro Progressione/Cie Pal Frenak). They will present their project Beyond Front@, funded by EU programme Culture (2007-2013). Dance Explorations Beyond Front@ aims to build meaningful professional and creative relationships among dancers, other artists, cultural managers, critics, theoreticians and audiences in the Central European region by providing access to high-quality cultural offerings to citizens in rural as well as urban areas.

Welcome speech will be held by Bojan Petrijan (director of the Administration, Municipality of Murska Sobota) and Tomaz Dobrila (General Director of the Directorate for Arts at the Ministry of Culture of RS).

Forum will be held within the 4th Fronta of Contemporary Dance Festival and is organized by Cultural Contact Point Slovenia (SCCA-Ljubljana) and Flota Institute in cooperation with Cultural Contact Points from Austria (Ministry of Culture), Croatia (Ministry of culture) and Hungary (KulturPont Iroda).

PROGRAM AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Cultural Contact Point Slovenia, Mateja Lazar, ccp@scca-ljubljana.si