Do we have the adequate programmes for our audience?
Do we have the audience for our programmes?

The democratization of culture, as one of the principles of civil society, implies the availability of culture to everyone, but it also suggests the creation and offer of adequate programmes. Since the public administration remains the main source of funding for Serbian culture, the question of quality, accessibility, contents and adequacy of these programmes has not only artistic and cultural, but foremost a strong social dimension. Relevant analysis and evaluation of cultural consumers’ needs would raise the awareness of real cultural necessities of transitional societies and their (dis)harmony with the current offer.
This project has the aim to provide the information and tools for the employees in the cultural sector in Vojvodina (i.e. Cultural Managers, Cultural Programmes Editors, Cultural Activities Coordinators, Curators, etc), that will allow them to use contemporary methods of analysis and evaluation of their programs and, in accordance with the obtained results, respond to the needs of our society. The idea is to present sustainable and creative models from the experiences of European countries, as well as to highlight positive local experiences. Project aims to contribute to the creation of new models in Serbia, while emphasizing the necessity of inter-sector cooperation, institutional networking as well as creating a dialogue with European organizations in order to encourage future cooperation. Project will intend to raise awareness of culture as an important economic branch and cultural programmes as market-oriented product that, as any other product, loses its purpose without its consumers/audience.
The central part of the project, the organization of seminars, entails three sessions (in Vrsac, Zrenjanin and Pancevo) and will be held by eminent European experts on this subject: Richard Hadley (independent consultant and expert in audience development, Audiences Europe Network, Hereford, UK); Angel Mestres (Transit projects, General manager, Barcelona Spain) and Laszlo Hemrik (Ludwig museum, Head of Museum Education Department, Budapest Hungary).
The guest-lecturers will offer an exposé on different aspects of audience development topics: basic tools for audience development, cultural institutions in the circumstances of constant change, best practices of exploring audience - a success factor of cultural institutions, educating the audience, transformation of old community centre in modern cultural centres involved in local community, etc.
Through dialogue and discussions, we aim to present different models of audience development strategies and investment in creating new and maintaining existing audiences, but also to promote the positive examples in our community, as well as to be critical by commenting outdated, not sustainable examples, or simply those not applicable in our environment.