Cultural and community centers (houses) are a popular and well spread infrastructure in many Central and Eastern European countries. Their role is to increase participation in the cultural life on city and village level, to connect culture and arts with education, to revive local traditions, to involve young people in diverse artistic activities and educational courses, to provide access to information for people living in isolated areas and much more. Recently, in some countries these centers have gained higher independency on regional level, changed their focus from being transmitters to the national policies on regional level to becoming lively platforms for social debates, active centers of local cultural development.
In Bulgaria, cultural and community centers are called “http://www.labforculture.org/en/Resources-for-Research/Contents/Research-tools/Chitalishte" target="_self">Chitalishte”. The existing network of approximately 3,600 Chitalishta throughout the country constitutes a national wealth and an important comparative advantage for Bulgaria. Thanks to their unrivalled social prestige and geographic proliferation, the Chitalishta have a tremendous potential to contribute to meeting certain cultural and educational needs, and promoting community participation across the country. The emerging Agora platform aims at “increasing the role of Chitalishte as part of the civil society and a center for community development, having cultural, educational, information, social and civic functions.” In July 2008 Agora started to implement a two years project for Chitalishte institutional development, supported by Charles Stewart Mott foundation.
In Latvia, there is an emerging initiative of the Strategic Analysis Committee of the Latvian President to launch open Forums in 10 cities across the country at the end f May 2009, where local cultural centers will be involved. Such broad consultation efforts are an evidence of mobilization and a good attempt to put culture on the broad societal agenda. This is especially important in the time of economic crisis we live in.
Another example is the project “Let’s Do It! My Estonia” – a nationwide brainstorming session, launched in 527 sites throughout Estonia and overseas on 1 May 2009. This think tank encourages creative solutions to everyday concerns in the society, answering the question “How to make Estonia a better place to live”, and to also find community leaders to start implementing the ideas. In addition to 409 officially moderated sessions, participants can join in discussions via 16 virtual forums and 85 self-formed groups. 17 brainstorming centres have been created in 12 other countries, including Finland, Sweden, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Georgia and the United States.
Tell us more about the ways of mobilising local resources in your country or region. Send us concrete examples of vital cultural and community centers from the city or village where you live!
LabforCulture is a partner initiative of the European Cultural Foundation. LabforCulture is grateful for the support provided by its funders.
