Artistic festivals and continuously operating cultural organizations

International Workshop, 21.-22. 10. 2011 | A. Trstenjak Hall, University of Maribor

Artistic festivals and continuously operating cultural organizations
European Festivals Research Project (EFRP) and Maribor Theatre Festival

Maribor Theatre Festival will be the host for the eleventh festivals research workshop organised by the European Festivals Research Project (EFRP).  EFRP has organised one or two workshops annually since it began in 2005. The focus of its workshop in Maribor will be ‘Artistic festivals and continuously operating cultural organizations’.
Artistic festivals emerged in Europe after World War Two with the aim of providing extraordinary artistic experiences that existing cultural organizations were not able to deliver in their regular, annual programmes. This compensatory role of artistic festivals has been expanded as a result of two things, their proliferation and the increasingly international output of cultural organizations.
This workshop seeks to reconsider the relationship of festivals and continuously operating cultural organizations as competitors and partners. This dichotomy is a product of many factors, some competitive and, some, where mutual self interest may result in collaboration. Principal amongst these are funding, artistic product, audiences, and the agendas of other stakeholders. The latter is of particular importance because of the different contributions that festivals and other cultural operators can make to social, economic and political agendas such as are reflected in policies for artistic development, place marketing and/or social and community cohesion. 
The European Festivals Research Project is an international, interdisciplinary consortium, which is focused on the dynamics of artistic festivals in contemporary life. One of its principal aims is to understand the underlying causes of the current proliferation of festivals and the resource implications and diagnostic perspectives. EFRP focuses on those festivals that are driven by a firm artistic vision, involving international programming and which benefit from substantial support from public authorities – a critically important agenda in these days of savage cuts to public sector and culture budgets across Europe.
Participants in the Maribor Theatre Festival are welcome to participate in this workshop in order to hear the presentations and to contribute to the discussion.

Christopher Maughan

Schedule
Friday 21 October
University of Maribor, Anton Trstenjak Hall

14.30 Registration and coffee
15.00 Seminar begins with welcome statements from Alja Predan, Dr Anne-Marie Autissier and Janos Szabo
15.15 Raluca Pop co-authored with Ioana Tamaş: Accountability and cooperation: Romanian festivals on public funds (case-studies: National Theatre Festival & "George Enescu” Festival)
15.45 Juraj Hubinák - Mission: New Drama, Tool: a festival
16.15  Szabó János Zoltán – Synergies Among Festivals, Museums and Theatres
16.45 Discussion of presentations


Saturday 22 October
University of Maribor, Anton Trstenjak Hall

09.00 Coffee 
10.00 Professor Franco Bianchini and Dr Anne-Marie Autissier: Dr Dragan Klaic An appreciation of his life and work
10.30 Jelena Arnautović: How music festival Mokranjčevi dani and  Negotin Cultural Center could influence the development of cultural decentralization and of cultural tourism in Serbia?
11.00 Smiljka Isaković - What influences Belgrade's music festivals?   
11.30 Coffee 
11.45 Jelena Janković - Jugokoncert and "its” festivals
12.15 Tomaž Toporišič – Has the future already arrived? Mladinsko Theatre at the crossroads of festivals and theatres.
12.45 Discussion of presentations
13.00 Lunch 
14.30 Christopher Maughan - Leicester: breaking down the silos
15.00 Jennie Jordan - The role of Buxton International Festival in the Regeneration and Place Marketing of Buxton, Derbyshire.
15.30 Anne-Marie Autissier - How to articulate events’ organisation and long term cultural action: the case of Reims and Bordeaux in France
16.00 Discussion of presentations
16.15 Coffee 
16.30 Plenary discussion 
16.50 Proposals for future EFRP activity

There will be a simultaneous translation provided (from Slovene to English and from English to Slovene).