Workgroups were formed in which colleagues from Budapest, Berlin, Sofia and Plovdiv could solve problems of project management and co-operation and creating cooperation strategies.
A Sofia Culture Operators workshop with focus on BG contemporary arts culture managers, visual arts museum and galleries, independent spaces, residencies and informal spaces took place on Dec 8 and 9. The Sofia City Art Gallery and Veska Emanuilova project space presented their current methods of work and the role they play in Sofia as a specialised space for contemporary arts in the absence of a museum for contemporary arts.
Art residencies activities of the Art Today Association / Centre for Contemporary Art – Plovdiv were discussed. The initiator of Sofia Water Tower media arts festival, IME NGO, shared this topic in regards to an international debate on arts initiatives in urban space on June 26, 2010. Studio Dauhaus –initiator of the Sofia Underground arts festival introduced the informal cooperation as a next topic of exchange. The Bulgarian Culture Observatory, promoting research and culture valuation in Bulgaria shared their current findings. An interaction with independent curators from Sofia took place towards the end of the Tuesday programme with a discussion on curatorial exchange networks.
Sofia arts spaces and educational activities in the museum were the key topics in meetings at National Gallery for Foreign Art, Sofia, the Red House for Culture and Debate - Sofia and the National Museum “Earth and People”. We learned that the Ludwig Museum for Contemporary arts could have been located in Sofia before it settled in Budapest and that two public projects in Sofia (launch 2010) may improve the context of contemporary arts musea in Bulgaria. Several projects were indentified as a connecting point between Workshop 2 and Workshop 3 on Culture Access.
Participants to the ANIMATED Sofia Meeting: Over 35 participants from Sofia and Bulgaria representing over 25 different arts organisations benefited from this direct exchange. ANIMATED guests were Marina Sorbello (uqbar e.V., Berlin); Antje Weitzel (uqbar e.V., Berlin); Wibke Behrens, Neue Gesellschaft fuer Bildende Kunst (NGBK, Berlin); Orsolya Barabassy and Rita Farkas (Education Department, Ludwig Museum, Budapest); Petya Koleva (Intercultura Consult, Sofia); Lora Dimova and Todor Gadjev (Intercultura Consult, Sofia); Yovo Panchev, (Studiodauhaus); Iliana Dimitrova (National Academy for Theater and film arts, Sofia) ; Dr. Maria Vassileva (Chief curator Sofia City Art Gallery); Yana Kostova, (Bulgarian-German Cultural Centre, Plovdiv), Jacob Racek, (Culture manager Robert Bosch Stiftung); Nia Pushkarova, (IME arts initative); Irina Moutafchiеva, (National Gallery for Foreign Art); Diana Andreeva and Prof. Bilyana Tomova (Observatory of Cultural Economics Sofia ); Galya Dimitrova curator and Tzvetelina Josifova (Red House for Culture and Debate); Jivka Janakieva-Nacheva (National Museum “Earth and People”)
