Meeting with KAoperativa

Within the implementation of the "Knowledge exchange and capacity building for civil and creative sector" activity, a meeting between representatives of Kultura Nova Foundation and KAoperativa association of alliances was held in the Croatian Home in Karlovac on 12th of May 2017.

In her introduction speech, Dea Vidović, director of the Kultura Nova Foundation explained the intention, goals and activities in the project which Kultura Nova initiated in order to support the practices of participatory governance in culture in Croatia, primarily developed in the new generation of cultural centres or socio-cultural centres in their further development and improvement of the relations between all key stakeholders involved in those processes, but also to contribute to the enhancement of the institutional and legislative framework for further development od participatory governance in culture and civil society in Croatia. By that the sustainable development of cultural resources based on the participatory governance models in culture could be achieved which would considerably contribute to the comprehensive sustainability of the cultural system, local community development and development of the cities.

The Kaoperativa representatives displayed issues and challenges they are facing in the development and governance of the socio-cultural center in the space of Mala scena of Croatian Home in Karlovac. As a key problem the Platform members pointed out the emigration of young people from Karlovac and decrease of the interest in culture. The demotivational factor is also that despite of the good communication with the City administration, numerous public discussions and workshops, concrete shifts toward revitalisation of the Croatian Home and further partnership with the City, concerning the participatory and collaborative governance of the Croatian Home, are missing.

Meeting participants agreed that after 5 years of active engagement it is crucial to discuss further strategic orientation of the KAoperativa association of alliances, taking in account diferent interests and motives of the member organizations, and determinate Platform's future direction and activities but also clearly define key values and principles for their future work.

Beside questions of the Croatian Home future, certain member organizations expressed their interest in dealing with other vacant, abandoned or not enough used spaces in Karlovac which could be repurposed and used for the civil society, culture and youth as one of the possible guidelines of the future strategic directions for the platform.

The project team used the meeting in Karlovac for shooting of photo and video materials for the case study about Croatian Home in Karlovac.