Meetings for Lazareti

Within the framework of the "Knowledge exchange and capacity building workshops for the civil and creative sectors" activity representatives of the Kultura Nova Foundation (Dea Vidović, director of the Foundation, Ana Žuvela, member of the Research team about participatory governance and Miranda Veljačić, member of the Working group for the new models of institutions) participated on the 16th of March 2017 at the meeting of the Council for the monumental complex Lazareti and meeting with the Platform for Lazareti where models of participatory governance in Lazareti complex were discussed. The Council gathers representatives of Dubrovnik city administration, which is the owner of the monumental complex of Lazareti, as well as the representatives of users of the spaces in Lazareti – organizations from the fields of culture, arts, social entrepreneurship and humanitarian services as well as the public cultural institution Linđo, whereas the Platform for Lazareti gathers  organizations and institutions which are permanent users and wider group of civil society organizations which use the spaces of Lazareti periodically or are potential users of Lazareti complex.

Kultura Nova participated at the mentioned events as a public body aimed at the participatory governance topic through the "Approaches to Participatory Governance in Culture" project which was developed based on the need for additional support of advocacy platforms which Kultura Nova already endorses. Director of the Foundation indicated different models of public-civil partnership, developed as answers to different local contexts in Croatia, she also pointed out the importance of sharing responsibility in usage and governance of those spaces, as well as active engagement of the local community in governing, programming and production of the cultural and artistic contents which may contribute to the cultural democracy, social inclusion and sustainable city development.

During the Council for the monumental complex Lazareti meeting, participants explored the possibility of establishing Lazareti governance model through a ltd. company in which they considered the roles and competences of different company bodies, assembled of all relevant stakeholders (city administration representatives, Lazareti users, local community), in governance and programming activities of the Lazareti complex. The discussion also included the plato of Lazareti complex and its usage where the Kultura Nova Foundations' representatives pointed out the importance of inclusion of the plato in the model od participatory governance of the whole complex. During the meeting with the Platform for Lazareti the discussion again concerned possibilities of participatory governance and usage of the Lazareti complex through the company model and future steps regarding the participation of the Platform representatives in the Council for the monumental complex Lazareti were agreed upon.

On the next day, 17th of March 2017, within the framework of the same activity, Kultura Nova Foundation organized the workshop for the students of Dubrovnik High school which is situated in the Lazereti neighbourhood. During this interactive workshop students were introduced to the topic of participatory governance over cultural resources and importance of participation in the decision making processes and co-creation of their local community development. They also gained an insight in the decision making processes on the local level as well as in methods of social changing advocacy and fulfilling the needs of targeted population. The students had a chance to express their thoughts about activation in the governing and programming processes of Lazareti in the future. The workshop was moderated by Mirela Travar, president of the Alliance Operation City from Zagreb and longtime coach in the platform Croatian Youth Network - platFORMAT.