amateocomms Arts Take Part, Pioneer Projects

New Pioneer Projects Launch

Re-CONNECT 2020 – Amateo’s digital Connect programme that ran 4 – 7 May, to replace the scheduled Brussels workshop (scheduled 20-22 March, before its cancellation due to Covid-19), saw the formation of three pioneer projects, designed to bring together partners and participants across borders, with the help of a 2.5k € pilot budget to develop and deliver their activities.

The Brussels programme would have included a series of interdisciplinary workshops for and led by young people, including folk dance and music (Slovenia led), spoken word (UK led) and performing arts (Germany) and we’re excited to award Pioneer Project funding to partnership representing these art-forms and blending traditional and contemporary creative vocabularies, technologies and themes. The jury of Juliane Lenssen (Das Letzte Kleinod, Germany, former Pioneer Project), Valentina Ducek (Croatia, former Amateo vice-president) and Kate Deans, (Creative Europe Desk UK/Creative Scotland) were impressed by the diversity of ideas and approaches responding to the theme of youth empowerment.

Next Outspoken Generation A spoken work collaboration between VZW Kuumba (BE), Next Generation Speaks (NL); planning a three-day residency and exchange at the beginning of 2021, inviting a mixed group of 16-25 year-olds to create and perform multi-lingual spoken word works (workshops will be conducted in English, producing verse in French, Dutch, English and the other native languages spoken by participants).

PerFANFA, PerFOLK, Perform! (triple P) Initiated and led by young people, from Belgium (FanfaKids), Germany (LABW), Slovenia (Folk Dance Group), with supporting organisations guiding their creative experimentation, sharing and social connections. The team plan to launch an ambassadors project development session in Spring 2021 with the pilot grant, leading to an eight day workshop in Summer, bringing together percussion, folklore dance and physical theatre to devise and perform a collaborative expressive work.

Rebels with a Cause A youth-led online music and video event, encouraging young peoples’ commentary on some of the big issues that the world is facing. Rebels with a Cause has already launched a call for international participation. The project brings together a number of partners across Europe; The House of Activity and Creativity (LT), OMF (NL) Národné osvetové centrum (SK), New Nordic Wave (NL), Noorpool Troupe (NL), VZW Kuumba (BE); to support learning throughout the process and produce collaborative outcomes as part of Make Music Day (21 June) and Make Movie Training.

amateocomms Arts Take Part

REBELS WITH A CAUSE

Online Music & Video Event made by Young People

Do you make music or is the camera your best friend? And are you between 12 and 25 years old? Then this is the chance to make yourself heard!


For the international Make Music Day 2020, dozens of young people from six European countries are working together on a very cool and cross-border online project; the film images and the soundtrack for the “Rebels with a Cause” short film. Whether you come from Lithuania, Slovenia, United Kingdom, Belgium, Slovakia or the Netherlands; together you can speak from your heart!

We would very much like to know what concerns you as a young person. What helps you get through this bizarre time? What are you worried about, or maybe not? What do you want to leave behind from before this time? What do you want to take into the future? Together with dozens of young people from all over Europe, you answer these questions in your own way. By making music or submitting a video. Film & sound professionals make out of all submissions the first international short film of “Rebels with a Cause”.

The short film – premiere online – in six European countries – Sunday 21st June at 13:00 CEST! In the Netherlands, through social media of Leeuwarden-Fryslân European Capital of Culture, with more than 100,000 followers.

You can sign up for music or film!

MUSIC MAKERS

We invite you to join our online orchestra! Reinout Douma, conductor of the Noordpool Orkest, has composed a great basic soundtrack. If you sign up, you will receive a link to download the scores for your instrument and instructions for recording.

VIDEO MAKERS

If you sign up to participate in this project, you will certainly not regret it. Because you can participate for free in useful online video workshops about script development and making a movie (with your mobile phone). You will receive tips & tricks from professionals from film platform New Noardic Wave and Editors from Lithuania to make your short video of up to 1 minute as cool as possible.

Your video is used for the short film and also posted on the webpage: http://www.lockdownstories.net. There are already many videos for inspiration!

Schedule
  • Register before June 5! You will receive more information about what to do as soon as possible.
  • Submissions no later than June 15!
  • Premiere Sunday June 21 at 13:00 CEST during Make Music Day
registration

Contact person:

Jan-Willem van Kruyssen (OMF): jwvankruyssen@omfryslan.nl +31631665582

Rebels with a Cause is a project by:
  • Amateo (European Network for Active Participation in Cultural Activities)
  • OMF (Organisation of Music Associations in Fryslân, the Netherlands)
  • Noordpool Orkest / Noordpool Troupe (Groningen, the Netherlands, musicians between 14 and 23 years old)
  • New Noardic Wave, film platform for makers in the Northern Netherlands
  • Fulkaan, talent platform for young musicians (Fryslân, the Netherlands)
  • iktoon, LKCA (Utrecht, the Netherlands)
  • Making Music UK (London, United Kingdom)
  • House of Activity and Creativity (Public Institution, Zapyskis, Lithuania)
  • Národné osvetové centrum (Bratislava, Slovakia)
  • VZW Kuumba (Brussels, Belgium)
  • JSKD, Javni Sklad za Kulturne Dejavnosti (Ljubljana, Slovenia)

amateocomms Amateo Members

AX – Sweden

AMATEO MEMBER: AX

Member Country: Sweden
Contact person: Anna Rydborg, President and Anna-Karin Waldemarson, Vice-President.

Who is Ax?

Ax, represents voluntary art’s organizations in Sweden. We are 21 organizations for participatory culture and art. Among the members you will find music organizations, choir organizations, theatre organizations, dance organization, video and film organizations, storytelling organizations, art and craft organizations, and experimental art organizations.

What kind of work does Ax normally do?

Ax is an organization for national political influences aimed for creating more visibility, better conditions, and a deeper understanding among politicians and civil servants in the fields of art and culture. Ax initiates discussions with state authorities on issues related to voluntary art and culture, f.i. to gain worthy Ministry grants for the sector of voluntary arts, to collect statistics on active participation in cultural activities, to recognize the value of culturally active citizens and organizations for a more sustainable and healthier society, to strengthen the democratic people’s movement through active and creative participation in local cultural activities. Ax supports the member organizations to gain influence on cultural politics on the regional and local levels. Ax rewards the “Voluntary Art’s Municipality of the Year”.

Why has Ax joined the Amateo network?

Active participation in cultural activities is a huge movement – taking account of the number of individuals, clubs, and organizations in the European countries. This will give Ax the opportunity to take part in a broad cultural community, to exchange knowledge, experiences, and ideas on supporting and developing our field.

Why is it important to make international connections and collaborate across borders?

Every European country has different organizational and political structures for culture and participatory arts, the insights of the Amateo member organizations’ ways of working will give Ax tools to develop. The European voluntary arts organizations have a lot of common challenges, the Amateo network gives us a chance to learn from each other and to support each other. 

What hopes does Ax have for the future of the Amateo network and cultural participation in Europe?

To create more cultural projects together that will give us the opportunity to cooperate with individuals, clubs, and organizations in other countries.

Interested in being part of the Amateo network? Find out more about the members and how to join!

amateocomms Pioneer Projects

Pioneer Projects Update

The three pioneer projects funded as a result of new connections made at CONNECT2019 in Estonia, March 2019 are all at varying stages of delivery. Check on their progress:

Following CONNECT at Amateo’s Don’t Look Back conference in Scotland, October 2019, they’ve been joined by Remembering Places – Crafting Our Future.

From February 23 – 29 2020, Hidden Tracks brings the 16 young people and musicians from the Czech Republic, Estonia and Germany together to get the goods shed in Geestenseth trembling with music & more in a workshop.

On Saturday, 29 February 2020 at 19:00 we invite you to the live Hidden Tracks performance!

amateocomms Arts Take Part, Pioneer Projects

Cancelled: CONNECT – Brussels

Event cancelled due to Coronavirus

A notice regarding CONNECT2020

Sadly, the negative impact of the Coronavirus outbreak has finally reached our project. After long discussions internally, monitoring of local and European authorities’ guidelines and the increasing restrictions on travel, we have made the difficult decision to cancel CONNECT2020 in Brussels. The situation in Belgium and other European countries has meant we have no option but to cancel the event.

We feel a responsibility for the safety of our guests and participants in Brussels and we respect the recommendations of the governmental institutions. This is, of course, disappointing and inconvenient for the participants, especially the inconvenience it causes on travel arrangements. But we hope everyone understands and accepts the decision we had to make in these circumstances.

If you have already transferred the participants fee to us, we are going to reimburse this during the next two weeks.

Unfortunately, we are not able to refund your travel costs. We hope that your airline is covering the costs because – it is increasingly likely – they are going to cancel European flights one after another. Lufthansa has already done so with 23.000 flights. We hope that our decision will help with the containment of the virus outbreak in Europe. We hope that all of you will stay healthy. We are very sad to announce this cancellation and we hope you can understand the decision. We hope to be able to announce a new CONNECT event in the near future when the situation makes this possible.

Our best wishes, stay safe and healthy,
Naemi & the Team of Arts Take Part, Amateo

Previous event information below…

CONNECT 2020 focuses on youth empowerment.

Empowering young people is a key objective for organisations of all scale and increasing priority within cultural policy. But how do we let go of control, while offering just the right amount support, challenge and experience to help young people to develop their skills and understanding?

In times of increasing mobility, social media and digitalisation, traditional arts organisations are struggling to connect with the younger generations. Structures that have been working for decades are not working anymore. Art itself has become more fluid. The traditional way of running art projects in theatre/dance/music/poetry etc. don’t always connect.

One way to get a grip on these new developments is involving young amateur artists directly in your organisation: as advisors, as artistic co-creators, as organisers or programming their own projects or even festivals. 

But how to deal with this empowerment of youth? How much freedom can they handle? And how much responsibility? Can you lead a group instead of realise your own personal, creative ideas? How can you develop your skills to become accepted and involved with your experience as a coach?  Might failure maybe a part of the concept? 

CONNECT 2020 brings together inspiring examples, provocations and practices.

WHEN: Friday 20 – Sunday 22 March 2020 (Friday at 18.00 – Sunday at 16.00)
Deadline to register: Saturday 29 February 2020

WHERE: BRUSSELS, Belgium

FOR WHO:

Creating European Pioneer Projects/Expert meeting: Amateur Associations and arts professionals (producers, directors, teachers, coordinators, cultural managers etc) who are making art with children and/or young people, network organisations and policymakers.

Interdisciplinary Creative Workshops: Young people (aged 18-25 or 16-27 with prior agreement) that want to work internationally and interdisciplinary and have relevant experience with one or more artforms themselves.

These sessions will also be valuable for arts students and people who have recently finished their studies, who want to become teachers in one of the artforms.

WHAT:

CONNECT is a combination of an international expert meeting for art professionals and amateur associations as well as a creative workshop programme for young people.

The ultimate goal of CONNECT – arts professionals and amateur associations programme is to create time and space to find a partner and design an international interdisciplinary project in the CONNECT theme. Amateo will award the three most inspiring concepts with a grant of € 2500 each.

CONNECT 2020 European Pioneer Projects Expert meeting:
Brings together art professionals and amateur associations to focus on the theme of empowerment of young people through discussions, key notes and interactive methods. 

CONNECT Interdisciplinary Creative Workshops:
The young amateur artists workshop programme is a series of 4 workshops of 90 minutes, in which a group of young international amateur artists will experiment and explore different combinations of interdisciplinary artforms; how to combine spoken word and folklore|traditional music? Or urban dance and theatre? Every workshop will be led by young mentors from 4 different European countries, with different artistic backgrounds. It is a lab of unexpected combinations. 

CONNECT also combines parts of the programme:
– Friday’s joint welcome programme includes a surprise performance and workshop
– On Saturday afternoon we explore Brussel by local safari, following an innovative cultural devepment board game, created by Lasso.
– We finish on Sunday afternoon with a mixed diversity workshop.

WHY:

Three days in a good company, watching, talking about, talking with, designing projects and making art with young people. Everywhere in Europe this work is happening but each country and region has its own approach. CONNECT is a platform where people can share their experiences, be curious, find shared goals and start international adventures together.

COST:

Participants fee for arts professionals: € 200
Young people workshop programme: € 100
Costs cover all sessions, food and shared accomodation. If you live in Brussels and don’t sleep in the Jes Sleep in, costs are: € 100 for professionals and € 50 for young participants

CONNECT2020 is an initiative of Amateo’s Art Take Part pioneers projects, organised together MetX and Lasso (Brussels) and co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

Do you want to know more? Send an email to pioneers@amateo.org or go to Facebook and check the event.

amateocomms Amateo Members

SSCW – Estonia

AMATEO MEMBER: Sillamäe Lastekaitse Ühing / Sillamäe Society for Child Welfare (SSCW)

Member country: Estonia

Contact person: Mr. Vassili Golikov, programme director of Sillamäe Society for Child Welfare

Who is SSCW? Sillamäe Society for Child Welfare (SSCW) is a public interest non-governmental organisation that was created December, 8th in 1989. During these years, SSCW has been working actively towards creating a child and youth friendly environment in our society. Each year we have broadened the reach of our activities to initiate broad-based and society-wide noticeable initiatives. Today SSCW has conducted and supported more than 220 projects, not only in the county but also lately on an international level by using culture and education as one of the good methods to reach organisation goals. 

What do you do? SSCW activity is consistently expanding. Activities have been directed at the entire nation and more specifically different areas of Estonian country. SSCW has been actively working with partners on culture (promoting cultural cooperation), education (intercultural education cooperation) and youth (youth participation, engagement and advocacy and volunteer work) from the following countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Latvia, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Russia, Slovenia, Belgium, etc. SSCW is celebrating its own 30th anniversary in 2019. A small regional organisation has grown over three decades into a respected organisation, capable of conducting creative projects and initiatives on the local, national and international level and is a part of (among other things) Estonian Civil Society Concept joint committee, European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN), Anna Lindh Foundation Estonian network, Estonian Roundtable for Development Cooperation, Amateo and has a consultative status with ECOSOC at the UN.

Although the organisation has received bigger international opportunities, SSCW has always valued local development at Ida-Virumaa and actively involving organisations who don’t speak Estonian as a main language. SSCW translates information related to civil society and organises events to increase awareness and skills, among them Ida-Virumaa Civil Society Forum and Ida-Virumaa Youth Forum. A special programme is also developed for youth and culture fields – by promoting cooperation between youth and adults via culture, by staging performances, running a creative training and conferences (conference.sscw.ee), musicals (muusikal.sscw.ee), singing in a choir (pcao.sscw.ee), running a cultural festivals etc.

SSCW is presently also in charge of Ida-Virumaa Civil Society Network that involves culture organisations, social and educational organisations and experts. Our development cooperation consists of activities that we do in the frameworks of our projects, especially relating to international cooperation. We have done several projects in cooperation with our partners from Africa, Middle East, Asia and Southern American countries. With countries of North-Africa (Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia) we cooperate on developing their civil society and we support (when we can) cultural and youth organisations and community development. We are also an active partner in the networks of Peace Child International and Water & Youth, where we contribute to environmental issues and have participated in expert meetings in Scotland (UK), Korea, Canada, Argentina, Turkey, Brazil and Spain. In addition, one of our organisation’s programmes is propagating healthy and environmentally conscious lifestyle and raising awareness of Intercultural Dialogue and World Education.  

Why did you join Amateo? Our organisation has joined with the Amateo network because we are interested to cooperate with culture and creative organisations, including cultural research organisations. We want to get a new impulse in cultural cooperation with European cultural cooperation, get new skills and knowledge from European colleagues. We also were happy to host a meeting of the CONNECT programme in March 2019.   

Why are international connections important? It’s important to communicate and collaborate with international partners, as is increasing capacity of involved parties. We are happy to be part of the network, as it connects a unique European network of creative practitioners, cultural policy-makers, civil society organisations, research organsiations and other interested bodies, united to create together real and lasting change in cultural field’s most pressing problems. Collaboration with international partners is a great opportunity to get new skills, knowledge, influence on national and EU policies, also advocate our common goals and run joint workshops, training, study visits, and cultural projects including new methods and visions.

What are your future hopes? We hope that the Amateo network will became a strong influential advocacy and culture cooperation organisation, that will be recognised by the EU member states and European Commission as an important player in culture and creative fields.

We hope that the Amateo network will increase its capacity by empowering its own members and running a strong practical joint cooperation between its members, by providing necessary support and tools for this better cultural participation in Europe.

Interested in joining Amateo’s European network? Find out more!

amateocomms Arts Take Part

SAVE THE DATE – CONNECT 2020

Young participants from Estonia, Sweden and Slovakia in the object theatre workshop by Tin Grabnar (Si), during CONNECT 2019 in Narva, Estonia

CONNECT & EMPOWER – young voices in the arts

The next CONNECT2020 focuses on the issue of empowerment of young people. What do they need to organise their own local, regional or international project? For example: A workshop camp, a youth network, an international exchange or a festival? How do you involve them in designing a project? Where do you give them guidance, and when will we follow them in their ideas? Can they make decisions, or only give advice? Inspiring examples will show and/or tell their stories.

WHEN:

20/21/22 March 2020

WHERE:

BRUSSELS, Belgium

FOR WHO:

– Young people (aged 18-25) that want to work internationally and interdisciplinary, and have relevant experience with one or more artforms themselves

– Arts students and students who want to become a teacher in one of the artforms as well as people who have recently finished one of these studies

– Organisations who are focussing on art with children and/or young people

– Network organisations and policy-makers

WHAT:

Three days to:

– See inspiring performances and art initiatives made/performed by young people

– Hear inspiring keynote speakers, share knowledge and have some new experiences

– Meet and speak with inspiring colleagues, and young people from all over Europe

– Explore the cultural field in Brussels

– Get to know each other, find a potential partner and design a small project together.

Amateo is rewarding three proposals each with a € 2.500,– grant.

WHY:

Three days in a good company, watching, talking about, talking with, designing projects and making art with young people. Everywhere in Europe it is happening, but each country/region has its own approach. CONNECT wants to be a platform where people can share their experiences, can be curious to each other and hopefully find each other and start international adventures together.

CONNECT is an initiative of Amateo’s pioneer projects; a Arts take part project group which wants to initiate and stimulate small-scaled, international and (preferably) interdisciplinary projects in the field of amateur arts, to gain and share experiences, and to stimulate new forms and approaches within amateur arts.

The full programme will be published before the end of 2019. Do you want to know more? Send an email to pioneers@amateo.org. Or go to Facebook and check the event.

CONNECT2020 is an initiative of Amateo’s Art Take Part pioneers projects, organised together MetX and Lasso (Brussels) and co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

amateocomms Arts Take Part, Courses & Conferences

Arts Take Part: Courses & Conferences Team

Courses & Conferences Team is one of the implementing teams of Arts Take Part, a unique and exciting four-year Amateo network project co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union. Let see what the team members say about their recent work!

Tell us about your Team?

Our team is international, but it has a Slavic soul, since the team members
are from Croatia, Slovakia and Slovenia. The last team member from the
Netherlands joined us just recently. I think we share a common vision with all the other teams within Arts Take Part and also with other people who work in the field of amateur culture. We try to encourage people to recognize the value of their work in this field, trying to gain visibility of the Amateo network, involve new partners and members in Amateo activities, to provide the paid and voluntary staff in participatory arts associations in European countries with new opportunities. In order to do that we promote and provide trans-national courses and conferences where good practices and experiences from different European countries can be shared.

What has the team been doing recently?

Lately, we have been communicating a lot with our partners from Austria
and Italy for the organisation of the conferences next year. Now we are
in the middle of program preparations for our next conference in June 2020, which will take place in Vienna, Austria. We are also planning promotional campaigns and trying to get as close as possible to potential participants and members. At the same time, it was also necessary to design a work program for the coming year, with collaboration between teams that differentiate the quality and diversity of our events as a key element. The Amateo Conference is also a place where the annual Amateo Award and CONNECT project has its part. The Amateo Award is aiming to highlight and support the individuals and groups whose projects are recognized as outstanding on a European level.

Workshop, Novi Sad, Serbia, June 2019
What are you working on for the future?

We have been working for a long time to find ways and methods which can
help to share knowledge and skills with as many interested people as possible. In the future, we will endeavour to use modern information channels to display our events and to implement e-learning. It is sometimes difficult to choose the right form for a specific target audience among many forms and communication channels, and we will continue to pay much attention to this in the future. We also work with various organisations to participate in the implementation of events in the future, including a one-day conference in Galway, Ireland and in a conference in Milan, Italy.

What are your recent highlights?

Meeting interesting new people, seeing happiness on the faces of award winners, facilitating new transnational exchange of knowledge and collaborations, feeling positive energy and, at the end, satisfaction when plans become reality!

CONNECT 2019, Tallinn, Estonia
How can other Amateo members or non-members get involved with this work?

We would like to involve as many members and non-members as possible into our activities. The main aim of our team is to give people the opportunity for sharing experience and knowledge, for international collaboration to participate actively at Amateo events (seminars, conferences), give ideas for future events, be a host of the events, share positive energy… In short – to place active participation in culture under the spotlight.

Follow us on our Facebook page or contact info@amateo.org.

Arts Take Part is a four-year network project co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union. Find out more about Arts Take Part on the project page.

ATP and EU emblem banner

amateocomms Arts Take Part, Courses & Conferences

Highlights: Amateo annual Conference & Award, Novi Sad 2019

Amateur Art Association of Vojvodina had the honour to host the 11th annual Amateo conference, in Novi Sad, from 07-08. June 2019. In the year when the city of Novi Sad is the European capital of Youth, attendees had the chance to open many questions and to share many good examples.

Bridges of Creativity “Amateur Arts & Youths in intercultural society”

The first day of the conference – after the inspirational keynote of Amateo president Susan Fazakerley – we had an opportunity to hear about the current climate for amateur arts and engagement with youth in Serbia, Netherlands and Slovenia, to listen to live singing presentation of multi traditional music which erase boundaries and finally, to hear about intercultural education and intercultural learning with the aim of overcoming national and all other barriers in multicultural societies with engaging youth in cultural projects. 

The second day was dedicated to good practice examples, where we heard about different projects from Netherlands, Germany, Serbia, recently initiated Amateo pioneer projects and how two titles (European Youth Capital 2019 and European Capital of Culture 2021) are helping youth from Novi Sad to participate in cultural activities and expand the voluntary service. Last, but not least, there was an interesting workshop where we found out more about our differences, similarities and prejudices.

Serbia’s regional broadcaster, RT Vojvodina, featured the Bridges of Creativity conference, telling their audience about the importance of amateur arts in their news broadcasts. Watch the clip and read the news article here.

In the beautiful venue of Vojvodina Government building, while we were watching and listening wonderful music performance, we realised how many different cultures live together in Serbia and the province of Vojvodina. The Amateo Award finalists from Serbia, Northern Ireland, Austria, Belgium and The Netherlands were all represented and the winner of Amateo Award 2019 was announced!

Snežana Sedlar, Vice President of the Assembly of Autonomius Province of Vojvodina, opened the Award ceremony, together with Susan Fazakerley, president of Amateo and Savo Mucibabic, Amateur Art Association of Vojvodina secretary. Watch the clip and read the news article here.

There are many more photos you can see on the Amateo Facebook page and some videos of musical performances from ceremony on the Amateo YouTube channel.

You can also view some of the presentations from conference:

Many more articles and extended presentations from the conference, on the theme “Amateur arts, Youth and Interculturalism” will be available to read in the upcoming book – co-published by Amateo, Cultural centre of Vojvodina “Milos Crnjanski” and Amateur Art Association of Vojvodina – later this year. One more great outcome of this Amateo event!

amateocomms Amateo Members

JSKD – Slovenia

AMATEO MEMBER:
JAVNI SKLAD REPUBLIKE SLOVENIJE ZA KULTURNE DEJAVNOSTI / REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA PUBLIC FUND FOR CULTURAL ACTIVITIES (JSKD)

320px-Slovenia_in_its_region.svg

Member country: Slovenia
Contact person: Jan Pirnat, project manager

Who? JSKD is a state umbrella organization for amateur culture in Slovenia. The nationwide network was established in 1998. In Slovenia there are approximately 5000 cultural societies, associations and groups, which reunite over 100.000 adult members engaged in cultural activities. The headquarters with an expert unit and 59 regional branch offices (all over Slovenia) are enabling multi directional interaction between cultural societies, local communities and public institutions. The spatial dispersion and integration into the local environment are key to balanced development and crucial for networking on the regional, national and international level.

What? JSKD supervises the implementation of the national cultural program for various activities ranging from vocal and instrumental music, theater and puppets, folklore, dance and film to visual art and literary activity. 

Work also includes cultural education and introduction of new practices. In addition, JSKD carries out the procedures for co-financing of amateur cultural programs and projects, organizes events (festivals, competitions, concerts, exhibitions, etc.) and publishes professional literature (books, magazines, music collections, …) covering all topics of creativity in amateur art. 

The majority of the programs are carried out through a pyramid scheme (local, regional and state level) – systematic selection that promotes qualitative development. Groups that are selected for the state level are invited to national festivals, competitions, exhibitions. 

JSKD also provides advocacy for active participation in culture and is one of two main organisers of Week of Amateur Culture. WAC seeks to create greater accessibility and mobility of cultural assets. The openness of the creative space can be seen in the interaction of amateurs and professionals, who make significant contributions to the creation of amateur culture. 

Why join Amateo? JSKD was one of the founding members of Amateo network. Behind the network start up was an idea of sharing ideas and promoting active participation in culture on an international scale. 

On the international level JSKD cooperates with other national organizations in various EU programs and projects. It is also a member of numerous international professional organizations and networks dealing with amateur culture.

Importance of international connections? Connecting with partners in international projects and networks grants partners but also participants in countries where the member organisations are working the access to information that helps to develop their full creative potential.

Future hopes? Our hopes for the Amateo network are that the network will grow not only in numbers but it will also develop in an idea hub and platform for information flow and flow of projects and participants, volunteers and groups between EU countries.

Interested in joining Amateo’s European network? Find out more!