Creative Slovenia up to 2020: a fascinating feat

Since 1997, hundreds of cultural organisations from across Europe have joined in for a very special set of administrative and discursive protocols. New projects are painstakingly compiled and proposed each year as artists and producers aim for co-funding from one of the European Union's cultural programmes.

Worth about a billion and a half euros and covering the period between 2014 and 2020, Creative Europe is an instrument to support the creation of a shared European cultural space and identity. It is divided into two subprogrammes: the film-focused MEDIA; and the more diverse Culture subprogramme, further partitioned into Literary Translations, European Platforms, European Networks and Cooperation Projects. Slovene cultural producers have been consistently excelling in the latter with considerable panache. In 2020, 18 Slovene organisations are either leaders or partners in 17 out of all 113 supported Cooperation Projects of the Culture subprogramme.

EU funding illustrated

The infographic (unfortunately data are not accessible any more) was based on an interoperability project carried out by Culture.si and CED Slovenia / Motovila Institute. It featured data that relates to EU funding for culture as a whole, encompassing the film and audiovisual media programmes (up until 2014 led under a separate entity known as MEDIA) as well as the two seven-year schemes under the Culture programme (these were preceded by some smaller sector-related programmes from the late 1990s, for which Slovenia was not eligible yet).

Each square represents one participant organisation. Clicking on a square takes you to the more in-depth project descriptions. The infographic itself shows the distribution of projects by art field, by the organisation's role in the project and – interestingly – by the organisation's status as either a public or a private entity.

Natural-born cultural managers?

When analysing the results of the previous years (2007–2011 and 2014–2015), Peter Inkei of the Budapest Observatory already stated in 2016 that "Slovenia is the incontestable east-central European champion in the Creative Europe programme". Thus his recent statement is merely a reiteration, as he wrote in May 2017, that "the champion is again Slovenia with a 35% success rate".

He is referencing the phenomenal success rate shown in 2017: out of 20 projects with a Slovene "project leader" (the projects are comprised of one lead organisation and several partner ones), 7 managed to be successful in obtaining funds. The other 74 endorsed projects – chosen out of the 548 submitted applications – featured 10 Slovene organisation as partners (which can often be a preferable position in terms of the funding/responsibility trade-off). With all this in mind, Inkei rhetorically wonders if Slovenes are "born cultural managers". They might be, but more probably it is the complex historic composition of the Slovene cultural landscape (especially the NGO scene) that should offer interesting clues in this regard.

Motovila Institute / Creative Europe Desk Slovenia event Uspešno ... Ustvarjalno (Successful ... Creative), hosting Slovenian producers involved in the Creative Europe funding scheme, 2018.

Input of the Creative Europe Desk Slovenia (Motovila Institute)

There is, however, one factor that seems to stand out as rather important – the Creative Europe Desk Slovenia. This is the national information office for such matters, led by the small, but dedicated and trusted, NGO Motovila Institute. Recently, its crew, in a telling phrase that further elaborates Inkei's remark, has been labelled by one of the grant-winning producers as "our mothers".

Be that as it may, helping out the applicants with advice, conducting informative workshops and carrying out other matters of general support, Motovila team sports a systematic approach towards producing a community-based pool of skills, tricks, contacts and the like.

In any case, 2018, 2019 and 2020 brought excellent results again.

Recent Culture Cooperation Project recipients

The chosen propositions from Slovenia are of course very diverse. One would be hard-pressed to find a common theme even as the wordings of project descriptions tend to be somewhat generic, their authors striving to align them with the supposed affinities of Brussels.

The composition of successful organisations is similarly miscellaneous, ranging from small organisations to big and venerated art producers. While 6 of the participating organisations haven't had any prior experience in EU's cultural programmes, 14 of them are veterans with at least one project under their belts. If, in 2017, the public institutions significantly boosted their Creative Europe profile, and almost caught up with the previously much more industrious NGO sector, also in 2018, out of 18 organisations there were 8 successful public institutions.

Online version (printscreen) of interactive EU funding infographic, featuring successful producers with public or private status, recipients of EU Funding 2000-2019 (Culture and Media). Data have been collected by Motovila Institute that operates the Creative Europe Desk Slovenia

In 2019, the number of successful public institutions (13) was even a bit higher than the number of NGO organisations (12). The 3 producers that got the grant as lead organisations are involved as partners in another granted Cooperation Projects. The producers located in Ljubljana, Maribor, Nova Gorica, Novo mesto and Murska Sobota collaborate mostly with partners from Italy (15), Germany (12), Belgium (11), UK (11), and Poland (10).

In 2020, the number of successful NGO organisations (10) and public institutions (8) is almost equal, they have their seats in Ljubljana, Škofja Loka and Kranj. All partners cooperate with 94 organisations from 24 countries, mostly with the Dutch, Italian, Spanish, French, British and Greek partners.

The infographic featuring the international impact of 18 successful producers from Slovenia who have received the Creative Europe funds in 2020 for cooperation with 94 partners from 24 countries! Prepared by Motovila Institute that operates the Creative Europe Desk Slovenia.

Cultural Cooperation Projects in the Western Balkans

The 2020 call strengthening cultural cooperation with and the competiveness of cultural and creative industries in the Western Balkans resulted in 320 project proposals. The EACEA selected 13 projects for support, among them one project with a Slovenian leader (Pazi!Park Association), while 7 Slovenian partner organisations are involved in another 6 successful projects. The Western Balkans call resulted in many new connections for Slovenian organisations with partners from Albania, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. See the list of organisations below.

The logotype of the REFRESH cooperation project related to the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, led by Slovene Association of Historic Towns, supported by Creative Europe

The REFRESH cooperation project led by Slovene Association of Historic Towns got the Creative Europe support related to the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018.

2017 recipients

Aksioma Institute (lead)
Goga Publishing House (lead)
House! Society for People and Spaces (lead)
Moderna galerija / Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana plus Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (lead)
MoTA Museum of Transitory Art (lead)
Pionirski dom Youth Culture Centre (lead)
Sodobnost International Cultural Society (lead)

European platforms

Literary translation scheme

External links

Creative Slovenia up to 2020: a fascinating feat

EU funding illustrated

Natural-born cultural managers?

Input of the Creative Europe Desk Slovenia (Motovila Institute)

Recent Culture Cooperation Project recipients

Cultural Cooperation Projects in the Western Balkans

2020 Cultural Cooperation Projects in the Western Balkans recipients

2020 recipients

2019 recipients

2018 recipients

2017 recipients

European platforms

Literary translation scheme

See also

External links

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