Slovene Emigrant Association

Contact

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Združenje Slovenska izseljenska matica

Cankarjeva 1, SI-1000 Ljubljana

http://www.zdruzenje-sim.si/

sim@zdruzenje-sim.si

Phone386 (0) 1 241 0280

ProprietorSlovene Emigrant Association

Established in 1951, the Slovene Emigrant Association is a voluntary and non-profit association of individuals who share a common interest in furthering the development of contacts amongst Slovenes living outside their homeland and maintaining already established ties with the homeland with the aim of preserving Slovene cultural, ethnic and historical heritage for all Slovenes abroad and future generations. Over 50 years it has been publishing magazines and organising visual arts workshops as well as summer courses of Slovenian language and has recently opened a reading room where the Association's archives can be consulted and researched.

The Association assists with the promotion, organisation and exchange of Slovene cultural groups worldwide, and has also collected a variety of material relating to the existence and work of over 1,550 Slovene immigrant clubs and associations worldwide. Its longest-standing contacts are the established Slovene clubs, associations and institutions in the USA, Canada, France and Belgium; these were supplemented in the late 1960s by newly-founded Slovene migrant groups in (then) West Germany, Switzerland, Australia and elsewhere. In more recent times contacts have been made with Slovene emigrant groups (rather small) in South Africa and Kenya, and since 1991 also with numerous Slovene clubs in parts of the former Yugoslav Federation.

Activities

In order to strengthen links between Slovenia and the Slovene community in the USA the Slovene Emigrant Association has in 1951 initiated the foundation of the Slovene Octet, which became one of the best-known Yugoslav choral groups and has toured extensively.

Since 1956 the Association has staged a very popular annual festival Get together in our Homeland, organised for the Slovene emigrants every first Sunday in July, and the Trek to Mount Triglav. The painting colony in Slovenia for the Slovene artists living abroad has also become traditional.

In 2008 it has initiated a new web portal for Slovenians abroad Slovenci.si, launched by Government Office for Slovenes Abroad.

Publications

Publishing has been one of the Slovene Emigrant Association's core activities for decades. The central publication was the annual almanach Slovene Emigrant Calendar (published from 1953 to 2003) as a successor of American Family Calendar, which was published in United States from 1915 to 1950.

The Association has published the monthly magazine Rodna gruda ("Domestic Soil") since 1954 (in 2004 renamed to Slovenija.Svet ("Slovenia.World"). (Based on a public call in 2006 the Government Office for Slovenians Abroad selected another publisher which conceived Moja Slovenija Magazine as a successor of the magazines above.)

Between 1987 and 2004 it published also a quatterly Slovenija in English language. The magazine included interviews with representatives of Slovene Ministries related to Slovenes abroad and reports on Slovene cultural presentations abroad.

In recent years the Association only occasionaly publishes books such as individual emigrants' memoirs (e.g. Novo življenje ("New Life") by Janez Leskovec who emigrated to (then) West Germany after the World War II).

See also

• Moja Slovenija Magazine
• Government Office for Slovenians Abroad

External links

• Slovene Emigrant Association website
• Video from the painting colony in 2008 by Mirjam Gremes, one of the participants
• Rodna gruda Magazine, on-line archive
• Slovene Emigrant Calendar, on-line archive