Introduction to the series
This series aims to shape impactful creative collaborations with the countries of the Western Balkans, creating a context in which value flows both ways and where ‘good practice’ is not projected onto what are interesting, resilient and developing creative scenes. To have the most impact, future collaborations must address evidenced needs in both partner countries and the region. Informed by almost 30 interviews with creative professionals in the region, this series sets out some challenges, opportunities and potential areas for development.
As countries whose recent past is marked by turmoil and transformation, from whose present emerges exceptional contemporary art, and whose future — including in the context of relations with the European Union — looks bright, the importance of creativity and heritage in the Western Balkans should not be underestimated.
In 2019, I was tasked with the evaluation of a British Council programme designed to raise the issue of gender representation in heritage collections, called Perceptions. In Perceptions, curators from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro co-curated a touring exhibition of contemporary art by female artists from the British Council’s own extensive collection. Each curator then designed an exhibition that united this collection with local art in a dialogue that tackled the theme of gender inequality within their own collections and contexts. The result was that more local female artists were displayed in museums; new voices were heard and new stories were told in extensive parallel programming.
Many of the creatives and museum representatives I spoke to, from communications specialists to curators and directors, spoke of their existing desire to progress important social topics, such gender inequality or LGBT issues. Examples were shared of past and future exhibitions that break the mould of exhibition programming and carve out a social role for the museum.
Perceptions provided an opportunity for five Western Balkans curators to work together, strengthening what was for some an already existing informal network, and to others, providing much-needed opportunities for collaboration. It set their work on an international scale, and created a new working model for a cultural relations institute and the country in which it was working.
Reflecting on the now extended EU call for cultural cooperation projects in the Western Balkans (deadline — 28 April 2020), and a forthcoming report from cultureSolutions assessing the state of the art of culture in EU external relations, it felt like a good time to full together the main challenges and opportunities that emerged from my conversations in 2019 with almost 30 people working in the region.
View the whole series, Creative Collaboration in the Western Balkans
