Call for proposals
The Borderland Foundation, Sejny, Poland
in cooperation with:
Belarusian Collegium, Minsk, Belarus,
Arts Research Centre of Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia,
Caucasus Foundation, Tbilisi, Georgia,
Development Centre “Democracy through Culture”, Kyiv, Ukraine
is pleased to announce the launch of a call for proposals for:
THE BORDERLAND SCHOOL 2013
AN INTERNATIONAL TRAINING PROGRAMME FOR LEADERS OF INTEGRATIVE ACTIVITIES IN MULTICULTURAL COMMUNITIES WHICH WILL TAKE PLACE IN AUGUST 1ST - 8TH, 2013 IN INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR DIALOGUE IN KRASNOGRUDA, POLAND
Eligible areas: Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine, Poland
Eligible participants: cultural operators, cultural animators, managers of cultural organizations, NGO members experienced in a cultural and managerial work, cultural journalists (communicators), artists interested in project developments.
The Borderland School
The Borderland School is a unique training programme for leaders of integrative activities in multicultural communities that will equip them with theoretical knowledge and practical skills in the domain of conducting a dialogue between social groups, religions and nations. The Borderland School is a modern workshop dedicated to philosophy of dialogue bound with the development and popularization of the craft of “bridge building” – new cultural practices, that answer to the challenges of today’s multicultural and pluralistic world by building capacity for commonality while at the same time embracing the diversity of modern societies. The School is aiming at creating its own methodology of understanding the “intercultural competence” and formulating a new reflection in the sphere of the intercultural dialogue.
In course of the School the participants will:
- acquire practical knowledge and skills in managing cultural and educational projects
- familiarize themselves with good practices in community leadership and civic action
- discuss the importance of border-crossing and dialogue for social integration process and democratic structures building in diverse local communities (by drawing on the experience of the Borderland Foundation and invited experts).
Forms of activities
a) Workshops
The task of the workshops, led by international experts will be to introduce the participants to the existing experiences and methodologies of intercultural work and to provide them with reliable tools for such work.
The programme of the workshops should be concentrated in three basic modules:
- LEADER workshop: organization and management of an institution; establishing a network of partner contacts; fundraising, preparation of project proposals; strategic and long-term planning
The curator of this workshop will be Jean Pierre Deru - A specialist in the field of cultural management and networking. For twenty years advises third sector professionals based on their own experience from working in networks. Director of The Association Marcel Hicter, which runs a program of The European Diploma in Cultural Management Projects, supported by the Council of Europe, the European Union and UNESCO. Founder of the network (European Network of Cultural Administration Training Centers) and ORACLE (European Network of Regional Cultural Managers) and co-author of several books.
- ANIMATOR workshop: forms and methods of intercultural practices; local determinants of intercultural work; presentation of best practices in the field of art, education, social dialogue
The curator of this workshop will be Chris Keulemans - artistic director of the Tolhuistuin a new multi art venue in Amsterdam. In 1984 he founded the literary bookshop Perdu in Amsterdam. During the nineties he worked, first as a curator, later as director, at De Balie, Centre for culture and politics in Amsterdam which hosted artists and intellectuals from countries going through war and dictatorship like Bosnia, Serbia, Kosova, Algeria, South- Africa, Indonesia, Cuba, Rwanda, Byelorussia, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Burma. He has published books, fiction and nonfiction, and has published numerous articles on art, social movements, migration, music, cinema and war for national newspapers.
- BORDERLAND workshop: encouraging new reflection on modern commonality ethos and new modalities of practicing dialogue for social integration;
The curator of this workshop will be Krzysztof Czyżewski - Practitioner of ideas. Poet, essayist. Culture animator. Editor. Traveler. One of the initiators and since 1990 President of the "Borderland" Foundation , and director of the Centre "Borderland of Cultures, Arts, Nations". President of European Network of Literary Houses HALMA. Artistic Director of Lublin bid for European Capital of Culture. Initiator and President of the Board of the Eastern Partnership Congress of Culture. Author of the books “The Path of the Borderland”, “Line of Return”, and “A Handbook of Dialogue. Trust and Identity”.
b) Additional activities
- Guest lectures led by renowned experts and researchers (Timothy Snyder, Marci Shore)
- Digital documentation workshop led by Brendan Jackson - an artist and developer of community arts programmes. He has undertaken significant projects in the museums and heritage sector, working recently with both Glasgow Museums and Leicestershire Museums Services. He has produced a wide range of projects involving local communities, using photography, film, visual arts, oral history, writing and new media.
- Artistic events
- Participants’ presentations
Host and venue:
Borderland Foundation is among the most recognized and experienced Central-European non-governmental organizations dealing with art and education for intercultural dialog. Since the early 1990's, it has been conducting cultural, educational and artistic activities with the local community and worked out its own workshop of integrative practices based on many years' experience of daily work in the concrete place embracing one whole community, starting from the youngest to the oldest. The mission of the Borderland Fundation is to explore and popularize modern practices of the intercultural dialogue based on the symbiosis of art and education.
International Centre for Dialogue in Krasnogruda created by Borderland Fundation is located on the border between Poland and Lithuania in the near vicinity of Kaliningrad and Belarus. It is situated in a newly rebuild manorhouse which before the war belonged to the family of Czeslaw Milosz.
The International Centre for Dialogue in Krasnogruda, using many years of experience that Borderland Fundation gathered working on different borderlands, aims to initiate and expand a movement of people committed to the promotion of a modern ethos of commonality and education of new cultural leaders in the field of intercultural practices bridge builders for whom intercultural competences and related crafts will be a life profession.
Important information:
All candidates must apply using an on-line application form. We would like to kindly ask you to answer all the enclosed questions in English.
The application form is available at:
Deadline for submission: June the 10th.
Assessment of the applications: After the deadline is closed, the applications are evaluated by the local teams consisting of at least three advisors from different fields of expertise.
Contact details:
Weronika Czyżewska, Agnieszka Podpora
Borderland Fundation, Poland
borderland.school@pogranicze.sejny.pl
tel. +48 601265867; +48 504248507
Local coordinators:
Ukraine – Oleksandr Butsenko, e-mail: obutsenko@ukr.net
Georgia – Levan Khetaguri, e-mail: lkhetaguri@hotmail.com
Belarus – Ales Antsipenka, e-mail: szkolapahraniczcza13@
