Music without Borders – project activities

Study visit
Each IPA–partner country delegate 5 participants and 1 local coordinator. This activity will take place in the Eastern-German cities: Berlin and Dresden explaining: The situation of music-related NGOs in the Balkans: past, present and options towards the future.
Enabling the partners of the project to open their horizons, bringing new ideas regarding the music industry, cultural NGOs and performances. Establishment of efficient dialogue between the Balkan Civil Society Organizations and the public authorities for better further communication and cooperation.
The Study Visit intends to show the reality of the difficulties and opportunities and introducing reflection from the partners who will be able to have a better idea of what the borders are and therefore have more relevant arguments for their future lobbing action towards the public administration.
Setting a concrete timetable for further steps regarding implementation of the next activities to strengthen the NGOs at the Balkans.

Regional Workshops
During one week number of  regional workshops will take place in 3 Balkan countries where the project partners are located and where the perception shows the need of practical training and bringing the main idea of know-how to the region of the Balkans. These workshops will be organized simultaneously in Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and will include the following issues:

  • Internal workshops
  • Public workshops
  • Public panels
  • Public workshops

Regional Conference I
The main idea of organizing this first regional conference in Vukovar Autumn 2011 during 2 days is to bring experiences from all involved regions together and enable exchange and networking between them as well as to involve associate partners from other regions and countries as guests to share know how and get embedded in networking.                Presentation of approaches and first results of the project, next steps and discussion;       Active networking for the external participants and public. For its realization, the partners of the project will make sure that material and equipment supplies will be available for exhibiting presentation stands of public music fairs.
Participants: involved Balkan countries, German partners, plus NGOs and professionals from other Balkan countries, Turkey and other EU countries. For implementing it, we will invite already established networks like Eastern European Music Association(EastEMA);
Special guests: representatives from administration and political leaders to allow them to have an inside-view into the active scene and importance of music initiatives for the society;
Live music events to show the potential and new stars from the different regions to the participating experts and the public audience(PR).

Staff exchange
As a benefit to be actively engaged in the project and its objectives, Kultur Aktiv will offer place for staff exchange and to do internships in Kultur Aktiv Dresden for four weeks. Four participants from each of the 3 Balkan countries will get the chance to work with Kultur Aktiv, to observe its working structures, learning to know methods and partners. By that an effective know-how transfer between the CSOs can be ensured.

Best Practice and Presentations of the project / Public Relations(PR)
The main idea is to provide with the opportunity for artists an NGOs to participate in regional exchanges which occur during the project. This is essential for capacity-building and know-how-transfer purposes. Each of the partners organizes its own festivals and events annually.
Visit by representatives of other countries at already existing events like Fest for River, Minority festivals etc. presentation by stands at these festivals of our project and its development;
Active exchange of musicians from involved regions at the festivals and events organized by participating NGOs;
Internal evaluation workshops, external issue-related workshops with experts who will come to assist the young musicians and exchange questions and answers so as to promote their access to information;
Music documentaries presentation about the ways of creating scenes and connections. This could inspire local musicians to get more activities.

Regional Conference II
The second regional conference is meant to be organized one year later during Autumn 2012 in Skopje Macedonia, as a follow-up, evaluation and development step. Same activities as for the I-st regional conference in Vukovar, with new participants in order to ensure the extension of the access of such actions to musicians, NGOs and public administration representatives.
This second conference is not only important to extend the network, but also to use the chance to intensify the already existing structures and enable sustainability.

Internships for Public-Private Partnerships
The Internships  are planned with main focus on the incentive of Public-Private Partnerships establishments and is indented to promote the importance of such initiatives. It is intended to be organized in Dresden during 2 weeks and all 12 participants from 3 Balkan countries, 2 from NGOs and 2 from each local public administrations, will be invited to come and will be actively involved.
The delegation from the Balkans will be mixed by participants of Civil Society and the local administrations. In mixed groups they will run one week internship in different departments of the city administration of Dresden. In the second week they will have an internship in different NGOs in Dresden.
During both weeks they will focus to follow and discuss between initiatives of the civil society and the local administration. This includes not only best-practice cases, but also critical cooperation or even failures.

Final meeting
The final meeting between the leader organization, Kultur Aktiv and the partners, Generator, Youth peace group Danube, Taksirat will last 3 days in Vranje at the end of the project in order to evaluate the all implementation of the project, to discuss about the future and possible multiplier effects and to agree on the drafting of the final reports and other relevant documentation. 2 participants per NGO are going to be invited.

Impressions from the Meetings