Past Activities and Achievements

Partnership for Development

2006/2007

Partnership for Development Grants promoted collaborative artistic and/or cultural efforts/initiatives, involving at least three of ACNP target countries. The Call invited applications for four different sub-components, and offered support to individuals and organisations in order to foster cross-border partnership and cooperation, and to contribute to intercultural dialogue and understanding. The Program solicited innovative ideas and projects, which furthered free expression, exchange, and dialogue. The four sub-components under 'Partnership for Development' were the following:

• Collaborative Arts Projects
  This sub-component supported the development of longer-term collaboration between artists and art organizations from different countries in the mandated regions. The projects included exchanges of artists, collaborative theatrical, film or musical productions, artistic residencies, seed grants to foster cooperation of organizations in different lands, and support dovetailed to motivate professionals in the arts to travel to and work in less well developed artistic environments.
• Heritage of Others
  This sub-component was exceptional in the sense, that partnership is not a necessary condition. The Program encouraged and engaged representatives of majority cultures to respect and cultivate the cultural heritage of minority cultures living in close co-existence with them. The cultural heritage of others referred primarily to the heritage of minorities, and included both tangible and intangible heritage. The Program also offered support to majority initiatives, which entailed the cultivation of a relevant minority's cultural heritage.
• "Program through Partnership" Mobility Program Within the framework of the "Program through Partnership" Mobility Program the Arts and Culture Network Program covered the mobility related costs involved in the projects, including travel and accommodation expenses, and a modest per diem.
• Intercultural Mediation and Dialogue
  The Program supported activities and initiatives that furthered intercultural dialogue in its target regions. The priority of this sub-component was the promotion of tolerance among people by furthering exchanges between members of the diverse civil societies in as many different ways as the diverse set of tools provided by arts and culture allows for.

"Program through Partnership" Mobility Grants

2004-2006
The "Program through Partnership" Mobility Grants promoted collaborative artistic and/or cultural efforts/initiatives, involving at least three of the ACNP target countries. The Grants supported both individuals and organisations in fostering cross-border partnership and cooperation in order to contribute to intercultural dialogue and understanding. The funded projects furthered free expression, exchanges, and dialogue. Priority was given to long-term initiatives with a potential to contribute to development, and aimed at empowering disadvantaged and marginalized social groups; promoting the values of multiculturalism and cultural diversity; making information and resources more accessible and available both to professionals and the public; and implementing educational approaches to increase public awareness and participation in order to strengthen the foundations of cooperative action.

Mini Margaret Mead Traveling Film Festival

2006-Present

In collaboration with the Margaret Mead Traveling Film Festival, OSI arranged for a touring program entitled "Window to the Open World," made up of selected Mead documentary movies complemented by a number of documentaries from the Caucasus and Inner Asia. The primary aim of this initiative is to raise awareness of certain social problems, relevant in various parts of the world, and to generate thinking and public discussion about these issues. On the other hand, the mini Margaret Mead Festival is a didactic tool, which inspires filmmakers in the Caucasus and Central Asia to submit documentaries to the annual Margaret Mead Traveling Film Festival in New York, which provides them with a yet unexploited opportunity to make a breakthrough. In the course of 2006, the first so called mini-Mead Film Festival was presented in Almaty, Kazakhstan; Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Dushanbe, Tajikistan; Baku, Azerbaijan; Tbilisi; Georgia; and Yerevan, Armenia. The presentation of the first cycle in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia is planned to take place in 2008. In the meantime, the program for the second cycle has been prepared and shall be launched in the fall of 2008. During the second cycle local screenings shall be complemented by workshops for documentary film-makers held by a Mead representative and local experts.

Central Asian Theater Meetings

2004/2005/2006
The series of Central Asian Theater Meetings were organized three times in three different locations, Tashkent, Uzbekistan (2004); Dushanbe, Tajikistan (2005) and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (2006) in collaboration with the International European Theater Meeting (IETM, a European network of performing arts professionals), and a respective local host. The initiative aimed at stimulating professional networking between relevant cultural operators from Central Asia and Europe for the sake of information exchange about processes in contemporary performing arts, and provided a platform to generate personal connections. The series of meetings resulted in a publication entitled Introduction to Theatre Today in Central Asia and Afghanistan, which resulted from the common desire of both European and Central Asian professionals to have a more precise overview of theatre activity in the region. The study aims at laying the foundations of a network connecting cultural operators from Central Asia and its neighbours (Afghanistan and Iran) with other parts of the world.