Small Centres of the World

Small Centers of the World - residencies

The residency program is implemented as part of the larger Small Centers of the World program supported by the Roman Czernecki Educational Foundation. The program responds to the needs and challenges of contemporary culture and education.

The problem is the anachronism of culture, limiting its activities to the narrow field of entertainment and festival events.

The problem is culture deepening divisions and narrowing the understanding of identity to sharp national or religious boundaries, thus becoming a base for fundamentalist ideologies.

The problem is the escapism of culture and its exclusive specialization, resulting in a lack of engagement with the public and demanding multidisciplinary cooperation.

As a result, in anti-crisis, development and revitalization programs, implemented both locally and internationally, culture is most often overlooked or marginalized. Also, in the European integration process, culture plays too small a role, and to make matters worse, often a negative one. The project proposes a self-critical approach to this problem, focusing not on pretensions and expectations from the outside (politicians, business, the media, etc.), but on internal and constructive proposals for changes in the environment of cultural people and their workshop of work.

The main goals of the program are:

• To educate new leaders in Central Europe and the Caucasus (Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Armenia and Georgia) in the spirit of the philosophy of “Small Centers of the World” (organic, long-term community work) and innovative educational and social practices.
• To generate intellectual ferment and create an interdisciplinary space connecting people of reflection and practice in two regions whose constellation is not obvious and based not on the context of geographic proximity, but rather connections in the sphere of shared values, ideas, experiences and challenges.
• Supporting participants (social activists, animators, artists, teachers, journalists) in developing and implementing original initiatives