Mejeriet





Swedish Arts Concil




The project Engine Room Europe has been funded with the support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. TEH has received operational grants from the City of Lund and the Swedish Arts Council. TEH Leaders Lab has been funded with the support of the Nordic Council of Ministers. The TEH Coordination Office is hosted by Mejeriet, Lund.



Engine Room Europe empowers TEH to build a sustainable independent sector


Thanks to a grant from the EC Culture Programme, TEH has been able to set up a three-year project (May 2011 – April 2014) of activities dedicated to independent cultural workers and their creative processes. With a total budget of €2 095 297, Engine Room Europe acts as a platform of support, helping both the network and the TEH Members to move into a new phase of development.

“Independent culture is the research and development engine of European civic life and this project, Engine Room Europe, will contribute to its sustainability and vibrancy into the future.”
– Sandy Fitzgerald, Process Leader Engine Room Europe

The project is initiated by Trans Europe Halles (TEH) and co-ordinated by Melkweg (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) in association with 10 co-organizing TEH members: Factory of Art (Łódź, Poland), Mains D’Oeuvres (St Ouen, France), Stanica (Žilina, Slovakia), ufaFabrik (Berlin, Germany), TNT (Bordeaux, France), REX (Belgrade, Serbia), NOASS (Riga, Latvia), Röda Sten Art Centre (Göteborg, Sweden), La Friche Belle de Mai (Marseille, France) and Tabačka Kulturfabrik (Košice, Slovakia). As part of Engine Room Europe, the 12 co‐organisers will offer a wide variety of programmes. An online TEH Resource will hold the memory and spread the experiences and know-how from the programmes.
 

Upcoming activities

Creative Strategies of Sustainability
The first one-week seminar will take place on September 10-15th, 2012 at ufaFabrik (Berlin, Germany). 
The programme is a three-year research and practice on green strategies for the cultural sector. It gives a chance to 20 interested cultural managers and practitioners to work on a strategy for their home centre and learn about straw bale buildings, intercultural gardening and make study visits.

220Volt!
Capacity building programme for young volunteers. The call for volunteers is now open - apply here! Deadline for applications is 30th May 2012.
Do you have experience volunteering in a cultural organisation within TEH and wish to work in the cultural sector in the future? Would you like to take part in and international project, meet new people like you from all over the Europe, participate in professional training and learn how to run culture projects (both in theory and in practice)? Here is your chance! The project runs from December 2012 to July 2013 and you will receive all training, travel, food and accommodation. Read more at the website of Factory of Art (Lodz, Poland).

European Artists in Residency (EAR)
Apply for the call for artists now! To learn more, click here.
The programme started in September 2011 in Riga, Latvia. Its first part hosted four artists for a residency period of two weeks, starting from September 2011. The programme is managed by NOASS (Riga, Latvia). The goal of the residency is to provide artists with the chance to discover Riga, one of the region’s most beautiful cities and its eclectic cultural life, thus inspiring them to create.

Crossroads East West
Debates and residencies on intercultural dialogue. The next debate will take place on the 27th of April 2012 at REX (Belgrade, Serbia) and will discuss the art work Gypsies and Dogs by Zoran Todorović.
The main goal is to analyze different processes and projects of intercultural dialogue in a variety of existing cultural and artistic project activities. During the first year of the project, Cultural center REX/B92 Fund will continue to enrich its practice of mapping intercultural dialogue (in Serbia) in Europe. Read the call for practitioners and the interview with Project Coordinator Nebojsa Milikić here and visit the website of REX here.

Capacity Building Workshop Programme
The next workshops will take place at TEH Meeting 73 at Tabačka Kulturfabrik in Košice, Slovakia, on 10–13th May 2012.
From 2011 to 2013, the programme will be part of the TEH biannual meetings. It already took place at TEH Meeting 72 in October 2011 at TNT (Bordeaux, France). In 2012 and 2013 the hosts of TEH Meetings will be Röda Sten (Göteborg, Sweden), La Friche La Belle De Mai (Marseille, France) and Melkweg (Amsterdam, The Netherlands).

A-Team: Artists for Change
Tackling community issues through creative action.
From May till July 2012, A-Team: Artists for Change will realise four creative processes in Sweden, Bulgaria, Latvia and Slovenia, teaming up artists, cultural managers and local mediators who will deal with local community issues. A-Team searches for artists working in any medium affiliated with TEH Member centres or Friends organisations interested in community-based work.

Leaders Lab
Next Leaders Lab Meeting will take place on June 4–5th 2012 in Paris, France.
Leaders Lab is a 2,5 years process-oriented training programme for 13 leaders of independent cultural centres in the Nordic-Baltic (Norway, Sweden, Finland and Estonia) and Latin European countries (Italy, France, Spain and Portugal) and a connected series of public seminars. Read more here.

Corporate Volunteering
The conference will be held on September 6th and 7th, 2012 in Łódź, Poland at Fabryka Sztuki (Łódź Art Factory).
One of the main goals of the conference is to make corporate volunteering develop more in the cultural sector, establishing in this way a cooperation between arts, culture and the business sector.

ERE Staff Exchange
Mobility Programme for non-artistic cultural professionals, taking place from October 2011 till August 2013. Deadline for the next application round is 25 May 2012.
The Staff Exchange creates mobility opportunities for cultural workers to exchange knowledge through practice-based learning at another TEH Member centre. 30 cultural workers exchanges will take place over two years. The programme is open to staff from all levels of artistic management and production. Read more about the Staff Exchange Programme here.

Living Under(ground)
International workshops on alternative architecture and creative spaces at Stanica (Žilina, Slovakia).
The first workshop "mestoZAhrada (cityZILINAgarden)" will take place between April 30th - May 6th 2012. On June 22nd, Living Under(ground) will present creative architecture, design and public space projects as part of the Pecha Kucha Night (PKN). The second workshop "Living Underground" is programmed for August 5-12th. Deadlines for participation coming soon!  Living (under)Ground is a project by architects, designers and cultural activists. It is a creative laboratory focused on public space, however, with limited budget and workforce created by participants. Check out the Living Underground Blog and read more about the 2011 workshop here.

TEH Resource
An interactive and free resource web platform for the independent cultural sector.
The development of TEH Resource aims at creating an interactive resource incorporated in the TEH website that records, stores and makes available to the wider European cultural sector experience, tools and information gathered and built by TEH members and participants.

Reclaiming the Public Space Through Culture
Conference empowering the independent cultural sector in Spain and beyond. it will take place in June 2013 in Barcelona, Spain.

Want to take part? Subscribe to the TEH Newsletter, which includes information about open calls, upcoming activities, events and much more!


Engine Room Europe, with a total budget of €2,095,297, is one of 10 projects selected for funding by the European Commission’s Culture Programme 2007-2013 Strand 1.1 budget 2011. Engine Room Europe was awarded a grant of €960000. For a list of selected projects, please consult the EACEA website, http://eacea.ec.europa.eu.
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