From 3 to 5 September, Belgrade will host Independent Voices, Shared Futures, a three-day gathering organised as part of the Swiss Culture for Democracy project, implemented by Hartefact. The event brings together organisations and individuals supported through the project, artists, cultural workers and practitioners from Serbia and other European countries.
For years, Culture for Democracy has supported the independent cultural scene across Serbia – particularly people and organisations that often work with little or no resources, outside major urban centres and in circumstances where public support for culture is non-existent. Independent Voices, Shared Futures offers an opportunity to share some of these experiences and compare them with practices from other contexts.
This year’s programme brings together participants from Belgium, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Croatia and Slovenia, who will discuss with colleagues from Serbia questions shared by many independent cultural scenes: how to create and sustain cultural infrastructure where there is none, how to build relationships with communities that remain outside the dominant cultural system, and how artistic work can bring about change that extends beyond a single project.
Three panels will focus on these questions. They will look at organisations that have turned abandoned spaces into cultural centres, built new spaces for communities that had no place within the cultural system, or transformed entire cities into places of artistic encounter. The discussions will also consider whether art can influence public policy, as well as the more difficult question that comes afterwards: how to sustain an organisation, a team and a community when funding and institutional support are unpredictable.
Following the panels, participants will work in smaller groups to try to translate experiences from different contexts into concrete knowledge and methods that they can use in their own work. In this way, Independent Voices, Shared Futures is not conceived simply as a conference where problems are discussed, but as a space for exchanging what has worked in practice – and what has not.
An important part of the programme will also be the Queer Art Academy Showcase, which opens this year’s gathering. Ten young artists from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia will present works in progress that they have been developing with mentoring support as part of the Queer Art Academy, supported by ERA – LGBTI Equal Rights Association for the Western Balkans and Türkiye. Through a pitching and networking session, they will have the opportunity to share their ideas with other professionals, receive feedback and take the next step in developing and producing their work.
As part of the programme, participants will also have the opportunity to see the performance Poša, supported through the Culture for Democracy project in 2025 and presented as part of this year’s Belgrade Pride Week programme, as well as take part in a workshop and individual consultations on crisis communication for cultural organisations. These different formats connect artistic work with the knowledge and experience needed for it to continue to exist, grow and reach people.
This is also one of the important values of the Culture for Democracy project. Grants make concrete projects possible, but support is meaningful when a project also leaves behind new knowledge, contacts, partnerships and people who continue their work. For Hartefact, which has for years worked to connect the independent cultural scene in Serbia and the region and create space for new artistic voices, building these kinds of connections is an important part of that work.
Independent Voices, Shared Futures is the second conference organised as part of Culture for Democracy; the first gathering was held in Niš in 2024.