My name is Irena Antin (24) and I am from Lukićevo. I currently live in Novi Sad, where I completed my studies in Multimedia Directing at the Academy of Arts. I am currently working as an intern at the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, as a stage manager at the Czech House, and I am also working on a master’s performance. In addition, I dedicate a large part of my free time to organizing the Summer Arts Festival, which I founded in my village. There is also a winter edition of the festival, and our goal is to provide children from rural areas with quality informal education, as well as the opportunity to familiarize themselves with various cultural and artistic contents. This helps them understand that their right to education is equal to that of children in cities, for whom these contents are often more accessible. We have been organizing the festival for five years, but we would like to elevate it to the next level by involving other organizations and expanding the thematic scope of our activities. My focus in the coming period is to return to the local community in order to activate it. I want to understand how I can motivate people to recognize their knowledge and skills as valuable and find ways to share them with others. Through this project, I would like to learn the right way to approach the community, how to break down social stigmas, and how I can expand my work to other local communities so that our festival becomes not just a part of our village, but that we find ways to inspire other individuals, and later other communities, to engage in similar actions.
