Successful projects

The limited presence of cultural events in Barajevo further reinforces the marginalization associated with its status as a suburban municipality of Belgrade, deepening both the isolation of individuals within the community and the community’s separation from broader social and cultural life. This environment often discourages cultural engagement, community cohesion, critical dialogue, and diversity, contributing instead to indifference and apathy.

Contemporary dance has long occupied a marginalized position within the performing arts in the Balkans, receiving significantly less recognition and institutional support than other artistic disciplines. This marginalization is reflected in the limited interest shown by relevant public institutions and theatres, as well as in the absence of dance from mainstream cultural programming.

One of the key challenges facing literary criticism in Serbia today is the limited access to media platforms for new and progressive critical voices. Innovative and unconventional perspectives rarely have the opportunity to contribute to public discussions on literature.

The lack of a culture of recycling and giving new life to discarded materials remains a significant challenge that the Multivox Association seeks to bring into the public spotlight through media outreach, public debates, digital platforms, workshops, artistic programmes, and public interventions.

Civil society actors, artists, and professionals working in the creative industries within the field of contemporary art occupy a disadvantaged position in Serbia’s cultural production landscape. This is particularly true for authors and artists who live and work in the southern and eastern regions of the country.

Preševo is a multiethnic municipality with an exceptionally large youth population, a demographic profile that is increasingly uncommon in many local communities across Serbia. The municipality is predominantly inhabited by ethnic Albanians, while young people face significant challenges, including limited employment opportunities, a lack of cultural and contemporary public programmes, and few prospects for building their future within the local community.

The Initiative for Equality, Innovation and Social Engagement (IRIDA) is a youth organization founded in Novi Sad in 2018. It advocates for a society in which young women and men live as equals, free from violence, are able to realize their goals and potential, and actively contribute to a culture of equality and non-violence.

In every patriarchal society, the struggle for women’s equal rights has always faced significant resistance. One of the main motivations behind the Academic Initiative “Forum 10” undertaking this project was the ongoing process of re-traditionalization that the society of Novi Pazar has been experiencing for many years.

The Festival of Ecological Theatre for Children and Youth (FEP) was founded in 1994, during a period marked by war, hyperinflation, and large-scale migration, circumstances that profoundly affected society and created an atmosphere of fear and hopelessness, particularly for children and young people.

In Serbia, there is no comprehensive publicly available data or substantial research on the representation of women comic artists active on the domestic comics scene. Likewise, the work and experiences of LGBTQ+ creators and artists from other marginalized groups remain largely absent from public discourse.

he Center for Girls in Niš was established in 1998 with the mission of improving the position of young women by providing a safe space for education, empowerment, and the exchange of experiences. The organization’s mission is to empower children, girls, and women through support, education, activism, and the arts. The Center has long used artistic and creative methods as tools for education and empowerment.

Bašta Fest is an international short fiction film festival held annually in July in the town of Bajina Bašta since 2014. Drawing on the region’s rich natural and tourism potential, a significant part of the festival programme takes place outdoors. Accordingly, the festival also dedicates part of its programme to environmental protection in the area where it is held -within and around Tara National Park- and to raising ecological awareness.

The Polycrisis Residency – (Un)Expected Encounters project is ZMUC’s response to the increasingly precarious position of artists and cultural workers, as well as to the urgent need for alternative solutions in the face of the closure of cultural centers across Serbia, the deterioration of gallery spaces, the loss of artists’ studios, the absence of systematic institutional support, the unresolved social status of contemporary artists, and the general neglect of culture by the state.

After six years of operating in the former “4th Regiment” military barracks in the Krčagovo neighborhood—where not only Serbian artists but also artists from across Europe exhibited and created—Reflector Gallery was forced to relocate. It found a new home in the building of a former primary school in the village of Gorjani, which had been unused for over 50 years. The Association of Visual Artists of Užice renovated and repurposed the building, transforming it into the first rural contemporary art gallery as part of the new Cultural (DE)Center “Reflector.”

The Culture for Democracy (CfD) grant enabled the implementation of four seminars across Serbia, bringing together participants from Bor, Požega, Niš, Pirot, Struga, Sofia, Podgorica, Banja Luka, Bela Palanka, and Belgrade, as well as international guests.

he Dance Survivors project supported the local dance scene and artistic community, which is among the least visible in Serbia and has the fewest opportunities for professional work.

The play “Poor Mileva from Bosnia in Our Civilization in the Year 1878” represents the first collaboration in decades between the Hungarian and Serbian ensembles of the National Theatre Subotica. It is also the first production in which languages of different ethnic communities living in the city were simultaneously used on stage.

The ABC of Independent Culture project included the production of numerous in-depth textual and video interviews with civil society organizations active in culture and the arts in Belgrade, as well as in other cities across Serbia (Novi Sad, Čačak, Užice, Zrenjanin, Niš, Subotica, Kruševac, Vršac, Smederevo, Požega, Kragujevac, Valjevo). The aim of the project was to decentralize cultural production and improve the visibility of actors within local independent cultural scenes, as well as to highlight the problems and challenges they face.

The ROMODROM project was implemented in the form of several different events with the aim of educating the majority population about the culture, traditional heritage and participation of Roma in the cultural and socio-scientific life of our country.

The “Just Spaces: Igniting Queer Retrospective” project, through a series of innovative artistic events, has made a significant contribution to improving LGBTQI+ visibility, preserving culture, and social transformation in Serbia.

The CfD grant enabled the implementation of several components of a project dedicated to preserving the anti-fascist heritage of Yugoslavia. First and foremost, it supported the completion of post-production for the documentary Goodbye, Heroes (Doviđenja Heroji) by Vladimir Milovanović. Film editor Dragan Petrović was engaged, and the rights to the complete archival materials were secured. Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) joined the project as a co-producer, and following its festival premiere, the film will be broadcast on the national television network.

The “Cinema on Tour” project was an extremely successful initiative that contributed to the cultural and social development of local communities, encouraging dialogue, exchange of ideas and strengthening ties between residents. During the implementation period of the “Cinema on Tour” project, various cultural events were organized in several ethnic villages in Preševo ​​and Bujanovac.

Starting from the gender inequality in the field of culture and creativity that female artists in the south and east of Serbia face even more drastically, Nova mreza has issued a call for the education of female artists interested in filmmaking, from that region.

The project represents a direct response of the independent cultural sector in Serbia to public spending and procedures related to the distribution of public funds in culture at the national and local levels and to the need to improve the working conditions and position of critical, socially engaged and experimental culture throughout the country.

The poetry performance titled “Poetry Knows” successfully combined poetry and stage expression, shaping it as a two-act theater play. Poets interpreted their verses as characters from everyday life – popular figures, representatives of institutionalized religion, tarot readers, and even politicians.

he founders of KRAF (Kragujevac Festival of Anti-war, Engaged and Academic Film), the association “MillenniuM”, which was created with the mission of developing democracy and civil society in the Šumadija region, celebrated 18 years of existence with the first indigenous Šumadija film festival. The goal of the project is to promote peace, democracy and decentralization through art, by continuing the tradition in Kragujevac and launching new, franchise festivals in Kruševac and Kraljevo.

Ludifico hired intern Marija Varga to train her in the realization of a circus performance and also the first edition of the Circus Danas Festival. This was an opportunity for the intern to learn about some of the specifics of setting up circus performances that are not taught at the university.

Through numerous activities of this project, the organization has included young people in the cultural life of the city and attracted a new audience. Art workshops were held for preschoolers and lower elementary school children, led by Kristina Drašković Bočkov.

The third Reconciliation Festival entitled “Dare to Reconcile” was held in June in Novi Sad. The main goal of the Reconciliation Festival is to encourage young people from the region to think critically about topics related to peace, reconciliation and interculturalism in the region.

The Fine Crafts Club in Mošorin has been engaged in the renovation of earthen houses, training and education in the field of earthen architecture for more than a decade, and the LALA Earthland festival offers a series of educational programs by experts on working with natural materials. The goal of the LALA festival is to offer children in small communities healthy and quality events, and to introduce children from cities and professionals who work with children to the possibilities of working with natural materials in urban areas.

The project constitutes a multi-year research into the rich tradition of contemporary art practice in Serbia (and the region) since 2000, which is focused on collaboration, community work and social change.

The project “New paths of cooperation” explores personal memories of the period of industrialization of Yugoslavia after World War II, exploring the rich industrial heritage and its role in shaping society from our common past.

One of the key objectives of the project was to promote women in the arts, with a particular focus on highlighting the position and status of women in the film industry. As part of this effort, an anonymous survey titled Women in Film was conducted among young women currently working in the film industry or studying at departments of arts academies and faculties of dramatic arts, in order to collect relevant data.

IRIDA has many years of experience working with young people and providing education on gender-based violence. This project emerged from that experience and resulted in a book of short stories on the topic of gender-based violence, written by young authors. This Is Also Violence is intended for young people who want to better understand the forms of gender-based violence that are difficult to recognise and who wish to take action on this issue.

The project focuses on the culture of remembrance of the first local feminist and human rights activists in this highly closed and patriarchal environment. The struggles they fought were primarily related to girls’ education, enabling their economic independence, and advocating for women’s rights in rural communities.

Despite the local legend that in southern Serbia a trumpet is placed in a child’s cradle at birth, as playing brass instruments has long been a tradition in this region, in practice this tradition has until now been reserved mostly for boys. For this reason, the Generator association from Vranje, in cooperation with the “Stevan Mokranjac” Music School in Vranje, launched the initiative to establish a Small Trumpet School for girls as part of the broader initiative Girls Play the Trumpet Too.

As part of the project Interpretation of Otherness – Hijab as a Cultural Signifier, the Academic Initiative “Forum 10” from Novi Pazar organised a photography exhibition titled Hijab as a Phenomenon of Constructing and Challenging Identity. The project was initiated by the unequal presence and stereotypical representation of women across different media formats. Women wearing hijab are often represented in the media in ways that reinforce and maintain stereotypes of a dangerous identity and otherness, while the hijab is frequently framed within discourses of fear, threat, and danger associated with the “other”.

The project marked 30 years of the existence of Cultural Centre Rex by reaffirming and critically examining the role, position, and future of the independent cultural scene, with the aim of reflecting on new possibilities for action. Four projects were realised, based on artistic, theoretical, and activist research into the experiences of Rex’s participants, collaborators, and audiences.

The project consisted of educational workshops for secondary school students focused on documentary film production and directing, as well as media literacy. The workshops brought together 25 participants, including 12 participants from eight countries in the region and abroad, and 13 students from schools in Serbia. The summer workshop Teen Doc Interaction 2024 in Užice enabled participants to develop and produce four short documentary films.

The Festival of Roma and Serbian Culture in Prokuplje provided an opportunity to promote unity through art and culture, offering a rich and diverse programme that successfully attracted the attention and interest of the local community. The main activity of the project was the Festival of Roma and Serbian Culture, which presented Roma and Serbian artists working in the fields of literature, film, and music.

The Alternative Cultural Centre “Gnezdo” is an independent space for young people and contemporary culture in Kruševac. The Culture for Democracy project supported the realisation of the three-day Gnezdo Fest programme, which brought the city to life and attracted citizens of all generations.

The essence of the Zlakusanka project lies in the attempt to merge an acoustic concert with a techno event. The artistic intention was to figuratively enter the space encompassing the most diverse forms of electronic music, including techno, through an original compositional intervention.

The ECHO CURVE project was realised through the collaboration of three regional organisations: the Artists’ Association “Project EXP” (Novi Sad), the Association for Artistic Research and Curatorial Practice “Press to Exit Project Space” (Skopje), and the Autonomous Cultural Centre “Attack” (Zagreb). The organisers launched a regional open call for visual artists up to the age of 30 who were interested in exploring and initiating discussions on the potential of artistic practice as a relevant method of communication in contemporary society.

he Historical Society of Šumadija organised the historical documentary exhibition Between Empathy and Prejudice: Roma in the Press of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1929–1944) with educational materials at the Historical Archives of Šumadija in Kragujevac. The exhibition was curated by historians Dr Kristina Jorgić Stepanović and Slavko Stepanović.

Recognising that women’s artistic production and gender equality in the arts often remain overlooked, the project Promoting Gender Equality through Engaged Art in Niš created an expanded space for women artists to explore and promote issues related to women’s human rights through a wide range of artistic activities. The project’s key activities were the 11th ArtFemine Festival and the 10th Feminist Art Colony in Sićevo.

or Reflektor Teatar, Manifest 2.0 marked an important step forward, as the company invited a guest director for the first time. Filip Petkovski from Skopje, North Macedonia, joined the project with the aim of introducing new working methods and methodologies, enabling the ensemble to expand its artistic practice.

During her training at CEKOS, intern Sara Smiljanić expanded her knowledge of theatre practices and learned how to manage programmes and secure funding for them. She also expressed a particular interest in acquiring practical skills in theatre directing, acting, and the technical aspects of theatre production, which were supported by the organisation’s director and team.

This theatre project brought together a community of young artists who use different artistic media to address issues relevant to the Roma community, while creating opportunities for their own artistic development and cultural engagement.

Svi UGLAS! is a project that uses music and choral singing as tools for social development. It actively promotes the social inclusion and empowerment of the Roma community, works to reduce discrimination against Roma among the wider population, and fosters intercultural dialogue in Serbia. The programme was created around the idea that music has the power to connect people and give a voice to those who are too often unheard in society.

The Apostrof Association, founded by young architects Stefan Milošević, Emir Kahrimanović, and Maryam Kristina Gbaya, engaged expert Vladimir Ilić to help them overcome the challenges involved in developing an architectural and artistic installation from concept to completion. Their goal was to create artistic installations in the form of urban furniture that would bring young people together in cities across Serbia while encouraging reflection through the integration of architecture and culture.

The Citizens’ Association “Anonymous said:” is dedicated to the field of contemporary artistic production. Its activities include curatorial, publishing, and exhibition projects. The project Gender (Im)Balance of Revolution 5.0: Technology and Feminism was based on a critical examination of the impact of technology on existing gender relations, as well as on experimental proposals grounded in feminist theories on the use of technology in shaping a more equal society of the future.

GlamFest created a space for natural cohesion between the LGBTI+ community and cisgender heterosexual women. The project brought drag performance and drag artists closer to the wider public, particularly people living in rural areas, by positioning this form of performance alongside choreodrama as a socially accepted performing arts practice.

The CfD support for the “Theatre in the Garden” project enabled the hosting of five independent contemporary plays in June 2023 in Bajina Bašta, a town without regular professional or amateur theatre programming.

Research conducted by representatives of the organization in mid-2023 on peer violence in elementary and high schools in Novi Sad involved anonymous surveys of young people in their school environments, conducted by their peers who were part of the project.

The project “Soundscape of Women’s Experience” began with visits to gerontological centers and the promotion of an open call inviting women to participate in group walks around Lake Palić.

The Reflektor Gallery is one of the rare non-institutional galleries outside of Belgrade and Novi Sad. Over seven years, it has successfully built a strong reputation among both experts and the general public, evidenced by 54 artists from Serbia, the region, and Europe applying to exhibit in the gallery in 2023.

The activities supported through this project included the creation of a contemporary circus performance, accompanied by workshops for children and debates.

The Association for Nature and Society “Multivox” from Niš launched and organized the Recycling and Circular Art Festival “CircleArt” with the message “0% Waste, 100% Culture.”

The main activity of the supported project “Interpretation of Otherness – Hijab as a Cultural Marker” was a photography exhibition accompanied by a catalog and a debate program on the topic of the hijab as a phenomenon of identity construction and contestation.

: As part of this support, training sessions were organized for artists from the southern and eastern regions of Serbia. The first seminar focused on media and digital literacy, providing participants with new theoretical and practical knowledge on media content analysis and the use of media tools to enhance their own strategies for media presence and performance.

The key activities supported by this project include film criticism workshops for high school students in Požega, Niš, Kragujevac, Zrenjanin, and Subotica, as well as the promotion of the book Filmoskopija: Selected Texts on Contemporary Serbian Cinema 2010–2023.

As part of the support, a bilingual interactive theater piece was created in Serbian and Hungarian, performed in front of high school students in Subotica. This project responded to data collected during initial workshops and focus groups about the needs of youth in the city.

With the support of the CfD project, the 28th edition of the Festival of Ecological Theater for Children and Youth was held in Bačka Palanka, covering all phases from preparation to realization and evaluation.

The Art Boost support for Labris resulted in the Art Festival dedicated to women who love women, organized in collaboration with the organization Rainbow Ignite, in celebration of International Lesbian Visibility Day.

The partnership grant between the organizations Fakiris of the South from Kruševac, the Association of the Independent Cultural Scene of Serbia from Belgrade, and K-Town Group from Kosjerić responds to the challenges faced by independent cultural centers in Serbia.

The partnership grant between the Citizens’ Association “Tatamate” and the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia began with the gathering of local residents active in various initiatives and activist organizations, as well as cultural and educational institutions, to form a local cultural committee initially comprised of seven members: managers, philosophers, visual artists, journalists, activists, etc.

The partnership grant between the Užice Literary Republic and the Workers’ Commune Links from Belgrade resulted in a collection of scholarly papers on the work of Miodrag Stanisavljević titled “Difficult Consonant Combinations,” featuring contributions from about ten relevant authors and professors from regional, European, and global universities.

The Job Shadowing program in the village of Gornja Gorevnica near Čačak was implemented in collaboration between the local WCSCD association and architects Sergio Bravo Johnson and Amelie Aranguren.

The job shadowing program was carried out in collaboration between the Talas TIRV Collective and the Midpoint Institute, an international organization for audiovisual training and networking that offers a wide range of programs focused on script and project development, as well as post-production.

Within the Job shadowing program, the project “Youth Activation in Theater – Education Based on Theater” was supported, providing a group of young women from Bujanovac the opportunity to collaborate and learn from professional actor and director Kushtrim Asllani.

Since the organization Art Aparat engages in specific work, much of which is based on involving vulnerable groups, particularly the Roma community, the skills and knowledge required from ideal candidates for future permanent engagement within the organization are specialized and often outside the scope of traditional education.

The ZMUC Art Association does not have permanent curators, but instead selects collaborators on a project basis. Since 2023, the organization has been managing the Alternative Residential Center – ARC Dve Babe, which operates year-round, making it necessary to professionally design curatorial programs.

Through the job shadowing model, guest expert Dr. Ivan Rajković trained members of the host organization in the basic principles of ethnographic methods and qualitative research. Special attention was given to the challenges of engaged research, particularly the ethical issues involved when one of the parties is also an activist.

Prima Facie, an award-winning play on two of the most famous stages of theatre – Broadway in New York and West End in London – is an incredibly precisely written play dealing with court proceedings in cases of sexual abuse of women.

The project This is Violence Too empowered and affirmed 19 young writers across Serbia who, through their creative work and direct engagement in their communities, contributed to the promotion of gender equality and the fight against gender-based violence.

The 8th Sombor International Comic and Fantasy Festival popularized comic strips as the “ninth” art form and fantasy as an artistic genre in Sombor and surrounding areas, particularly among children, youth, and youth from rural areas.

Bašta Fest is an international short feature film festival that has been held in July in Bajana Bašta since 2014. Relying on the tourism potential of the region, a large part of the program takes place in nature. The festival is primarily intended for young filmmakers from Serbia and the world, as well as the audience of short and original films from all over the country, with a special emphasis on the population of the Zlatibor district.

The theater play “On the Ledge” based on the text “Norway Today” by Swiss writer Igor Bauersima, directed by the young director Zoran Zarubica and performed by actors Nikola Pavlović and Maja Šuša, is based on the story of two young people who meet on the internet and decide to travel together and commit suicide.

Previous research addressing the issue of cultural decentralization in Serbia has mostly focused on the uneven territorial distribution of cultural institutions and organizations. However, until the study “Experiences of Cultural Centralization in Serbia,” there was no research that examined the experiences of the citizens related to cultural decentralization.

“Invisible Creators of Magic” is a multimedia and educational project that focuses on research, education, and promotion of stage design as an essential segment of art and culture.

The International Student Film Camp “Interaction” has been regularly organized since 2006 in the Western Serbia region (Užice, Čačak, Požega…). Numerous young individuals from the area, who started as volunteers at the camp and later participated in Interaction’s workshops, have subsequently enrolled in film academies, continuing their journey towards becoming film professionals.

“Constitution and Citizens’ Rights” is based on the socio-political self-education of artists and young people, aiming to inform the public about the significance of democracy. The problem addressed by the supported project is the insufficient attention that the education system allocates to social, political, and legal education, especially in the education of artists which often results in politically apathetic youth and artists resorting to escapist representations, exhibitions, etc.