What does it take to build a cultural space where there is none? Can art do more than reflect social change and actually help create it? And how do independent organisations keep going when the conditions around them are constantly changing?
These questions shaped the Cultural Nexus: Independent Voices, Shared Futures conference, held in Belgrade from 3 to 5 September within the Swiss-supported Culture for Democracy project, implemented by Heartefact. The conference brought together artists, cultural workers, and organisations from Serbia, Belgium, Portugal, the UK, Switzerland, Croatia, and Slovenia, creating space to share experiences and turn them into transferable knowledge.
The conference opened with the Queer Art Academy Showcase: Work-in-Progress Showcase, an associated programme supported by ERA – LGBTI Equal Rights Association for the Western Balkans and Türkiye. Eight participants from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and North Macedonia presented their artistic projects to an audience of cultural professionals, institutions, and production houses from the region. By connecting this programme with the Cultural Nexus, CfD grantees were able to meet and engage directly with emerging artists, opening up new creative partnerships and collaborations within the independent scene.
The following day, three panels traced a natural arc: how independent culture builds its own infrastructure, how it drives change, and how it survives.
Reclaiming Space brought together practitioners from Portugal, Belgium, and Serbia who have all created cultural infrastructure where none existed, transforming abandoned spaces, building trust within local communities, or turning entire towns into stages. The conversation expanded the idea of infrastructure from buildings and spaces to relationships, communities, and people themselves.
Can Art Change the Rules? shifted the focus to participation how people who are usually represented by culture can become active participants in creating it. From legislative theatre and inclusive music education to new models of cultural cooperation and funding, the panel positioned art not only as a way of imagining alternatives, but as a practice that can actively participate in creating them.
Staying Alive addressed the question of continuity, bringing together organisations active for more than twenty years. Their experiences showed that resilience is built through persistence, adaptation, international visibility, and the ability to connect local communities with wider networks and that there is no single model of survival.
After the panels, participants came together in small groups to discuss what works, what doesn’t, and what could be done differently. The three-day event was complemented by a workshop and individual consultations on crisis PR and communication, led by Jelena Milašinović, PR Manager of the Belgrade Philharmonic.
Photo: Jakov Simović
Cultural Nexus: Independent Voices, Shared Futures was organised as part of the Swiss Culture for Democracy project, implemented by Heartefact.