Lubov Kostova & Toni Nikolov, Lecturers at Course 4 of the Regional Academy for Managers in Culture - May 2014

Lubov Kostova, Director of British Council in Sofia / Lecturer at Course 4 of the Regional Academy for Managers in Culture - May 2014

Toni Nikolov, Chief Editor of the Portal for culture, art and society, Lecturer at Course 4 of the Regional Academy for Managers in Culture - May 2014

Launching the First Regional Academy for Cultural Management

On November 8-9, in Blagoevgrad took place the first course of the Regional Academy for Cultural Management, organized by the Sofia Development Association and Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski".

Twenty-five representatives of public and independent cultural  organizations from Sofia, Blagoevgrad, Kyustendil and Pernik took part in the first course of the Regional Academy with a discussion of basic concepts of management and culture, what are the cultural dilemmas today, and how to make strategic choices to develop the organizations they manage. "The work of the managers in culture is more difficult because they must not only meet the existing needs of society, but to create them," said Nelly Stoewa from Sofia University " St. Kliment Ohridski".

Cultural Managers on Quest for New Routes to the Media

To be in the media, in other words, “to be written about in newspapers”: nowadays this can happen when one promotes a publicly significant cause and uses online media forums to distribute information or to tell an interesting story related to art and culture. This is the lesson learned by the twenty-five managers in the field of culture from the South-Western region during the third course of the Regional Academy for Cultural Management held in Pernik on the 27^th and 28^th of March 2014. The project of Sofia Municipality and Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” supports the application of Sofia and the South-Western region for European Capital of Culture in 2019, and is organized by Sofia Development Association.

Why is the Regional Academy for Cultural Managers important?

After the completion of the first two courses in which twenty-five managers from public cultural institutes, NGOs and festivals took part, there’s more than one answer to this question:

- Because we already succeeded in structurally changing the management of two cultural institutes in Blagoevgrad, so that they became more flexible and independent, targeting the public needs. “Because you either have to change or to adapt to the change. We all here are the ones that deal with the creation of change”, said Trevor Davies, who has won the title European Capital of Culture twice, for Copenhagen in 1995 and for Aarhus in 2007.