Anja Zorko
Looking for Partnership Looking for Extra EU Funds
The Centre for Creativity or CzK (Center za kreativnost) was established in 2017 as a national interdisciplinary platform for the support and development of Slovenia's cultural and creative sectors and industries (CCSI). CzK operates under the auspices of the main national Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO) in Ljubljana.
The Centre for Creativity focuses on architecture, design, art, heritage and other areas of CCS and promotes cross-sectoral cooperation. It encourages integration between CCS, companies and other sectors – cooperation between private, government and non-government sectors, science, education, tourism and different creative groups and individuals. The project also enables MAO to provide an important part of the supportive environment for innovation in Slovenia.
In particular, the CzK promotes the development of projects that take shape at the intersection of art, culture, experiments, the market, entrepreneurship and the business sector, and which employ creativity, production and the distribution of goods and services that bring or express culture-related or otherwise creative content. The results of these projects are commercially viable, they increase added value and are aimed at addressing specific social issues, facilitating social progress and welfare. CzK serves to intensify and integrate relevant sources of support for innovation in Slovenia.
CzK stages tenders and public calls as well as organises exhibitions, conferences, workshops and other events that are focused on facilitating the transfer of knowledge and connecting stakeholders from the cultural and creative sector with actors from the public sector and the industry. These events are from the fields of advertising, architecture, literature, design, education, entrepreneurship, heritage, media, music, performance art, tourism, visual arts and others.
Through its various programmes, the activities of the CzK are focused several target areas: 1) the development of innovative products, services and solutions; 2) education and mentorship; 3) networking at home and abroad; 4) research and analysis of the CSS; 5) a web platform for the services and goods the CCS has to offer; 6) promotion and communication.
CzK offers a multilayered and connected programme with different strands to suit the needs of creators and creative business and various moments in their development. Thus, Creative Accelerator is a series of monthly workshops, lectures and related educational activities with content relevant to business and creative activites ranging from brand development, marketing and project management, among others. Activities are intended for different target groups in the creative ecosystem with the aim of meeting the developmental needs of CSS companies in different phases.
Creative Incubator is a programme intended for selected creative firms or organisations that despite already having services with clear goals, vision and business potential, wish to refresh the view on their activities or need specialised professional assistance to reach the next step in their growth.
Skillshare is another CzK programme in which successful creative professionals and entrepreneurs, especially Slovenes whose work is widely-known international or who have made a name for themselves working abroad are invited to share their skills with others in their field through activities such as lectures, presentations, exhibitions and consulting. The activities offer an important moment for networking as well.
Other educational and networking activities take place through workshops and presentations prepared alongside CzK's calls for tender as well as through annual conferences related to current issues in specific fields of the cultural and creative sector. In 2019, the two-day conference and pop-up showroom Sistem mode (Fashion System) prepared with the Society for Textile and Fashion Design (SOTO) brought 30 participants from 10 countries to speak about their work and experiences in the fashion industry from design to media as well as presented the work of 20 local fashion designers and their brands. In 2020, CzK turned its focus to dance with the (non-)conference Ples>Denar (Dance>Money) together with Pekinpah Association. Subtitled "Growing Markets: strategies for cooperation", the two-day event sought to fertilise the field of contemporary dance through the shared development of new strategies for international cooperation, presentation and touring among producers and makers of dance art.
In Maribor, the series Pop-Upstart gives young Slovene creatives from various CSS fields a chance to present and promote their products and services to the wider public through sales exhibitions, networking and talks. The aim of the series is to encourage entreprenuership among creative professionals through the promotion of their innovative, sustainable and well-designed projects.
Publications
In 2020, CzK in cooperation with the Institute for Economic Research (IER) produced variour reaserches on the state of CCSI in Slovenia. Among others: brochure Kulturno-kreativni imperativ: Razsežnost in potencial kulturnega in kreativnega sektorja v Sloveniji (The Cultural-Creative Imperative: The Dimension and Potential of the Cultural and Creative Sector in Slovenia). The brochure offers insight into and analysis of the key findings of the most comprehensive statistical research on the field to date, the Statistična analiza stanja kulturnega in kreativnega sektorja v Sloveniji 2008–2017 (Statistical Analysis of the State of the Cultural and Creative Sector in Slovenia 2008–2017) by Nika Murovec, Damjan Kavaš in Tjaša Bartolj of the IER, prepared for CzK and also published in 2020. The statistical analysis uses data from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia and other open-access databases in Slovenia to create a picture of the entire sector and the specific professions within it. More about CzK reaserch on ;
Made in Slovenia
In 2020, CzK announced a new programme to acknowledge Slovenian-made high-quality products and services through the new "Made in Slovenia" Badge of Excellence. The plan is to present such products and services at various exhibitions during Slovenia's presidency of the EU in the latter half of 2021.
To facilitate the use of the badge and the exhibitions, CzK held a public competition in search of the best creative and innovative solution for the exhibition installation design as well as the visual identity design for the exhibition and the badge of excellence.
CzK also supports and coproducess BIO – The Biennial of Design in Ljubljana- an international platform for new approaches in design. BIO was founded in 1963, making it the first design biennial in Europe.Today, BIO is structured as a long-term collaborative process, where teams of designers and multidisciplinary agents develop alternatives to established systems. BIO works as a testing ground, where design is employed as a tool to question and improve our daily life, among different and multidisciplinary design approaches that touch systems, production, services, scientific research, humanistic issues, unexpected conditions for the production of our habitat. More
MAO also leads Creative Europe funded project Platform MADE IN. Made In is a research, design and heritage platform that proposes new collaborative practices and knowledge exchange between the traditional craftspeople and contemporary designers. It engages craftspeople, designers, researchers, curators and theoreticians on a quest to pose relevant questions about the topics of heritage and production in today’s society through research and archiving of local crafts, conducting workshops and residencies and promoting ideas through a travelling exhibition. More: