This year, TEH organized its conference in the European Capital of Culture 2024: Tartu, Estonia. And 1 member of the A4 team had the chance to visit! We experienced the space of the host organization Aparaaditehas and participated in many network meetings, hubs, tours, workshops and more.
The first program elements immediately introduced the topic of this meeting (and of Tartu 2024): Surviving the present, prototyping the future. During the opening panel, the participants highlighted their own practical experiences with culture as resistance during shrinking funding, war, and other contemporary struggles. This first day also immediately gave us the typical TEH reunion feeling: meeting colleagues and project partners from all over Europe.
The second day started in a serious way with the strategic session, but there was also some more space for exploring the venue. We joined a tour of the entire venue and a tour of the galleries in the cultural center. Aparaaditehas used to be a factory and now hosts many artists, shops, galleries, bars, and restaurants and is the vibrant cultural heart of Tartu.
On the third day, we were focused on connecting. This was the hub-meetings day where we hosted a workshop as the coordinating organization of the Arts Education Hub. We invited Zuzana Kupcová, who engaged the participants in living lab practices to create more inclusive cultural spaces. It was a very useful session, for ourselves, but it was also the feedback we got from the participants. After the workshop, the hub members stayed for a steering committee meeting, to discuss with us the joint development of an international project application on arts education and audience development.
We also attended the East Hub meeting. The goal was to discuss the ideas for the planned Creative Europe project application to be able to develop even closer collaborations between the TEH member organizations from the region of Eastern and Central Europe. And of course, we were present at the general assembly to discuss the present and future of TEH. That was a lot of serious but important work, so we finished our visit to Aparaaditehas with a party. Several venues prepared a line-up of emerging local artists. And this was the best way to end our visit to TEH #97!