How did this grant contribute to the realization of your project in regard to artistic exchange, local cultural development and/or the promotion of cultural diversity?

Winning this grant, I was able to take part in a very important intense summer school Unicult2020, International Arts & Culture Management and Policy Programme in Rijeka, Croatia. This summer school helped me very much to develop my critical thinking and learned a lot of new things that are going on around Europe. Lectures with Fritzie Zie Brown and Ivan Talijancic about "How (Not) to Write an Effective Proposal" helped me a lot to learn practices of effective grant writing. Discussions and talks with Horst Hortner the director of 'Ars Electronica', how nowadays "lab" has become a fashionable term being used for anything that aims to be cool and experimental like fashion labs, food labs, beauty labs, etc, which it would be interesting to develop also in my city. My mentor during the summer school was Davor Miskovic which is director of 'Drugo more' an organisation that produces, promotes, researches and disseminates culture, who helped me a lot with the idea of how to manage and curate a programme for an old cinema like Lumbardhi is, which wasn't operating for more than twenty years.

How does exchange, networking and international contacts contribute to the development of your artistic and cultural project?

It was a great opportunity at supporting my practice with an academic, theoretic and practical education that I haven’t had the chance to receive before. The quality and experience of the professors, as well as the opportunity of meeting peers from other countries, who might be future partners and collaborators was really valuable for our organisation, through this program. Especially the examples of cultural work in other developed countries made me realize that by exchanging experience with one another, we can build our countries better than it actually is. I will use it by orientating our policy work on issues around the financing of culture and improving the political infrastructure on this issue, while also taking a more active and leading role in our local cultural scene, while developing and strengthening its network. The knowledge and experience will be very helpful in re-thinking our existing cultural system and identifying possibilities for improving the ecology for the scene.

Can you elaborate on the learning and knowledge you have gained and shared throughout this experience?

Unicult2020 program helped me to build my knowledge and skills within cultural policy and international cultural relations. I also internationalized my career and enlarged my professional network throughout Europe. I developed a critical understanding of the diverse and changing relationships between culture and international politics. I also had access to rich bibliography on Culture in External Relations and Cultural Diplomacy in which I learned many new things. I have also received a body of work and experiences that I can now use to deepen my knowledge and made lots of new contacts.

Please indicate a link to your current work (website/facebook page)

https://web.facebook.com/kinolumbardhi/ https://web.facebook.com/kinolumbardhi/