This was one of the messages from the platFORma´s “box of wishes” installed at the advent stalls in Hvar these days. “New Year´s wishes for my city” were read at the beginning of the public presentation of the citizens´ initiative, which took place at Loggia. A place, which was too small to accommodate all of those, who wanted to know “What is that platFORma all about?”.
This citizens´initiative, created out of a desire to enrich the social and cultural life of the town and the island of Hvar presented its main goal: the establishment of the Social and Cultural Centre Veneranda in the form of partnership with Hvar town and its associations. Under the proposed model of co-management, platFORma would coordinate the program all year round adjusted to the needs of the citizens of Hvar and the city would provide the space at Veneranda and co-finance the project in the amount of 15 percent of its value. Since there is a possibility of EU funding and co-financing from the Ministry of Culture for establishment and development of socio-cultural centres, for which tenders will start in the first half of the upcoming year, this kind of civil-public partnership could benefit from the initial non-refundable funding. According to the presented project of the platFORma, the DKC Veneranda (DKC meaning Društveno-Kulturni Centar, Socio-Cultural Centre, t/n) would be used during the summer season as an open air theatre for performances, concerts, film screenings and other cultural tourism related events. While the winter program would be oriented towards the residents of all ages, including a variety of workshops and lectures. The management plan includes financial sustainability – from tickets, especially during the summer season and through tenders and social entrepreneurship.
Space at Veneranda has a great value for people from Hvar – historical, social, cultural and emotional. This monument was built as a church of the Eastern Rite in the 16th century during the Venetian rule and was then used as a fortress and as a storage warehouse. In its bell tower, the meteorological station is located for almost 160 years now. It became an open-air cinema and stage in the 50s and was used as a night club in the 90s. After a twenty-year lease, it returned to the city two years ago, devastated and abandoned. Because there is no long-term solution to its use (except for the occasional musical and theatrical event), the project of the socio-cultural centre proposed by platFORma is offering an alternative to renting Veneranda to the private sector again. With this goal, in little over three months of existence, platFORma has brought together two dozen activists, received written support from 32 associations from around the city and the whole island, participated in two seminars about socio-cultural centres, connected with Hvar students and culture workers in Zagreb and through a campaign on social networks mobilized people from Hvar and the rest of the island.
How much is Veneranda important to residents, was visible not only by the number of people attending the presentation, but also by their questions and reactions after the presentation. People were interested when could the project get started, what are the plans of the initiative, to what extent was the program prepared and in what way would the project earn money from culture. Since, there were city councilors and the Mayor Rino Budrović present at the presentation, it was an opportunity to gain a firs-hand view of politics about the project. Mayor Budrović has on several occasions stated, that he supports the initiative and the announced framework of the program, but that he will not let Veneranda to be run by associations, all the more so since from the beginning of next year, civil associations will have a different system of paying taxes. For this reason a god part of the later discussion was devoted to clarifying the fact, that in case of a civil-public partnership, Veneranda woudl be run by the City, not the associations. Since the councillors themselves stressed the role of politics (decisions about the socio-cultural centre must be voted on by the City Council), at one point, the majority of the present citizens raised their hands in a symbolic vote in the city hall to show the “counsellors know how to vote”. Since even the plans and next steps of the initiative were presented (meeting the mayor again, “Veneranda scrapbook” competition..), the president of the city council Fabijan Vučetić suggested that one of the following would be meeting with the councillors. Mayor Budrović was still against allowing the association to run Veneranda, but he said he was open to further discussions.
To sea more pictures and read the whole article (in Croatian), visit the Otok-Hvar.com website.
(all photos: otok-hvar.com)
