New Perspectives Network – Culture and Climate
The Fukushima nuclear catastrophe in past months once again very explicitly illustrated that environment and climate issues are essential for the future of humankind and that their effects can affect and threaten each and every one of us. This gives greater significance to projects such as the New Perspectives Network – Climate and Culture, which gathers and networks environmentalists from the countries of Eastern Europe, the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia within the Goethe-Institut’s Culture and Development initiative.
At the first meeting of the network in 2010, a Summer Academy in Berlin, the participants from Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Armenia and Russia got to know German initiatives that heighten people’s awareness for environmental and climate challenges by means of the arts and culture. The programme also looked at techniques of project management, steering and moderation of processes. On this basis the activists developed their own projects in the fields of film, visual arts, theatre and the media that emanate to a number of countries in the region and actively perpetuate the networking scheme. The projects, which were examined by a jury and further developed with the aid of professional trainers, were realized and presented to the public during the first six months of 2011. For example, the street theatre performance Climatic Play was shown in Odessa. For the project Eko-Kadry (from the Russian ekologija = ecology, kadr = shot) eleven short films were produced and shown in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. Eco-Art allowed artists from Georgia, Russia, Uzbekistan and Ukraine set up open-air workshops where they could do artistic work in scenic yet ecologically sensitive or endangered sites in Georgia.
This summer’s meeting of the New Perspectives Network project in Berlin from 1 until 15 July served to take stock and further develop the initiative. The network was strengthened, joint projects were presented, continued or new ones begun. Acquisition of funding was another module of the programme: How do I best address potential sponsors? Activities in the fields of climate and environment can only succeed if they are lasting and for this, longer-term support and networking are required. At this year’s Berlin meeting the project managers promoted this.
“For me, the New Perspectives Network means in particular having the opportunity to implement unusual projects where I can input my creative potential to the benefit of all. The second Summer Academy means a new phase for me where both new problems and new perspectives emerge. Here in Berlin we are laying the foundation for our future joint projects,” said Aleksej Kobzev of the Ekoforum Usbekistan. His Ukrainian colleague Natalja Shivaldova from the ecological organization Ekomaktab also emphasizes the quality of the further development of the networks in its second year. “The second Summer Academy is a breakthrough for my awareness to better understand my German partners and colleagues from the network. This academy revealed their potentials from a new perspective.”
On 8 July, a variety of German environmental initiatives and foundations were presented to the participants, such as the Michael Succow Foundation, the Unabhängiges Institut für Umweltfragen (UfU) e.V. and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. The objective that afternoon was to expand the network and initiate possible alliances between the participants and the German environmental initiatives.
In addition to the New Perspectives Network, the Goethe-Instituts in Eastern Europe and Central Asia are conducting two further pilot projects of the Culture and Development initiative, the Publishers Advanced Training Course 2009 - 2011 and the Competence Centre for Cultural Managers.
