Members of the programme group participate in the panels of experts allocating funding of art projects and by so doing they co-create cultural policies in Slovenia. Dr Gašper Troha is the chairman of the panel of experts on book publishing, Department of Culture, the Municipality of Ljubljana (MOL) which evaluates applications for tenders, namely projects of innovative development of reading culture (book presentations in reading clubs and literary workshops, merging of literature and performance, visual arts, etc.). The panel also participated in the planning of the Strategy for the Development of Culture in the Municipality of Ljubljana in the period 2020–2024, which stipulates a plan on development of the book field in the future, with an emphasis on promoting the purchase of quality books and bringing library services closer to the inhabitants of the city of Ljubljana. In addition, the panel of experts formulated proposals on how to gain increased profile of books in public life, since Ljubljana is proud to bear the UNESCO City of Literature title. Dr Tomaž Toporišič is chairman of the expert panel for transdisciplinary programmes at the Municipality of Ljubljana (2019–2023) which formulates strategies for connecting performing, music, visual and intermedia arts, and prepares a strategy for cooperation between different arts and the subjects carrying them out. Dr Blaž Lukan is a member of the Municipality of Ljubljana panel of experts for performing arts (2019–2023). The panel proposes objectives and measures to strengthen cooperation between public institutions and non-governmental organizations (e.g. boosting post-production and audience numbers, acquisition of new training premises, etc.). Dr Maja Šorli is a member of the panel of experts for performing arts at the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia (in the period 2019–2022) which assesses and evaluates programmes and projects by non-governmental organizations and the self-employed in culture.
F.24 Improvements to existing system-wide, normative and programme solutions, and methods
In the course of history, amateur theatre has repeatedly played the role of a setting in which theatre changes take place. This notwithstanding, it has only sporadically been the subject of scientific research in Slovenian theatre studies. The symposium, chaired by Dr Maja Šorli and organized by the programme group in cooperation with the Slovenian Theatre Institute, the Public Fund of the Republic of Slovenia for Cultural Activities, and the international research group STEP, filled this gap. Slovenian researchers presented the history of amateur theatre in Slovenia, its educational, religious and national awakening role, and highlighted the difference between its position in the cultural and socio-political circumstances in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and in the Republic of Slovenia. They studied architecture, scenography and the "proletarian" way of acting on the workers' theatre stages and evaluated the innovations that amateurs on the fringes of self-education and non-mainstream alternative productions introduced into Slovenian theatre. They also examined the most outstanding phenomena of contemporary amateur theatre production, such as the shows involving cultural heritage, the reconstruction of the Škofja Loka Passion Play, the Čufar Days Festival and the theatre of the oppressed as a form of socially engaged theatre. Researchers from abroad presented organizational frameworks and cultural policies of amateur theatre in several European countries (Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Estonia, Great Britain, Hungary, and Malta) and thus placed the discussion of Slovenian amateur theatre in an international perspective. The resonating academic symposium comprising 17 papers was complemented by a round table discussion on the condition of amateur theatre in relation to contemporary professional theatre production.
B.01 Organiser of a scientific meeting
COBISS.SI-ID: 4822107Dr Aldo Milohnić, a programme group member devised a curated panel entitled »From Avant-gardism to Activism: Migrations and Theatre in Yugoslavia« held at the world congress of the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR) at the University of Belgrade, Serbia from 9 to 13 July 2018. The panel which aimed to elucidate intercultural connections generated by political and economic migrations of Slovenian theatre makers and performing artists in former Yugoslavia included the following speakers: Dr Milena Dragićević Šešić, University of Art, Belgrade (»Transitioning Yugoslavia: migrants and migrations in performing art practices and activism«), Dr Aldo Milohnić, University of Ljubljana (»Migrations of Slovenian Avant-garde Directors across the Yugoslav Theatres«) and Dr Ana Stojanoska, Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Skopje (»Macedonian – Slovenian Theatre Relations«). The panel chaired by Dr Janelle Reinelt, Professor Emeritus, University of Warwick and former president of the IFTR, also included a presentation of a scientific monograph Scenske umetnosti, migracije, politika: slovensko gledališče kot sooblikovalec medkulturnih izmenjav (Performing Arts, Migration, Politics: Slovenian Theatre as an Agent of Intercultural Exchange, ed. Barbara Orel), published by Znanstvena založba, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana in 2018 in the on-line open access form (COBISS.SI-ID 297727488). At the world congress, Dr Maja Šorli and junior researcher Nika Leskovšek also presented findings of their research studies in the Feminist Research Working Group, COBISS.SI-ID 15234819 and the Feminist New Scholars’ Forum COBISS.SI-ID 4606299 respectively.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 4700251A digital database containing information on Macedonian and Slovenian theatre makers, productions and institutions that collaborated in the period from 1999 to 2015 was created as part of a bilateral research project »Macedonian-Slovenian Theatre Relations from 1990 until Present« (ARRS: BI- MK/17-18-014). Data on collaboration in the fields of dramatic theatre, dance, opera, and ballet were collected from various sources (such as the Slovenian Theatre Yearbook published by the Slovenian Theatre Institute, the first version of the Macedonian Theatre Database prepared by the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje, the archives and documentation of Slovenian and Macedonian repertoire theatres, selected online sources, personal archives of theatre makers, etc.). The data were methodically studied, digitalized and presented in an open access online archives available to the international academic, professional and general public interested in the topic at the following site: http://www.fdu.ukim.edu.mk/index_mstr.php?lng=sl. The findings of the research project were presented for the first time at the academic symposium held in November 2018 in Skopje, Macedonia. The results were published in the joint issue of Slovenian academic journal for theatre and performing arts Amfiteater and the Macedonian academic journal Ars Academica published in English, Slovenian and Macedonian. The publication was launched and presented in December 2018 in Ljubljana (COBISS.SI-ID 4624475). The project was co-directed by Dr Aldo Milohnić (UL AGRFT), a member of our programme group, and Dr Ana Stojanoska (Faculty of Dramatic Arts, The Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje). Dr Maja Šorli and Dr Gašper Troha, members of our programme group, were also involved in the project.
F.15 Development of a new information system/databases
COBISS.SI-ID: 15795203The international Audience Research in the Arts Conference, held at The University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, was organized with the aim to bring together researchers investigating audiences in various artistic fields. It was organized by institutions that make a key contribution to the development of methodologies and state-of-the-art research approaches to audience research: Sheffield Performer and Audience Research Centre (SPARC) in partnership with the International Network for Audience Research in the Performing Arts (iNARPA), The Audience Agency, Routledge, The University of Leeds and Deakin University. The conference was a successful meeting point of eminent international researchers in the field and outlined guidelines for further development in the field of audience research. At the conference the results of audience research, carried out as part of the research programme Theatre and Interart Studies, were also successfully presented by Dr Maja Šorli and junior researcher Nika Leskovšek, allowing them to establish an appropriate context and ensure the international comparability of research results. Young researcher Nika Leskovšek presented a paper entitled “Addressing the audience in repertory announcements: institutional theatres in Slovenia from late socialism to democracy” (COBISS.SI-ID 4748891) in which she presented a segment of her PhD thesis on performance policies and dramaturgy of the spectator. She also held a poster presentation on comparative analysis of formal addresses to the audience in repertory announcements from 1980 to the present day which facilitated a greater prominence of her paper. (COBISS.SI-ID 4758363) At the conference, Dr Maja Šorli participated in a group presentation of the results of the multiyear City Study research within the framework of the STEP project. Together with researchers from four countries (the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Slovenia) she presented internationally comparable results in a paper entitled “Methods in international and interdisciplinary audience research: the Project on European Theatre Systems” (COBISS.SI-ID 4749147) that thematically went beyond the national research frameworks of most contributions at the conference.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 4748891