The Belarusian Council for Culture presents its team for the first time: regarding the second anniversary
The team of the Belarusian Council for Culture has reached the second anniversary – October 1 marks the two-year period of work for us. At first we functioned as the Belarusian Fund of Cultural Solidarity which arose in answer to massive repressions of the regime in 2020. Later, when establishing cultural processes turned out to be an equally pressing matter with helping artists individually, we restated ourselves as the Belarusian Council for Culture.
We call ourselves the cultural headquarters of new Belarus and a civil initiative with a defined mission. This mission is, as much as possible, to save and develop Belarusian culture abroad as well as inside Belarus; to promote it as a prestigious value and, via culture in its diversity, to promote Belarus as a country of modern and progressive European society.
Unfortunately, such goals were not compatible with the goals of the Belarusian state: it recognized the Belarusian Council for Culture as an extremist formation and declared our site and social networks as extremist materials.
We call ourselves the cultural headquarters of new Belarus and a civil initiative with a defined mission. This mission is, as much as possible, to save and develop Belarusian culture abroad as well as inside Belarus; to promote it as a prestigious value and, via culture in its diversity, to promote Belarus as a country of modern and progressive European society.
Unfortunately, such goals were not compatible with the goals of the Belarusian state: it recognized the Belarusian Council for Culture as an extremist formation and declared our site and social networks as extremist materials.
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The Council is a joint venture of the cultural minority for the good of creative majority. The minimum of bureaucracy, regular improvisation and total non-indifference. This is a project in progress - as well as new Belarus which we are building together.
“
The Council is a joint venture of the cultural minority for the good of creative majority. The minimum of bureaucracy, regular improvisation and total non-indifference. This is a project in progress - as well as new Belarus which we are building together.
Our "cultural startup" reaches its goals not only with emergency assistance for repressed Belarusian cultural figures though it remains to be one of priorities. Nowadays the activities of the Council are primarily the support of cultural projects (in cooperation with European and American partners), advocating and lobbying the interests of Belarusian culture, the cultural analysis, education in the cultural area and its PR.
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I confess that every Monday everything trembles and shakes inside me. It seems to me that we set just impossible goals. But then Tuesday comes, after that - Wednesday and Thursday - and chaos dissolves, complete clarity and understanding appear. And on Friday and Saturday you are so filled with energy that you can definitely see the Light at the end of this tunnel and almost can touch the practical results of the activity during the working week. And all that is possible due to the well-coordinated teamwork and the understanding that each constructive action brings new Belarus closer. I'm just happy to work with such people!
“
I confess that every Monday everything trembles and shakes inside me. It seems to me that we set just impossible goals. But then Tuesday comes, after that - Wednesday and Thursday - and chaos dissolves, complete clarity and understanding appear. And on Friday and Saturday you are so filled with energy that you can definitely see the Light at the end of this tunnel and almost can touch the practical results of the activity during the working week. And all that is possible due to the well-coordinated teamwork and the understanding that each constructive action brings new Belarus closer. I'm just happy to work with such people!
We've got about thirty people in the team of the Belarusian Council for Culture and, in relation to our second anniversary, for the first time we are revealing those people behind the organization. As much as it is possible, of course.
Alena Rydzieŭskaja is responsible for the assistance direction in the Council. Maksim Žbankoŭ is the head of the analytics team. Taćciana Pašavałava is an organizational development and fundraising consultant. Elina Kałnibałockaja is the head of the finance department and is the Resource Centre representative. Nastaśsia Marozava works as a financial manager. Cimafiej Akudovič is a project manager of "The Magistrates of Culture" and he's also one of our experts. Kaciaryna Ramančyk is a supervisor of the “Cultural Code” hackathon as well as an expert. Mikola Bieńka is the Belarusian Council for Culture representative in educational projects. Irena Kaciałovič is a public affairs representative of the Belarusian Council for Culture as well as a project manager. Mikałaj Chalezin is an expert of the Belarusian Council for Culture as well as Anžalika Krašeŭskaja who is our representative in the Coordination Council too. Volha Kasiančuk is our SMM specialist. Siarhiej Budkin is the Chief Executive Officer of the Belarusian Council for Culture. Aleś Čachoŭski is the director for cultural diplomacy.
Over the past two years the Belarusian Council for Culture supported more than 130 cultural projects and organized residence for 37 people. About 275 thousand Euros was allocated on all that.
We may include the following supported projects in our hypothetical top 5: the poster exhibition “Hitlerkaputin” by Uładzimir Ceśler; 24-hour online marathon of the Belarusian language MOVA24; the August theatre performance "What for?" dedicated to “the night of the murdered poets” of 1937; the art performance in Lodz “Belarusian Literature as a political prisoner” devoted to prison art; a theatre project “Batleyka Chagalle” by Alaksandr Ždanovič. We can not reveal lots of projects because of our "extremist" status.
We successfully held 18 charity auctions where we raised about 25 thousand Euros to support Belarusian political prisoners related to culture. The paintings were created specially for the auctions and even one exclusive copy of the book by Alhierd Bacharevič was released for the same reason. We organized about 30 fundraising campaigns for Belarusian artists and raised approximately 86 thousand Euros: almost 28 thousand Euros from that sum was raised exclusively for the imprisoned musicians of the music band Irdorath. In total over two years the Council with the support of donors and partners contributed more than 130 thousand Euros to the repressed Belarusian artists.
It was the Council who lobbied the case of excluding Belteleradiocompany from the European broadcasting union and disqualifying Belarusian representatives from “Eurovision” in 2021. Together with Belarusian cinema experts we withdrew FIAPF (English: International Federation of Film Producers Associations) accreditation of Minsk international film festival “Listapad”.
After the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine we were among the implementers of the informational advocacy campaign #BelarusWithUkraine, which can be considered the history of documenting help, support and cooperation of Belarusians and Ukrainians.
We published more than 60 stories, above 20 live shows and a documentary mini-series in the project “The Artists of Victory” – to support musicians, actors, painters and writers who, despite repression and terror, create the culture of new Belarus. Our “The analysis of culture” is the expert review of deformation and transformation of the cultural field, diagnosing the situation and realizing the tendencies occurring at this very moment.
In September 2022 the Resource Centre of the Belarusian Council for Culture with the support of Imaguru Startup HUB Vilnius organized the first hackathon of digital projects for Belarusian culture “The cultural code”. We saw that the demand for developing digital projects connected with Belarusian culture exceeds the boundaries of a single event: dozens of ideas were registered for the hackathon.
Soon the Belarusian Council for Culture is going to announce the joint work with the European Commission and say what it means for Belarusian creators.
New Belarus is our joint art project!
Alena Rydzieŭskaja is responsible for the assistance direction in the Council. Maksim Žbankoŭ is the head of the analytics team. Taćciana Pašavałava is an organizational development and fundraising consultant. Elina Kałnibałockaja is the head of the finance department and is the Resource Centre representative. Nastaśsia Marozava works as a financial manager. Cimafiej Akudovič is a project manager of "The Magistrates of Culture" and he's also one of our experts. Kaciaryna Ramančyk is a supervisor of the “Cultural Code” hackathon as well as an expert. Mikola Bieńka is the Belarusian Council for Culture representative in educational projects. Irena Kaciałovič is a public affairs representative of the Belarusian Council for Culture as well as a project manager. Mikałaj Chalezin is an expert of the Belarusian Council for Culture as well as Anžalika Krašeŭskaja who is our representative in the Coordination Council too. Volha Kasiančuk is our SMM specialist. Siarhiej Budkin is the Chief Executive Officer of the Belarusian Council for Culture. Aleś Čachoŭski is the director for cultural diplomacy.
Over the past two years the Belarusian Council for Culture supported more than 130 cultural projects and organized residence for 37 people. About 275 thousand Euros was allocated on all that.
We may include the following supported projects in our hypothetical top 5: the poster exhibition “Hitlerkaputin” by Uładzimir Ceśler; 24-hour online marathon of the Belarusian language MOVA24; the August theatre performance "What for?" dedicated to “the night of the murdered poets” of 1937; the art performance in Lodz “Belarusian Literature as a political prisoner” devoted to prison art; a theatre project “Batleyka Chagalle” by Alaksandr Ždanovič. We can not reveal lots of projects because of our "extremist" status.
We successfully held 18 charity auctions where we raised about 25 thousand Euros to support Belarusian political prisoners related to culture. The paintings were created specially for the auctions and even one exclusive copy of the book by Alhierd Bacharevič was released for the same reason. We organized about 30 fundraising campaigns for Belarusian artists and raised approximately 86 thousand Euros: almost 28 thousand Euros from that sum was raised exclusively for the imprisoned musicians of the music band Irdorath. In total over two years the Council with the support of donors and partners contributed more than 130 thousand Euros to the repressed Belarusian artists.
It was the Council who lobbied the case of excluding Belteleradiocompany from the European broadcasting union and disqualifying Belarusian representatives from “Eurovision” in 2021. Together with Belarusian cinema experts we withdrew FIAPF (English: International Federation of Film Producers Associations) accreditation of Minsk international film festival “Listapad”.
After the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine we were among the implementers of the informational advocacy campaign #BelarusWithUkraine, which can be considered the history of documenting help, support and cooperation of Belarusians and Ukrainians.
We published more than 60 stories, above 20 live shows and a documentary mini-series in the project “The Artists of Victory” – to support musicians, actors, painters and writers who, despite repression and terror, create the culture of new Belarus. Our “The analysis of culture” is the expert review of deformation and transformation of the cultural field, diagnosing the situation and realizing the tendencies occurring at this very moment.
In September 2022 the Resource Centre of the Belarusian Council for Culture with the support of Imaguru Startup HUB Vilnius organized the first hackathon of digital projects for Belarusian culture “The cultural code”. We saw that the demand for developing digital projects connected with Belarusian culture exceeds the boundaries of a single event: dozens of ideas were registered for the hackathon.
Soon the Belarusian Council for Culture is going to announce the joint work with the European Commission and say what it means for Belarusian creators.
New Belarus is our joint art project!
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