To be in the media, in other words, “to be written about in newspapers”: nowadays this can happen when one promotes a publicly significant cause and uses online media forums to distribute information or to tell an interesting story related to art and culture. This is the lesson learned by the twenty-five managers in the field of culture from the South-Western region during the third course of the Regional Academy for Cultural Management held in Pernik on the 27th and 28th of March 2014. The project of Sofia Municipality and Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” supports the application of Sofia and the South-Western region for European Capital of Culture in 2019, and is organized by Sofia Development Association.
Following the sessions in Blagoevgrad in November 2013 and Kyustendil in January 2014, the third course of the traveling edition of the Academy took place in Pernik. It was dedicated to the new technologies, media and the challenges which they create before the people of art and culture. The conclusion about entering the media was reached independently by the course participants in the discussion after the presentation of the Editor-in-Chief of ‘Trud’ newspaper, Ivan Mihalev, on the era of Internet communication. He elaborated on the changes which have been brought globally by Internet connectivity, and which the media have to accept in order to survive and develop. He also explained how to change the orientation of the information content and the profits from advertising, in a time when everyone could read the newspaper online without having to buy the paper edition itself. For the newspapers, this means searching for new layouts of the content and advertisement in order to secure their income.
‘Internet prevents us from thinking while technology is a silent killer of most cultural processes.’ This thought about culture in the era of digital sharing was developed by the chief editor of L’Europeo magazine Dimitar Stoyanovich. Even though he presented himself as a supporter of conservatism, he reckons that one has to search for a way of work in the new environment which is impossible if you stay behind “the scheme.” In his opinion, this is also important because each form of art and culture is a form of learning. After all, before mastering the digital formats, the artist must have learned to write or paint or be familiar with musical scores, highlighted the lecturer.
The director of the Foundation for Suburban Projects and Research, Yuriy Vulkovsky, spoke about the opportunities of the modern media to attract new audiences to culture. He considers that new technologies can be used for feedback, for maintaining databases, for advertising cultural events as well as for selling goods. However, Vulkovsky appealed to the participants not to forget the traditional audiences in the quest for new ones.
‘Off the record’ – freely and without being recorded, the managers spoke with media expert Georgi Lozanov about the possibilities for presenting their institutes’ cultural projects in the digital media and before wider audiences.
On the premises of the Regional History Museum in Pernik, during the International Festival Surva, the Academy participants created a development plan together with Violeta Simianovska from the Centre for Scene Art in Skopje. According to her, the Balkan museums are static and boring while Internet helps young people live in the global world. Only the modern creative and dynamic expositions can make adolescents return to the museums and attract new audiences.
The visions of the two capitals of culture for 2013 - Kosice and Marseilles – were discussed in the context of developing the application of Sofia and the South-Western region for European Capital of Culture in 2019.