Thursday, 23 September

Venue: Hotels

Morning- afternoon                       

Arrival of delegates

Venue: Palace of Arts

Address: 1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell u. 1.

18.00 – 19.00

Main Foyer

Registration opens

19.00 – 21.00

Terrace-buffet

Welcome drink, buffet dinner

Friday, 24 September

Venue: Palace of Arts

Address: 1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell u. 1.

9.00 – 10.00

Main Foyer

Registration (continues until 14.00)

Blue Hall

Arrival of delegates, coffee

10.00 – 12.30

Auditorium

Conference Opening and Panel 1

Welcome address

András Csonka, Deputy General Manager, Palace of Arts

Keynote speech and Q&A:

Dr. Dragan Klaic, theater scholar and cultural analyst (Amsterdam)

"Delivering public goods: strategies of distinction, opportunities for cooperation"

The speaker will discuss the position of larger performing arts and music venues, thorn between programming responsibilities that come with public subsidies and commercial pressures, shaped by the market circumstances.  With subsidies becoming insufficient in relation to the programming expectations, the temptation to supplement them with an increased own income from more commercial programs becomes too difficult to resist. And yet, the unique character of the venue is derived from the originality of the program and not from obedience to the market trends.  Larger template programming and collaborative venture offer additional opportunities to reach distinction and build expanded and more loyal audiences, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, where cultural organizations share much of common traditions as well as the comparable challenges of the so called “transition”.

   11.00 – 11.15

Coffee Break

   11.15 – 12.30

Panel 1: Institutional Cultural Cooperation Inside and Outside the Region, moderated by Dr. Dragan Klaic

This panel will focus on concrete examples of cooperation in programming, co-production, educational and outreach activities and digital recycling and seek to sketch productive and successful models. The panelist will focus on expected and delivered benefits, on risk factors and common friction points and stress institutional synergies. Specific benefits from cooperation in proximity (regional cooperation) will be highlighted. 

-        András Csonka, Deputy General Manager, Palace of Arts - Budapest

-        Krystyna Meissner, General and Artistic Director, Teatr Współczesny Wrocław

-        Gintautas Kevisas, General Director, Lithuanian National Opera

-        Momchil Georgiev, Senior Music Expert, Bulgarian National Radio

12.30 – 14.00

Glass Hall

Buffet lunch

14.00 – 16.30

Parallel Sessions

14.00 – 15.00

Parallel Session 1.

Visegrad Countries

The cooperation of the Visegrad countries extends to four EU member states. Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary cooperate in all kinds of areas, not least with the help of the Visegrad Fund. To what extent is this an active, or to what extent is it an artificial alliance? Does this foursome create a sense of exclusion in the neighbouring countries?

Moderator: Péter Inkei, Director, The Budapest Observatory

This session is supported by the Visegrad Fund 

South-East Europe & the Balkan – A Comprehensive Overview

It’s a fashion nowadays to refer to the Balkans when fresh, ebullient and modern examples of the performing arts are listed at various conferences. Other countries in South-East Europe too have a flourishing cultural life. Could this be an example to follow from Serbia to Turkey? To what extent do the countries of this region cooperate with each other?

Moderator: Vera Stojanovic, Director, Music Center - Concert Hall, Ilija M. Kolarac Foundation, Belgrade

Go East? Cooperation with Eastern Europe and the EU Eastern Partnership Countries

 Anyone who visited Warsaw in December 2009 could have sat through an excellent conference. The Go East! Conference dealt with the east-European partnership and the six EU partner countries. Has East and Central Europe discovered each other yet? Are the latest initiatives that can be found in the work of the east European festivals, theatres and concert organizers transmittable?

Moderator: Dr. Cornelia Dümcke, Director, Culture Concepts, Berlin

15.00 – 15.30

Coffee Break

15.30 – 16.30

Parallel Session 2.

Regional and European cooperation of Festivals

While the plenary session concentrates on the special big festivals characteristic of the region, this section discusses the present and future of the cooperation of the East-West performing arts festivals – not just from a “western” viewpoint.

Moderator: Lieven Bertels, Artistic Director, Holland Festival

East-West within Europe: Rather Western than Eastern Cooperation?

Is it really more worth while to contact the western institutions when we want a partner to cooperate with? Is it really true that the bigger west-European collaborations involving several countries stop at the Berlin-Prague-Vienna axis? The section has gathered experiences and examples from the whole of Europe from a specific viewpoint, bringing in the directors of the Hungarian EUNIC (European Union National Institutes for Culture)

Moderator: Elisabeth Kornfeind, Director, Österreiches Kulturforum

Interlocutor: Kornél Zipernovszky, Columnist, Fidelio Magazine 

(patron of the session: EUNIC-Hungary)

Arts Centers and Venues

The various centres for performing arts, concert halls and theatres determine the cultural life of a country, town or smaller region. How do they join forces with the smaller institutions? To what extent do they seek out the opportunities for cooperation between each other? What challenges do the bigger or smaller newly built centres have to face?

Moderator: Hugo de Greef, Director General, Flagey Centre, Brussels

Venue: Palace of Arts, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall

Address: 1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell u. 1.

19.45 – 22.00

Concert of the Budapest Festival Orchestra

Saturday, 25 September

Venue: Palace of Arts

Address: 1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell u. 1.

9.00 – 10.00

Blue Hall

Arrival of delegates, coffee

10.00 – 11.15

Panel 2: “National Treasure” Festivals in the Region, moderated by Géza Kovács, Director General, Hungarian National Philharmonics

The big festivals mainly characteristic of the region operate in a special situation even when from time to time a wave of thriftiness catches up with them too. The other festivals, venues or organizers scrutinize the “family silver” festivals, and what they see often determines the following seasons’ cultural programme. To what extent is the state-guaranteed relative stability desirable? To what extent is the constraint to cooperate typical of the much envied giants?

Panelists:

-        Roman Belor, Director, Prague Spring

-        Cristina Uruc, Director of George Enescu Competition, Enescu Festival, Bucharest

 -        Zsófia Zimányi, Director, Budapest Spring Festival

-        Lieven Bertels, Artistic Director, Holland Festival (moderator of the "Festivals in the Region" session)

11.15 – 11.30

Coffee Break

11.30 – 12.00

Parallel Sessions: reports

Summary of the outcomes of the sessions on Friday

12.00 – 12.30

Summary and closing of the conference

12.30 – 14.15

Glass Hall

Buffet lunch

13.40 - 14.15

Guided tour in the Palace of Arts                        

14.15 - 17.00

Facultative excursion to Szentendre

Venue: Palace of Arts, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall

Address: 1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell u. 1.

19.30 – 22.00

Concert of the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra