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Exchange Reports

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Report from Éva Nováczki (A38 Budapest > WUK Vienna)

SEE, SO THAT YOU CAN OPEN YOUR EYES BETTER!

Trans Europe Halles, the organization that aims to connect contemporary independent cultural centers has started an exchange program entitled „Changing Room”. A38’s first candidate Éva Nováczki - the person responsible for financial actions in non-profit areas and the producer of A38’s film-making team - had visited Vienna-based WUK. She told us about her experiences…

A38: You have pointed out Vienna, Berlin and Riga as desired destinations in the exchange programme. Why have you chosen these three?

Éva Nováczki: Berlin is a very exciting city with a swinging cultural life – apart from UFA Fabrik itself being a highly regarded cultural institute. In Riga, NOASS operates on a ship, so I naturally became interested. Vienna is also a city of rich culture. I have to admit that I knew little about WUK when I applied, but even their website was enough to submit my application there. TEH lines up very exciting venues anyway.

A38: What were your first impressions about WUK? How is it different from A38, and how did you like living in Vienna?

Éva Nováczki: Let’s start with living in Vienna. There are many nice similarities between Vienna and Budapest, especially regarding the streets and the people who walk by. Of course, Vienna managed to build a richer, more organised, more easy-to-live environment. WUK is different from A38 in many aspects. First of all, A38 was started as a private venture, whereas WUK’s founders were an independent group of social and cultural interests. Civil ventures are much more common there, and if a venture is good, it gets more options of realisation, as civil groups are organised wherever a problem is present, therefore making the solutions of the group rather problem-centered solutions.

A38 has always been a professionally accepted organization, but we are far from being as publicly supported as WUK is. The situation of A38 is not that stable. Our job is very much hindered by the fact that our available budget materializes only by the middle of the year. We also have to produce a significant financial gain so as to provide the operational minimum, and WUK does not have to face this difficulty.

WUK’s fields of operation are also more diverse than ours. They have many socially-themed projects for 14-25 years youth, enabling them to finish their compulsory 9 years of school and integrate themselves in everyday life and learn social responsibility. There is an autonomous creative group in WUK as well, they are the ones who claimed the building as their own in the beginning. Of course they had to institutionalize to keep up, but still, one of WUK’s primary aims is to provide the essetial infrastructural background to this group (which also does social and creative work, independent from WUK.)

Of course, they also do work that is very similar to ours. This consists of art exhibitions, performances, alternative theatrical plays, dance events and concerts. Their exhibition hall hosts annual 6-8 exhibitions. In Vienna, there are many professional theatre groups that operate without a steady place to play, and they find a partner in WUK for that. At the same time, A38 spends more time with organizing live concerts, but all the same, I found that both organizations finds the same solutions to similar problems. It may be that A38 pioneers more in the international exchange fields (like the festivals „My City” and „… Calling”, but we sure think the same regarding programs and cultural priorities.

A38: How did the project help you? What are your plans at utilizing your experiences?

Éva Nováczki: I find it very useful to see different organizations at work, even for one or two days. It can help see your problems in a different light as you see different solutions, so I plan on visiting more places when it’s available. I also plan returning to WUK someday. I also hope that someone from WUK will visit us someday, even apart from the project Changing Room.

A38: How can A38 use your experiences out there? Do you plan on applying to further Changing Room projects?

Éva Nováczki: If there’s going to be such a program, I’ll be sure to re-apply. The thing s I saw in WUK helped me understand points in our own organization that – as I realized – need backing up with a strong technical background, since it seems that it needs more input as they are now. After arriving home, I have put forward a request and a suggestion, both of them are about innovation and development – one is about my area of work: economical and financial decisions. We will soon start working on them…

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Report Bettina Geile (Schlachthof Bremen > Melkweg Amsterdam)

I went to Amsterdam from 29 August until 4 October to visit Melkweg - my hosting center - as well as P60 and Paradiso.


The purpose of my exchange was to meet the staff from the marketing and programming department and to meet with the directors to talk about more general issues.

My points of interest were: marketing instruments and strategies, target groups, main goals of the organisation & programming, organisational structures, responsibilities and decision making structures within the organisation, communication (internal and external), budget, funding and sponsorship and economic development of the organisation.

My activities:

  • Visiting Melkweg meetings with marketing department, music programmers and the managing director: http://www.melkweg.nl
  • Visiting P60 in Amstelveen, meeting with Director, guided tour through the building and getting to know about the organisation and programme, etc: http://www.p60.nl
  • Visiting Paradiso, meeting with someone from the marketing department and one of the programmers. http://www.paradiso.nl

All in all it was a pretty packed programme and I got a lot of input!

For my purposes, a one week visit was sufficient. Most of my questions were answered and I got a good overview on my points of interest. Lots of things I heard from the marketing and programming staff I already was familiar with, but I got some new and very useful ideas that I will take back to my own work and put into practice.

The exchange also helped me to reflect my own work at Schlachthof and it was very beneficial to have a critical look from the outside on my centre. I also found that while the daily work and problems are the same everywhere, the ways to tackle and change them can be different.

At Melkweg, the marketing department hosted me in their office (thank you for letting me stay :-)). I can say that it was very helpful to have a space in the hosting centre where you have access to a computer, and also to have a base for writing down new ideas, preparing for an upcoming meeting (and for checking emails of course).

I am not sure if I got all the information I was looking for. But that would definitely need more time. To work in a hosting centre for a few weeks, means one has to speak the language fluently and an own project to work on. From my point of view it would be great to return to the same centre with a follow up programme and work within a specific department.

Rock on, Bettina

Report from Elena Rosand (Subtopia> Farnham Maltings)

When I registered for the changing room program I didn’t know what to expect. I looked at the different venues and the feeling I got when I read about Farnham Maltings was that it had many things in common with Subtopia. I wanted to know how they encourage different types of artists and performers to develop and coexist in a place quite similar to Subtopia. Though they a different history and is located in a very different environment. I also wanted to know how they got the local community involved.

The atmosphere was warm and welcoming when I arrived. The Farnham Malting is in the town of Farnham quite close to London. It’s a small quiet town with an old history which you can feel when you come in to the building. Although the buildings of Subtopia and The Maltings have a similar feeling to them, the tempo is very different but it´s hard to describe in what way. The Malting has been around for several more years than Subtopia so they have a routine of how they handle all the different events. They also have a more developed communication to the local community then Subtopia has yet achieved. Subtopia is still quite new, we have routines for festivals, film projects, big conferences, theater, circus shows etc. but we are still evolving and finding new ways to work. It felt good to visit a place that also works with the same areas, to see how they were able to combine it all.

The Changing Room project was an excellent experience. The project makes it possible to meet people with the same interests, drive and that struggles to get everything to click between economic, artists, audience, marketing, volunteers and staffs. Just talking and exchanging ideas where so inspiring that I felt that everyone should be able to do this. To get the opportunity to see that different venues struggles with the same problems and have wonderful ideas how to solve them. The Farnham Maltings invited me to different meetings and presented me to many different people. For every day I had a schedule of what to do and whom to meet. One of the things they let me take part of was a presentation for a program called “Lighting the Touchpaper”. This is a program that´s creating support for young artists; enabling them to deliver community programs. They also have a grant called “no strings attach” which aims towards young theatre makers. I hope that these two projects can inspire my fellow colleagues in Subtopia. During my staying they had a festival, “Festival of Crafts”.It was lovely to see the whole building change. All the rooms were filled with exhibitors including ceramics, textiles, glass, metal, jewellery and wood. The Farnham Maltings has recently brought contemporary circus in to their context, which I think is absolutely wonderful. We exchanged information and talked about different possibilities for the future and I´m hoping that we someday can have several fun and exciting collaborations.

There is so much I want to share… But during the visit, you’re so in to everything that´s going on and when you get back to your own venue; you have no time to reflect and write the rapport because you have to catch up with your own work. In the future I would suggest that the program gives more time to the evaluator both during and after the visit, to assemble the acquired information.

I hope that The Changing Room project will grow and that people will take the opportunity to visit different venues. I would love to get the chance again.