Are interdisciplinary collaborations a rarity? What are the benefits of these collaborations? How can you encourage and fund them? We found some answers for these answers, in a recent event. They’re derived from examples of good practices in Croatia, which we discovered in a movie-making event organized by Enter Koprivnica in collaboration with Beyond Pines Films.
The shooting of the movie was organized on February 25, 2020, in Zagreb. First, the shooting was organized at Tetrabot studio (a creative studio for animation and post-production). Maida Srabović was representing Tetrabot studio, addressing the topic of how to make animated movies with pictures of naïve art. After that, the shooting continued at Radiona – Zagreb Makerspace (Association for Development of ‘do-it-yourself’ Culture – Makerspace). Here, some examples of good practices were filmed: Zraka Zvuka (Air of Sound) and Synthomir. Damir Prizmić (designer), Igor Brkić (software and hardware engineer) were involved in this cross-cutting project. Deborah Hustić, the president, Project Manager and Artistic Director at Radiona was also there.
Another good practice exemplified was a film with the Kontejner team - Bureau of Contemporary Art Praxis, related to the project Short Circuit. Klara Petrović (curator and project manager) and Sara Brašnović (student involved in the project) were representatives in front of Kontejner.
Regarding the movie, a discussion was held about funding (and its sources) for collaborations. Also, the topic of “ICT meets the ARTs event” was discussed. This was done since stakeholders were eager to learn about good practices from partner regions and to meet others involved in collaborations. Everyone was happy to share their experience of working in cross-cutting projects. They also enjoyed and showcasing how they learned from that, and how it helped them gain a different perspective. Most went home wishing to be involved in other projects, with experts from different areas. There was also some awareness that there can be problems financing these collaborations.
How were challenges addressed, during the sessions? The most common way to do so was to incentivize parties (the IT and the ARTS sector) to have an open mind. There were some prejudices beforehand but, as it was pointed out, they could all be overcome with learning. When talking about entrepreneurship and commercialization, a question arose. It was if the administration “killed” the entrepreneurial spirit. Administration and bureaucracy take a lot of time, which can be better used for project development.
Participants hope there will be new funding opportunities for CCIs in the next period, especially on the topic “entrepreneurship in culture”. A higher number of funding opportunities, through calls financing entrepreneurship in culture, would be useful. Training, workshops and building capacities are pointed out as crucial for public authorities. Since these allow meetings with cross-sectoral practices, learning opportunities are created, creating business opportunities.
