To understand this post or what a Visual Art Group Slovenj Gradec means, one needs to know the structure which in Slovenia supports amateur creatives. The Javni Sklad republike Slovenije za kulturne dejavnosti (JSKD) is a national fund, operating in every corner of Slovenia, administered centrally in Ljubljana, responsible for supporting all disciplines of creative engagement in all of the territory of the republic of Slovenia. Traditionally very strong are music, theater and folklore, the visual arts normally lack attention, if there is no one bothering about it.
In 2021 in Slovenj Gradec a new director of the regional office, Mihael Šuler, was nominated, who now carries out a 5-year mandate. His interest being to diversificate creative activities which means also to complement the spectre with a visual art group. The intention to do so brought him to contact us.
raum AU being the only seriously association in town, having the infrastructures and know how to bother about such a visual art group, was obviously the association to do so with. We found a common language and agreed to engage commonly. This post signs the beginning of this endeavor.
To this first meeting we could welcome round about 10-12 interested and curious visual creatives, we talked about intentions, possible developments and we officially started this chapter.
On the long run we want to organize exhibitions, to offer various workshops and to coordinate common activities also for other sections around Slovenia to join.
It was obviously not the best moment to do so, with masks having to be weared and all the insecureness and fear being around while meeting up or organizing events and happenings.
However, the atmosphere was good and we are optimistic, that we will constantly and consequently develop also this sections. For now, coordinated by Urška Čerče and mentored by Rado Carlo Poggi.