Dear friends of the Romanian Cultural Institute,
The Directorate General for Romanian Cultural Institutes Abroad (DGRCIA) has launched the 2011 edition of the Romanian Cultural Institutes Network brochure.
2011 was a dynamic year for the RCI, one rich in cultural projects, which bore fruit also thanks to the seeds sown in previous years. The creativity of Romanian artists is gaining an ever wider audience abroad, and increasing numbers of prestigious cultural institutes are coming to us to request the participation of Romanian artists in their programmes.
Between June 2010 and June 2011 the Romanian Cultural Institute, in the person of its president, Mr Horia-Roman Patapievici, held the one-year rotating presidency of EUNIC (European Network of National Institutes for Culture), which gave Romanian cultural diplomacy unprecedented exposure among cultural institutions abroad. In 2011, one in three directors of Romanian cultural institutes abroad either concluded or took up a mandate as president or vice-president of a EUNIC local cluster in the country where they operate (p. 4).
The same as in previous years, we would like to invite you to join us in celebrating the prestige Romanian artists have achieved abroad and the praise both they and Romania have garnered in the international press (p. 12). At the same time, in this publication we would like to present to you the vision that guides our activity, the strategies we have adopted, and the tools we employ in order to place the work of Romanian artists in international circulation.
Year after year, the Romanian Cultural Institute has supported major Romanian festivals by inviting schedulers, selectors, critics and journalists from abroad, with a view to encouraging joint cultural projects and also to fostering an ever stronger profile for Romanian festivals (p. 28).
The mobility programme, whereby international programmers, curators and specialists are able to visit Romania for research and to prepare cultural projects with Romanian artists and cultural institutions has been implemented at the level of the entire network since 2009. Although the results and impact of this type of programme will become visible over the long term, there are already numerous international projects that have already taken place or are due to take place in the immediate future (p. 38).
Although the Institute’s strategy is updated according to goals that have already been met and the circumstances in which we operate, some programmes have been continued and improved year by year: scholarship programmes, residencies, and courses teaching Romanian as a foreign language (p. 46).
Of course, none of this would have been possible without the support of our partners and the professionalism of the teams of the Romanian Cultural Institutes abroad and the team in Bucharest.
Irina IONESCU
Director General
General Department for Romanian Cultural Institutes Abroad
Ovidiu DAJBOG-MIRON
Director
Department for Monitoring the Programmes of the Romanian Cultural Institutes Abroad
