CULTIVATOR - a cultural ecosystem for collective change
CULTIVATOR is a European project involving three cultural centers from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia that is changing the way cultural institutions operate. It is not about new buildings or technologies, but about a change in approach – greater openness, care, and cooperation.
The project has two strands that reflect the need to cultivate the cultural environment both inside and outside.
We care for cultural workers themselves – artists, employees, and collaborators of organizations. We share experiences, learn from each other, and build new formats for cooperation between institutions.
At the same time, we focus on people who are often overlooked – seniors, parents with young children, people with disabilities, and caregivers. We look for ways to involve them in cultural events, listen to them, and create with them.
CULTIVATOR is a small project with a big impact. We believe that real change starts from within and continues outward—and that culture can be a place where people not only consume but also enjoy all the ingredients – meeting, sharing, and growing.
Main goals of the CULTIVATOR project focus on:
– to support institutional change and care for cultural workers
– to develop inclusive approaches to new or neglected communities
– to create shared, transferable tools and roles for cultural organizations across Europe.
Main formats and approaches:
- Artist to Artist (ALTA): 10 meetings for artists focused on care, mentoring, and experience
sharing. Coordination will be led by the artists themselves. - Venue to Artist (Bunker): A pilot model of co-curation with local NGOs, collectives, and the
public. Testing participatory management of cultural space. - Venue to Venue (Stanica): Facilitating dialogue between cultural centres on resilience,
solidarity, accessibility and strategies for working under sociopolitical threats.
The project focuses on structural changes within institutions: care for cultural workers, horizontal management, co-curation, and work with neglected groups (seniors, people aged 55+, parents with young children, people with disabilities, migrants in the role of caregivers). Instead of one-off outputs, CULTIVATOR builds long-term capacities, new professional roles, and openly shared tools that can be implemented in other contexts.
Main outputs and transferability
● 4 thematic toolkits (artistic formats, working with audiences, accessibility, co-curation).
● New roles in organizations (accessibility ambassadors, curatorial councils, care coordinators.
● Presentation and dissemination within European networks (IETM, TEH, Culture Action Europe).
Disclaimer
“Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.”
International partnership:
- Studio ALTA – Prague, Czech Republic
- Bunker – Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Stanica Žilina-Záriečie – Žilina, Slovakia
