Interview with project manager of the International Visegrad Fund Jiří Sýkora
03/16/2009
IVF is one of the major partner for many Slovak cultural projects. What is its history, what is the number of supported projects yet and amount of finance support of IVF?
The International Visegrad Fund was founded in 2000 as a joint initiative of the governments of the Visegrad Group (V4) countries—the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia—and with the aim to support closer cooperation in the region. To date the Fund has financed more than 2,200 grant projects and awarded over 550 scholarships and 70 artist residencies redistributing over EUR 23 million.
What is the main goal of IVF activities? Who created whole concept of the Fund?
The main goals have been the same since the establishment of the Fund—to foster understanding among peoples across the national borders in the region. We strongly believe that peoples in Central Europe have much more in common than what is sometimes evident—or what we ourselves sometimes like to admit. The fact is we all belong to the same cultural space; we have the same roots in our interconnected, often conflicting histories. We have all experienced the same types of gains and losses, regimes and their falls and subsequent transformations. All of that makes Central Europe a highly contested terrain but due to its rich cultural heritage and the variety of peoples spread across the national borders a very unique multicultural region. The concept of the Fund came along with the developments in the Visegrad cooperation and was thought of as the civil counterpart to the official government business. Now, being an international organization, the Fund is a unique institution of its kind.
Are there any project for 2009 supported by IVF which you would recommend?
At any moment there are several dozens—or perhaps hundreds—of grant projects open, that is projects currently running, projects being evaluated, settled or finalized. So, it’s hard to recommend, really. But we try to keep track of the current events in project implementation and our website has a Calendar application which displays the currently running projects.
How did global and cultural crisis in European space effected IVF and what are the / if there are any / plans and some interesting changes for upcoming years?
We do not recognize any “global and cultural crisis” maybe because we are not strictly a global player and solely a cultural donor. The Visegrad Fund supports grant projects in other fields, as well, i.e. science and research, education, cross-border cooperation, youth exchanges and even promotion of tourism. There are always plans for future programs but those are still in the pipeline. As for changes in the current schemes—whenever there is a need for change, we analyze it; we constantly evaluate our programs and their impact and from time to time change them on the way.
What do you think makes Visegrad countries and their common project so effective and powerful?
If you are asking why the projects sound so good and look so good, I think it’s because—as one of our Hungarian colleagues says—Visegrad is sexy. Visegrad is simply a sexy label. When you look at it, many of the projects you see in the region are really great not because they have funding and they are professionally managed, although most of them are—but because they look somehow natural. The cooperation seems casual. It would seem odd—when one would organize a festival like the Early Melons in Bratislava, for example—not to invite the Czechs, Poles or Hungarians, in most cases anyhow.
The International Visegrad Fund was founded in 2000 as a joint initiative of the governments of the Visegrad Group (V4) countries—the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia—and with the aim to support closer cooperation in the region. To date the Fund has financed more than 2,200 grant projects and awarded over 550 scholarships and 70 artist residencies redistributing over EUR 23 million.
What is the main goal of IVF activities? Who created whole concept of the Fund?
The main goals have been the same since the establishment of the Fund—to foster understanding among peoples across the national borders in the region. We strongly believe that peoples in Central Europe have much more in common than what is sometimes evident—or what we ourselves sometimes like to admit. The fact is we all belong to the same cultural space; we have the same roots in our interconnected, often conflicting histories. We have all experienced the same types of gains and losses, regimes and their falls and subsequent transformations. All of that makes Central Europe a highly contested terrain but due to its rich cultural heritage and the variety of peoples spread across the national borders a very unique multicultural region. The concept of the Fund came along with the developments in the Visegrad cooperation and was thought of as the civil counterpart to the official government business. Now, being an international organization, the Fund is a unique institution of its kind.
Are there any project for 2009 supported by IVF which you would recommend?
At any moment there are several dozens—or perhaps hundreds—of grant projects open, that is projects currently running, projects being evaluated, settled or finalized. So, it’s hard to recommend, really. But we try to keep track of the current events in project implementation and our website has a Calendar application which displays the currently running projects.
How did global and cultural crisis in European space effected IVF and what are the / if there are any / plans and some interesting changes for upcoming years?
We do not recognize any “global and cultural crisis” maybe because we are not strictly a global player and solely a cultural donor. The Visegrad Fund supports grant projects in other fields, as well, i.e. science and research, education, cross-border cooperation, youth exchanges and even promotion of tourism. There are always plans for future programs but those are still in the pipeline. As for changes in the current schemes—whenever there is a need for change, we analyze it; we constantly evaluate our programs and their impact and from time to time change them on the way.
What do you think makes Visegrad countries and their common project so effective and powerful?
If you are asking why the projects sound so good and look so good, I think it’s because—as one of our Hungarian colleagues says—Visegrad is sexy. Visegrad is simply a sexy label. When you look at it, many of the projects you see in the region are really great not because they have funding and they are professionally managed, although most of them are—but because they look somehow natural. The cooperation seems casual. It would seem odd—when one would organize a festival like the Early Melons in Bratislava, for example—not to invite the Czechs, Poles or Hungarians, in most cases anyhow.