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Open call for journalists

Culture
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Culture and Creativity Programme Is Launching Its Call for Participation in a Series of Cultural Journalism Workshops.

Journalists from the six Eastern Partnership countries are invited to send applications for three two-day workshops in Kyiv, Tbilisi and Chisinau (from January to April 2017). The theme of the workshops is contemporary cultural journalism.

The course lecturers are leading experts in the field: Maya Jaggi (UK), a journalist who has interviewed 12 Nobel Prize winners, and Kateryna Botanova (Ukraine), an art critic with 18 years of experience.

Workshop participants will obtain the following skills and advantages:

  • Possibility to create texts curated by renowned lecturers

  • Professional analysis of journalism case studies from the best international publications

  • Study of advanced online tools

  • Opportunity to establish partnerships with colleagues from the Eastern Partnership countries

  • Exchange experience and new knowledge in the field of creative industries

The workshop will tackle the following topics:

  1. The value of culture and the role of cultural journalism in the context of social and political challenges: conflicts, migration, climate change.

  2. Culture and crisis, state cultural policy.

  3. Features of writing interviews and critical texts.

  4. New media in cultural journalism: advantages and drawbacks.

  5. The journalist as a brand: professional development and career growth.

Journalists from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine are invited to apply.

To take part in the competition, please fill in this online form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeqNHcHl5aXW3AZjTWNHYstDYZFzWyo0GY8zSED2Wo7XTru9g/viewform in either English or Russian. Application deadline: 11 pm on 17th December 2016. Participants will be selected on the basis of the following criteria:

  • Experience in journalism and interest in covering the activities of cultural and creative industries

  • Quality of previous news stories and/or critical articles

  • Willingness to share the acquired knowledge in their countries upon return from the workshops

  • Proficiency in English or Russian at a level that would enable participation in the workshops and drafting assignments

  • Guaranteed participation in all stages of the project

Three participants will be selected from each country based on the above criteria. The selection results will be announced on 23rd December 2016. The organisers will cover travel costs, accommodation and meals of successful candidates.

If you have any questions relating to the competition, write to the coordinators: Armenia ([email protected]), Azerbaijan ([email protected]), Belarus ([email protected]), Georgia ([email protected]), Moldova [email protected], Ukraine ([email protected]).

Workshop dates:

26–27 January 2017 in Tbilisi, Georgia

23–24 February 2017 in Chisinau, Moldova

26–27 April 2017 in Kyiv, Ukraine

Course experts:

Maya Jaggi is an award-winning cultural journalist with more than 25 years of experience writing for the Guardian Review, Economist, FT Weekend Arts and other leading media. Writing in depth across the arts, Maya interviewed some of the world’s leading writers, artists, filmmakers, musicians, choreographers and historians - including 12 Nobel prizewinners in literature. Maya was part of a movement to expand and transform the way culture is covered in the British media.

“For me, culture extends from art to cuisine to tech startups. The participants of the workshops will be able to learn much from my theoretical understanding of culture, as well as learn about the capacity of cultural journalism to solve social and political problems (conflicts, migration, climate change, austerity policies). My practical experience will also be useful for them.”

Kateryna Botanova is a cultural critic, journalist, curator and policy analyst, specializing on issues of arts and culture as agents of change in transition countries. She is a freelance expert to Eastern Partnership Cultural Program since its inception in 2011, also being a part of the Task Force working on the ToR for the program in 2009. She consults European cultural institutions in Kyiv, including Goethe Institute and British Council. In 20015-2016 Ms. Botanova was a chief editor for the cultural section of Ukrainska Pravda, the biggest online magazine in Ukraine. Ms. Botanova was a director for CSM/Foundation Center for Contemporary Art and a founder of an online journal on contemporary culture Korydor.  She contributes to numerous Ukrainian media as a cultural commentator. Her international contributions include Eurozine, NZZ, OpenDemocracy etc.

“I believe that my insight into the media environment in Ukraine and the region, the experience of work with the Eastern Partnership countries as a researcher and cultural manager, and my years of editorial work with hundreds of journalists will be useful for course participants.”