Medvedja – The Cultural Center of Medvedja aims to promote the culture of that area, but also to raise the awareness of the locals about classical music and art in general, following the modern trends of cultural metropolises.

Nebojsa Jaksic, the Director of the Cultural Center, believes that it is necessary for them to constantly organize cultural events in order to achieve that. He also thinks that family and school play a big role in raising awareness about culture.

However, it is not easy to implement all the ideas that this cultural institution has due to the annual budget.

The Cultural Center in Medvedja has existed for three years, while it officially started operating in June 2017 in one office.

Three years later, it has a versatile hall that is both a cinema and theater hall, a children's and evening stage and a gallery in the hall.

Seated in the same building is the local library, as well as the offices of the local radio, the tourist organization of the municipality of Medvedja, the Protector of Citizens and the public utility company "Obnova".

“When we started operating, we did not have an official budget, but we received a temporary one until the end of the year, and then in 2018 we got the new budget adopted at the Municipal Assembly ", said the Director of the institution.

They single that year out as the most successful one because they had the most events, staring from the International Folklore Festival, the Festival of Gusle Playes of Serbia, through six concerts of classical music to a theater play. Also, the Ministry of Culture approved five of their projects that year.    

In the same year, they were organizers, co-organizers or hosts of numerous cultural events and manifestations.  Theatrical performances, festivals, concerts, exhibitions and tribunes were being held.

However, the current budget cannot cover the organization of such events.

“We have a reduced budget and we are limited by measures this year.  We used to have 16 million dinars, which were then reduced to 13 million, while we are left with only 200 thousand dinars for program activities and we can't do anything with that amount ", the Director says and adds that they use their budget to pay electricity bills of all the "tenants" of that facility.

Another problem that they encounter is the lack of audience or the small number of attendees of all those events.

The Director says that they should have greater support from the local self-government, the members of which should also be in the audience.

Source: Jugmedia and Coordination Body