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Bob Bales, the founder of European House of Arts has developed the concept for an art colony in Transylvania. The concept for ACT is to be understood as a long-term concept based on the effectiveness of the project `The Art of Culture' Bob wrote for the European Cultural Capital Sibiu for 2007. The project was accepted by the association 2007 in charge of the entered projects for 2007 and the Ministry of Culture in Bucharest.
Introduction.
An art colony in the middle of Transylvania. What could have been more inspiring for me as an Irishman than this geographical point on the map in that part of the world that served Bram Stoker's famous, and among the Romanians controversial novel "Count Dracula". And to top it all, when I found the right place, a village called Hasag and entered the parish house I found two coffins seemingly habited. I asked the parish member who held the keys of the house if they were indeed still in use and his crisp dry answer rings even now in my ears as he said, "Only during the day!"
I knew I had come to the right place. A genuine mixture of positive humour, cultural development, personal commitment and a political and educational structure ready and willing to cater for the next step in cultural development. What I was asking for was no easy task to be fulfilled. I saw the church and the parish house and felt a wonderful radiance, a peace, and a true place of creation. The chapters of art history passed by my inner vision like a comic strip way back in my childhood. An incredible moment settled in my minds eye and I could see it all in front of me. The complete layout and structure was already envisioned, a blueprint drawn out and ready for the chief architects approval. And they did approve it. The Consistory of the Evangelical Church Transylvania, AB has provided us with the chance to make something out of the resources that are there. The church and the parish house are a wonderful structure to work on and develop. The Art Colony Transylvania is born. It needs care, weaning and love to develop. Not alone, but as a part of a beautiful area to be incorporated into a programme of cultural tourism. This means massive changes, but it also means a wonderful new start, one that can better the past and allow for old wounds to heal, towards a Europe of respect and prosperity for all.
Europe's Blood, Culture and Art
The Europe of the present and past is undergoing constant changes and is in need of new ethics and values of a completely different kind. Some will be welcomed, but some are frightening. There hasn't been a global change like this since the great migrations that brought on the downfall of the Roman Empire.
Europe's past has experienced the self-perception of growing industrial nations in competitive and conjunctive nature to each other, but our Modern Europe, full of creative diversity with great opportunities to reach a peak of peace, understanding, forgiveness and respect for one other can become a beacon of enlightenment for our troubled world today.
There is a growing demand in an environment of constant change for people to feel safer within the boundaries of this new Europe. The word nation has given people a feeling of security against the `others', but it was indeed often the peoples own leaders who they were exploited by, blaming their deeds on the `others'. Today we have anonymity in our industries where the worker-employer relationship allows for a complete sell-out and removal of factory sites to cheaper grounds in the name of progress. Industry no longer knows patriotism or nationalism for which the armies of Europe used to fight each other. On the other hand this allows for us to see the world how it really is today. The changing of industrial demands away from employee loyalty also allows us, the commoners to perceive ourselves in a completely new light and through the devolvement of patriotism and nationalism a newborn independency can be manifested and built up.
But here lays the frailty of modern Europe, where nobody is 100% certain of the directions being taken. We must therefore be open and willing to communicate respect, tolerance and understanding. Something that does not necessarily come natural to us, when our bread-giving industry, the opinion-makers, does exactly the opposite.
The E.U. has done its utmost concerning the opening of boundaries and free trade. It has drawn up and executed fantastic policies to aid ethnic and minority groups, women's rights and many other projects. The E.U. has also developed guidelines to transmit better relationships on national and international level concerning all forms of working and living conditions. They also have teams who develop and execute policies in cultural practice, but they also need our help, the common people's help to employ these policies and turn them into experiences on a one to one level so that we understand we are indeed a part of the transformation of this new Europe.
The European House of Arts Network can best be understood through the laws of natural human relationship on this very one to one level. Organic and culturally diverse and seeking to promote the values of our creative diversity, European House of Arts follows the simple philosophy of listening and understanding. By employing this philosophy on a one to one level through art festivals and events we seek to establish communication between the artists and visitors. Integration is no longer a word on paper, but an action, a deed.
European House of Arts has the objective to support cultural and artistic exchange between all European countries by organising encounters between European artists of different disciplines, and by means of these creative methods help contribute to diminish the fears and resentments of people for their neighbours. This aim will be especially promoted by the Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Literature, and to realise these encounters in form of exhibitions, festivals or other events as well as creating documentation in form of audio-visual material and its distribution via mass media (publications, Internet, etc.). Furthermore, educational and instructive measures will be used in various forms, e.g. workshops, seminars, symposiums and other programmes to reach more understanding between the peoples in Europe and beyond.
We have built an art and culture network through trust and humanitarianism in an estranged tangle of confusion in Europe's endeavour to establish a new face on an old torso. And it is the desire to help mould this face of the Europe we want to see that brings the people together in European House of Arts.
Art in a church! God is our endeavour to understand what our spirituality is all about. If we were so pretentious as to claim that `we understand God', then we would no longer need any kind of guidance and the gates of Nirvana would open up to us. If we can therefore agree to the fact that God is on a spiritual level we desire to reach, endeavour to reach, but we knowledgably accept our humble place in evolution, that we cannot expect to claim God's place as our own, then we know that on Earth there will never be that utopian value we all dream about. This would mean ipso facto a domestication that no artist could accept. Is it therefore strange that the pioneers of the utopian dream are the same force that would just as soon dismantle the ebony castle they create!
Art is, and always will be disputable, provocative and reputable, but never tamed! It's very dialogue is a cause for permanent adaptation to every change in the order of life, and dialogue is the essence on which we can all survive in this ever changing order. Art must be provocative to stimulate our minds to these changes, and it is the arts that can accommodate and help us understand them. Artists are blessed with a talent that is often misunderstood. By others, but also by the artists themselves. This God-given talent to change the order of things can be understood as a simple individual desire to dismantle the chains of society that often artists feel they suffer from, but it could also be a message that many artists still do not understand. A message from deep within, concurrent to the vibrations of their social and physical world, but also attached to their spiritual surroundings. God is no stranger, he is merely a humble passer by, a whisper in the ear, a message brought to us by an angel in a quiet moment.
I would like to thank the World Commission on Culture and Development for the publishing of their work
"Our Creative Diversity", which has had a tremendous impact on cultural operators throughout the world.
Hermine Jinga-Roth from the foundation Kinderbauernhof has been my friend and personal guide through the catacombs of Romanian thought structure and the countries specific cultural attachments and requirements.
I sincerely thank Onuc Nemes from the Astra Library for his continuous support in all the cultural "steps" I have taken on Transylvanian soil.
The following people are also to be thanked and warmly mentioned as either co-partners or direct partners, or simply friends and supporters for the art colony. And I sincerely apologise for anyone forgotten.
Maria Nan, Johann and Gabriela Gekel and Dumitru Bortan from the association Aron Cortus in Hasag
Maria Greavu from The Mayors Office of Loamnes, Marius Laslo from the School in Hasag, Constantin Chiriac, Radu Stanca Theatre, Mr. Guttmann, Sibiu City Architect, Mr. Bottesch, President of the County Council, Ioana Deac from the GTZ, Reabilitarea Centrului istoric Sibiu Steffan Milner Director of the GTZ, Sibiu, Consistorium of the Evangelical Church Transylvania, AB, Dietrich Galter and Raimar Wagner of the Evangelical Academy of Transylvania, Friedrich-Teutsch-Haus, Sibiu, Jorg Schulz, German Consul in Sibiu, CHF International, Romania, Imperium Enterprises Sibiu, Calin Baban and Ioan Candea Liceul from the Liceul de Arte, Sibiu, Maia Stefana Oprea from the Liceul de Arte "Nicolae Tonitza" in Bucuresti and Elena Gabos from the School Inspectors Office, Sibiu
Introduction.
An art colony in the middle of Transylvania. What could have been more inspiring for me as an Irishman than this geographical point on the map in that part of the world that served Bram Stoker's famous, and among the Romanians controversial novel "Count Dracula". And to top it all, when I found the right place, a village called Hasag and entered the parish house I found two coffins seemingly habited. I asked the parish member who held the keys of the house if they were indeed still in use and his crisp dry answer rings even now in my ears as he said, "Only during the day!"
I knew I had come to the right place. A genuine mixture of positive humour, cultural development, personal commitment and a political and educational structure ready and willing to cater for the next step in cultural development. What I was asking for was no easy task to be fulfilled. I saw the church and the parish house and felt a wonderful radiance, a peace, and a true place of creation. The chapters of art history passed by my inner vision like a comic strip way back in my childhood. An incredible moment settled in my minds eye and I could see it all in front of me. The complete layout and structure was already envisioned, a blueprint drawn out and ready for the chief architects approval. And they did approve it. The Consistory of the Evangelical Church Transylvania, AB has provided us with the chance to make something out of the resources that are there. The church and the parish house are a wonderful structure to work on and develop. The Art Colony Transylvania is born. It needs care, weaning and love to develop. Not alone, but as a part of a beautiful area to be incorporated into a programme of cultural tourism. This means massive changes, but it also means a wonderful new start, one that can better the past and allow for old wounds to heal, towards a Europe of respect and prosperity for all.
Europe's Blood, Culture and Art
The Europe of the present and past is undergoing constant changes and is in need of new ethics and values of a completely different kind. Some will be welcomed, but some are frightening. There hasn't been a global change like this since the great migrations that brought on the downfall of the Roman Empire.
Europe's past has experienced the self-perception of growing industrial nations in competitive and conjunctive nature to each other, but our Modern Europe, full of creative diversity with great opportunities to reach a peak of peace, understanding, forgiveness and respect for one other can become a beacon of enlightenment for our troubled world today.
There is a growing demand in an environment of constant change for people to feel safer within the boundaries of this new Europe. The word nation has given people a feeling of security against the `others', but it was indeed often the peoples own leaders who they were exploited by, blaming their deeds on the `others'. Today we have anonymity in our industries where the worker-employer relationship allows for a complete sell-out and removal of factory sites to cheaper grounds in the name of progress. Industry no longer knows patriotism or nationalism for which the armies of Europe used to fight each other. On the other hand this allows for us to see the world how it really is today. The changing of industrial demands away from employee loyalty also allows us, the commoners to perceive ourselves in a completely new light and through the devolvement of patriotism and nationalism a newborn independency can be manifested and built up.
But here lays the frailty of modern Europe, where nobody is 100% certain of the directions being taken. We must therefore be open and willing to communicate respect, tolerance and understanding. Something that does not necessarily come natural to us, when our bread-giving industry, the opinion-makers, does exactly the opposite.
The E.U. has done its utmost concerning the opening of boundaries and free trade. It has drawn up and executed fantastic policies to aid ethnic and minority groups, women's rights and many other projects. The E.U. has also developed guidelines to transmit better relationships on national and international level concerning all forms of working and living conditions. They also have teams who develop and execute policies in cultural practice, but they also need our help, the common people's help to employ these policies and turn them into experiences on a one to one level so that we understand we are indeed a part of the transformation of this new Europe.
The European House of Arts Network can best be understood through the laws of natural human relationship on this very one to one level. Organic and culturally diverse and seeking to promote the values of our creative diversity, European House of Arts follows the simple philosophy of listening and understanding. By employing this philosophy on a one to one level through art festivals and events we seek to establish communication between the artists and visitors. Integration is no longer a word on paper, but an action, a deed.
European House of Arts has the objective to support cultural and artistic exchange between all European countries by organising encounters between European artists of different disciplines, and by means of these creative methods help contribute to diminish the fears and resentments of people for their neighbours. This aim will be especially promoted by the Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Literature, and to realise these encounters in form of exhibitions, festivals or other events as well as creating documentation in form of audio-visual material and its distribution via mass media (publications, Internet, etc.). Furthermore, educational and instructive measures will be used in various forms, e.g. workshops, seminars, symposiums and other programmes to reach more understanding between the peoples in Europe and beyond.
We have built an art and culture network through trust and humanitarianism in an estranged tangle of confusion in Europe's endeavour to establish a new face on an old torso. And it is the desire to help mould this face of the Europe we want to see that brings the people together in European House of Arts.
Art in a church! God is our endeavour to understand what our spirituality is all about. If we were so pretentious as to claim that `we understand God', then we would no longer need any kind of guidance and the gates of Nirvana would open up to us. If we can therefore agree to the fact that God is on a spiritual level we desire to reach, endeavour to reach, but we knowledgably accept our humble place in evolution, that we cannot expect to claim God's place as our own, then we know that on Earth there will never be that utopian value we all dream about. This would mean ipso facto a domestication that no artist could accept. Is it therefore strange that the pioneers of the utopian dream are the same force that would just as soon dismantle the ebony castle they create!
Art is, and always will be disputable, provocative and reputable, but never tamed! It's very dialogue is a cause for permanent adaptation to every change in the order of life, and dialogue is the essence on which we can all survive in this ever changing order. Art must be provocative to stimulate our minds to these changes, and it is the arts that can accommodate and help us understand them. Artists are blessed with a talent that is often misunderstood. By others, but also by the artists themselves. This God-given talent to change the order of things can be understood as a simple individual desire to dismantle the chains of society that often artists feel they suffer from, but it could also be a message that many artists still do not understand. A message from deep within, concurrent to the vibrations of their social and physical world, but also attached to their spiritual surroundings. God is no stranger, he is merely a humble passer by, a whisper in the ear, a message brought to us by an angel in a quiet moment.
I would like to thank the World Commission on Culture and Development for the publishing of their work
"Our Creative Diversity", which has had a tremendous impact on cultural operators throughout the world.
Hermine Jinga-Roth from the foundation Kinderbauernhof has been my friend and personal guide through the catacombs of Romanian thought structure and the countries specific cultural attachments and requirements.
I sincerely thank Onuc Nemes from the Astra Library for his continuous support in all the cultural "steps" I have taken on Transylvanian soil.
The following people are also to be thanked and warmly mentioned as either co-partners or direct partners, or simply friends and supporters for the art colony. And I sincerely apologise for anyone forgotten.
Maria Nan, Johann and Gabriela Gekel and Dumitru Bortan from the association Aron Cortus in Hasag
Maria Greavu from The Mayors Office of Loamnes, Marius Laslo from the School in Hasag, Constantin Chiriac, Radu Stanca Theatre, Mr. Guttmann, Sibiu City Architect, Mr. Bottesch, President of the County Council, Ioana Deac from the GTZ, Reabilitarea Centrului istoric Sibiu Steffan Milner Director of the GTZ, Sibiu, Consistorium of the Evangelical Church Transylvania, AB, Dietrich Galter and Raimar Wagner of the Evangelical Academy of Transylvania, Friedrich-Teutsch-Haus, Sibiu, Jorg Schulz, German Consul in Sibiu, CHF International, Romania, Imperium Enterprises Sibiu, Calin Baban and Ioan Candea Liceul from the Liceul de Arte, Sibiu, Maia Stefana Oprea from the Liceul de Arte "Nicolae Tonitza" in Bucuresti and Elena Gabos from the School Inspectors Office, Sibiu
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