“CREATIVE MENTORSHIP” VISITING KOSJERIĆ
On Friday, November 9th the team of “Creative Mentorship” organized a visit to Kosjerić.
For those who do not know, Kosjerić is a small town between Valjevo and Užice, a local community that has representatives – mentees in “Creative Mentorship” every year. Titan Cement Factory from Kosjerić helps us make it possible as one of our long-term partners.
This year, in spite of many other duties and tasks, “Creative Mentorship” mentee from Kosjerić was Milovan Golubović, artistic director of the local folklore ensemble “Maksim Marković”.
Local folklore ensemble „Maksim Marković” from Kosjerić
Our first visit and working session with mentees in Kosjerić was organized in June 2015, when besides members of the Creative Mentorship team (Dragana Jevtić and Višnja Kisić as founders and Tatjana Nikolić as coordinator), also Slavica Marković Sandić, Communications and Public Diplomacy Officer of the Embassy of Sweden in Belgrade and our Advisory Board member, had the chance to meet the mentees and their associates better, to understand local community and learn about the new initiatives and projects. In this occasion, we met the local organization “KoAktiva” which was developing youth radio station, organizing local music festival, initiating info-center for youth and transforming neglected public spaces in the town.
This time, visit to Kosjerić was organized on the occasion of the concert and celebration of the local folklore ensemble “Maksim Marković” 40 years of existence and successful work. The concert for this important jubilee was held on Saturday, November 10th in the more than crowded Hall of the Cultural Centre of Kosjerić.
Members of “Creative Mentorship” team had the pleasure to attend the final rehearsal prior to the concert and get to know better the work of this ensemble. “Maksim Marković” offers to almost 200 children from Kosjerić amazing activities for spending their leisure time, learning about local and national cultural heritage and tradition, developing their interests and talents and connecting with peers in a healthy and quality environment.
Photos from the concert of the folklore ensemble „Maksim Marković” from Kosjerić on the celebration of the 40 years of their existence and work
Next to meeting our mentee Milovan Golubović, their artistic associates as well as the president of the managing board of the ensemble, “Creative Mentorship” team also had a meeting with the director of the Cultural Centre in Kosjerić, as well as with Magdalena Joksimović, alumni of our program and currently Head of Human Resources in Titan Cement Factory in Kosjerić.
Take a look at the photos from our visit to Kosjerić!
Next day in Belgrade we met with our another alumni from Kosjerić, Sena Vukotić who is a teacher and who shared great news with us, and that is that she is still in touch with her former mentor, Nana Radenković, Educational Manager of Nova Iskra. Nana is currently advising and cooperating with Sena on some of the new initiatives she is developing! Next to Sena Vukotić, “Creative Mentorship” has supported Magdalena Joksimović, activist of “Koaktiva” organization and Elena Kostić, young graphic designer and authors of the workshops at the Art Camp in Kosjerić.
By this visit and cooperation, once more we are assured how imporant local cultural life is, local initiatives and enthusiast who lead them, as well as how much potential, talent and devotion there is in sectors of culture, arts and cultural heritage throughout Serbia, that we know so little about.
Up until now, “Creative Mentorship” supported mentees and included mentors from Belgrade, Novi Sad, Pančevo, Zrenjanin, Sombor, Subotica, Kikinda, Bačka Topola, Velika Plana, Požega, Čajetina, Niš, Sokobanja, Smederevo and other places throughout Serbia. The series of workshops on mentorship and prezentations of “Creative Mentorship” which we organized in the second half of 2017 with the support of the Ministry of Culture, also contributed to it. This is when we visited for the first time Novi Pazar, Zaječar, Užice…
We are happy that “Creative Mentorship” interests and includes ever growing number of mentees and mentors from different local communities and contributes to the decentralization of culture in Serbia, but also to the capacity building of the individuals and organizations from smaller cities and towns, who carry a big load and big responsibility for the development of local communities throughout the country.
