THE BEGINNING
The creation of the project “Creative Mentorship” is related to the project “Creative Society”, launched in autumn 2011th by the Embassy of Sweden and the Museum of Science and Technology in Belgrade, where, besides the exhibition Women finders from Sweden and educational program for children, was launched “Monday Club” as a place of exchange of ideas between Serbia and Sweden. Every Monday during the project, one successful person from the field of culture, creative industries and education from Sweden and Serbia visited the Museum and spoke about entrepreneurship, personal development, creativity, innovation and lifelong learning.
Ms. Helene Larsson Pousette, then cultural attaché of the Swedish Embassy in Belgrade, was the one that enabled the launch of “Creative Mentorship” by gathering artists, curators, pedagogues, cultural managers, researchers, experts for socially responsible entrepreneurship into an informal and multidisciplinary ETC group and created a platform for getting to know different mentoring programs, supporting our ideas, thinking and initiative.
The informal group ETC was consisted of 11 active and engaged individuals from Serbia from the sphere of culture and education, who had the opportunity to meet and talk with guests from Sweden. In a direct meeting with guests, members of ETC realized that each of the guests had a mentor – professionally successful and accomplished individuals who had led them through crucial moments in the development of their careers and encouraged their further development through their career.
Delighted with the idea of exchange of knowledge and experience, which is mainly limited to the academic community in Serbia, the ETC group, with the help of the Swedish Embassy in Belgrade, decided to create “Creative Mentorship”. As a pilot project, which would bring together and empower more than 50 selected individuals from the education, culture and business sectors, the “Creative Mentorship” project should have served as a platform for testing and creating a long-term mentoring program in Serbia.
In April 2012, members of the ETC Group went through personal development training and introduction to mentoring, which was conducted by Nätverkstan from Göteborg, Sweden. In May of the same year, they were on educational visit in Stockholm, organized by the Swedish Institute to get acquainted with various initiatives and mentoring programs, from the business sector, through culture to university programs, and, based on what they seen they designed the most appropriate model of mentor programme in Serbia.
The entire “Creative Mentorship” project was designed and initiated thanks to the enthusiasm, knowledge and volunteer contribution of ETC Group members: Maša Avramović, Andrej Berete, Dragana Jevtić, Zorana Đaković, Višnja Kisić, Đorđe Krivokapić, Slavica Marković Sandić, Itana Miljanić, Mirjana Odić, Marko Radenkovića and Dragana Tomić Pilipović.
Due to the need to continuously develop the program and to be sustainable, in 2013, the management of the project “Creative Mentorship” went into the hands of a local partner, who consisted of two members of the ETC Group, and then in September 2014. an association was established as “Creative Mentorship” and registered in the Agency for Business Registers of the Republic of Serbia in March 2015.