ECK is a local government cultural institution, supervised by the President of Ełk, with the regular staff of more than 40 people – instructors, technical crew, cinema crew, promotion and administrative staff, who are supported by temporarily employed artists and experts.

In recent years, ECK has undergone significant changes, both in its appearance and its internal structure and activity. These changes were brought about by a changing pattern of participation in culture, new needs among audiences, and better opportunities for cooperation with international partners.
According to its statute, ECK carries out tasks in the field of cultural education, education through art and the promotion of culture and arts. Its fields of activity include theatre, folk dance and music, film, art exhibitions, organisation of artistic events and regular art classes in its department – Arts School.
Every year ECK is visited by thousands of people.

MAIN GOALS AND MISSIONS OF THE ORGANIZATION

ECK is a cultural institution with the general aim to educate through culture and art. To achieve this aim, ECK makes an effort to create the need in society to actively participate in culture, to create conditions for the development of amateur art initiatives and to integrate the local community and support local cultural undertakings.
In their daily activity, ECK closely cooperates with schools, NGOs and public institutions to better address the needs of various social groups.

MAIN ACTIVITIES OF THE ORGANIZATION

ECK carries out cultural education and animation in various fields and at various levels. 
The cinema offers regular film education, amateur actors prepare new theatre productions.Special interest in ECK is given to traditional dance and music. The Masurian Dance and Song Ensemble “Ełk” participates in international folk festivals and workshops around the world. 
One of the ECK departments - Arts School offers workshops covering many channels of artistic expression: dance, painting, drawing, ceramics, model-making, music, theatre, and the use of new technologies.
ECK also organises cultural events – concerts, exhibitions, festivals.

HOW WILL THE PROJECT CONTRIBUTE TO AND ENRICH YOUR ORGANIZATION'S ACTIVITIES?

“Young theatre”, although quite unexpectedly, turned out to be a huge success for ECK. Not only did it change the way of thinking about culture and art, it also managed to link culture with education very smoothly, with mutual benefit.
The expectations of “Young theatre on the move” are quite simple – to keep impro going and changing – kids, teachers, amateurs and professionals. Ambitions are big, hopefully they will be followed by actions.

When we started with “Young theatre” in 2017 we had many doubts but also expected it to be the biggest and most prestigious project ECK has ever participated in. And it was. Our local world changed and impro became its part.
With “Young theatre on the move” we will go further, use what we developed before and add one more element – dance. ECK used to be a “dancing centre” years ago but we somehow lost it on the way. The new project is a new hope – to get dance back but also to push it in a new direction, use the combined power of improvisation in theatre and dance to become an impro centre at (at least) the regional scale.