Pionirski dom - Centre for Youth Culture
Pionirski dom - Centre for Youth Culture was founded by the city of Ljubljana in 1963 as a public institution in the field of culture. Since then, it has become one of the leading institutions for cultural education in Ljubljana. With the varied programme of all year-round cultural, artistic and linguistic activities, it develops and promotes child and youth creativity and also offers activities for adults and whole families.
Through the activities, young people acquire creativity in the areas of visual arts (film, sculpture, painting, and graphics), performing arts (theatre, dance, circus), music (learning to sing and play various musical instruments) and language culture as well. Some of our most important missions are promoting the creative spending of leisure time, social cohesion, lifelong learning, the accessibility of cultural goods and services and encouraging intergenerational dialogue. Lately, we have been focusing on transferring the knowledge gained from the years of experience in cultural pedagogy to teachers and other youth workers. Special emphasis is put on the creative festivals for children and youth.
MAIN GOALS AND MISSIONS OF THE ORGANIZATION
Pionirski dom focuses on enriching children’s lives with creative workshops and activities. Our mission is not only for children to gain artistic and creative competences, but also to offer a safe, relaxed and welcoming environment for them to develop their unique personalities, personal expression and enhance their love of arts. Therefore, we cooperate with other similar institutions in a wider region and try to educate not only future professionals in the cultural field, but, more importantly, creative people with a broad interest in the field of culture.
MAIN ACTIVITIES OF THE ORGANIZATION
Along with quality programmes throughout the year that represent the base of our work, we also offer education for teachers and youth workers (mostly in the fields of language and culture, fine arts and theatre) and other cultural activities (concerts, theatre plays, exhibitions etc.). For more than a decade, there has also been a rise in festival organisation by Pionirski dom, and now almost all of the creative activities in Pionirski dom culminate in one of the festivals (literary, painting, film, science, contemporary dance, music and of course theatre festivals).
HOW WILL THE PROJECT CONTRIBUTE TO AND ENRICH YOUR ORGANIZATION'S ACTIVITIES?
Project Young theatre is a big milestone for Pionirski dom. Not only it is our first time as project coordinator at an international level, but it is also a wonderful opportunity to share and exchange skills and knowledge with similar cultural institutions. Young theatre offers an exceptional opportunity to improve and pilot test some of our own pedagogical methods which we have developed, and enrich them with experiences of other partner institutions. Our belief is that by joining our creative forces and including the strengths of all the institutions involved, we can really shape the future of cultural education in Europe and strengthen the relationship between professional cultural institutions and schools. We hope that together we can start to develop cultural education that will not only enrich people’s lives, but also show the importance and need for theatre education and participation in Europe and in the world.