Rooseveltlaan 58-3
1078NL Amsterdam
Netherlands
- Arts
- Democracy and community development
- Heritage
- International/Cultural relations
- Others
- Youth and education
This organisation has been established by young creative and cultural professionals with a passionate commitment, for making a more coherent infrastructure for their industry. Given this, our activities focus on what our peers need imminently, in addition to pragmatic endeavours that will strengthen our presence and influence at an international level.
1. Professional development and industry best practices for the creative and cultural industries in Cyprus.
2. Connecting a new generation of Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot youths through creative collaboration.
3. Advocate and promote Cypriot creative talent within wider society domestically, and as a driver to stimulate foreign interest and investment in all regards.
4. Spearhead collaboration and innovation to foster brand new, home-grown innovations, as well as present these industries as internationally-competitive, exportable human capital in their own right.
Our general activities will eventually involve training workshops, mentoring and business-support facilitation for young creative and cultural entrepreneurs. In order to assert a thorough understanding of the imminent support measures that our peers and these industries require, we will conduct two projects over the next two years:
2015 - Mosaic Perspectives
Held over three days in Amsterdam, this will be both a celebration of Cypriot creativity, as well as the kick-off for a series of remotely-located collaborations between Cypriot and Dutch young entrepreneurs, designers and artists. Inviting a select number of highly talented individuals from Cyprus, we will first hold a one-day festival giving the general public an opportunity to engage, experience and purchase creations directly from the visiting young entrepreneurs. This will be a mechanism for all aspects of Cyprus to participate in boosting tourism and investment interest - truly the first internationa celebration of Cyprus.
The proceeding two days will see a series of workshops and presentations in which the young Cypriots will gain firsthand insights and expertise from professionals in highly developed markets (these being the UK and the Netherlands). The closing of this three-day programme will encompass the initiation of a pairing between a creative individual from Cyprus with one from the Netherlands and/or the UK. Over the course of one year, the eventual creative works will correspond with one of the sub-themes from Pafos 2017 European Capital of Culture - “small is beautiful.”
2016 - Developing Markets Together
Distances apart, Cyprus and India have more in common than one would initially imagine. Both countries successfully retain their individual cultural heritage and ancient traditions. The local handicrafts and the narratives that they carry are still passed down from generation-to-generation. Numerous ethnic and religious groups cohabit the same environment within an atmosphere of delicate political stability, and unassumingly the mannerism of both peoples, and the pivotal role that family and community draws, just a few examples of the strong, identifiable parallels between these two countries.
Both India and Cyprus are regarded as developing markets within the creative and cultural industries. In 2016, we will collaborate with several art and design institutions (both public and private) in India, in order to facilitate another series of collaborative projects in which the industries within both countries can discuss, and then disperse learnings and results within their local environment.
Our goal is to determine methodologies and solutions that can be implemented today and tomorrow, and not in a generation’s time. Bringing topics to the table such as inclusive education; the development of tourism best practices; the widening of sustainable participation as a natural, everyday occurrence; and the cooperation between different ethnic lines.
More details about both projects can be found in the attached document.
Leading the international activities for Cyins of Creativity, I would initially like to apply for an individual membership within the Netherlands network, since I am prodominently based in Amsterdam.
In addition to my role with Cyins of Creativity, I am also an experienced brand consultant, designer and writer, as well as the Marketing & Communications Advisor for the Indian Film Festival The Hague. With this varied professional background in toe, and with a concentration towards the creative and cultural economies, I tend to take a pragmatic, commercially-viable perspective when undertaking projects and initiatives.
In preparation of the organisational remit for Cyins of Creativity, I have attended two notable conferences within the last six months (Trans Europe Halle and Forum d'Avignon) with the goal of gaining a better understanding of the cultural-political context currently stands at a pan-European level. While there is a lot of critical discourse about the organisation and economic infrastructures of these industries at the present moment, within my personal experiences, I believe that there may be a lack of commercial aptitude in terms of how organisations like ours intend to resolve issues such as financial security for the long-term future. The availability of structural funding is becoming for competitive and less quantitative.
As a new contributor within the Dutch network, I hope to raise critical discussions about these subjects, as well as seek solutions in which our industries may be able to continuously remain strong and relevant both financially and socio-culturally.
As an organisation in its infancy, we would very much value the expertise and support of the Anna Lindh Network (ALN) and its members, in order to help us to develop our organisation and activities.
While the focus of our work is targeted towards those active within the creative and cultural sectors, we consider that the broader spill-over effects cover wider social, cultural and commercial dimensions. The ALN's distinctive positioning of including a diverse array of the different organisations, parties and individuals, already active and successful within these areas, gives us the belief that we would be well-suited to contribute youth-led, innovative perspectives on an on-going basis, while also absorbing insights that we could apply within our own endeavours.