The OPEN POLAND (OP) programme was launched in early 2018 as an expansion and continuation of the Eastern Partnership programme.

The OPEN POLAND programme involves building lasting, long-term relationships between artists, academics, and opinion leaders in the Ukraine, Belarus, and Georgia.

The goal of the OP programme is to create a platform for cultural exchange through multiyear projects from the fields of theatre, film, visual arts, new media, cultural management, and contemporary music. The programme’s long-term results include:

• developing projects such as exhibitions, performances, concerts, festivals, and conferences together with the eastern partners,
• engaging industry communities,
• exchanging experiences.

Projects carried out as part of OPEN POLAND involve widespread cooperation with the representatives of leading national cultural institutions, ministries, independent curators, social activists, artists, non-governmental organizations, and independent art circles.

Geographically, the programme prioritises the Ukraine, Belarus, and Georgia. On a more limited scale, the programme is also focused on Moldova, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

The OPEN POLAND programme includes the following multiyear projects:

• Culture for Local Development – an educational programme for cultural managers from the Eastern Partnership countries that involves study visits, summer schools, workshops, and a competition for the best sociocultural project,
• Sharing Contact, Sharing Knowledge – an exchange programme for professional employees of cultural institutions from Poland and the Ukraine organised in cooperation with the Taras Shevchenko Institute,
• Polish Plays – publication of the anthology of contemporary Polish drama in the national languages of Georgia, Belarus, and the Ukraine as well as theatrical activities such as drama workshops, joint theatrical productions, and radio dramas.

The OPEN POLAND programme also includes:

• WATCH Out! Polish Filmmakers – a programme for engaging and bringing together film industry circles through Polish film screenings at major film festivals in the region as well as workshops conducted by Polish filmmakers,
• Flying Academy – an international course for curators,
• OPEN POLAND Knowledge Repository – a programme focused on activities related to the acquisition and distribution of knowledge about the culture of Poland and nearby countries in the form of reports, radio shows, vlogs, and television documentaries.

Some of the OPEN POLAND projects for 2019 are:

• the Polish-Ukrainian light orchestra
• presentation of the Polish digital culture at the TETRAMATYKA multimedia festival in Lviv (at the Centre for Urban History),
• revitalization forum in Kharkiv (in cooperation with the Kharkiv School of Architecture),
• study visits (Divine Comedy Festival, Warsaw Gallery Weekend and Digital Cultures in Warsaw, Gdynia Film Festival, and Krakow Film Festival),
• exhibition of Weronika Gęsicka’s works at the Invogue Gallery during Odessa Photo Days,
• Body Practices performance project – Post-Revolutionary Armenia in Yerevan.

VIDEOS – OPEN POLAND:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WKwxk9Nvoc&list=PLlIScDBHU_PLTLK8H0kioI...