In 2007 Zene na delu have set strategic plan through three program lines ACT, INFORM and COOPERATE and in 2008 we have successfully continued to develop various activities related to this program lines.
ACT - Creating the change in consciousness and attitudes on social problems and aspects of patriarchal culture through cultural activism
Within this program line we have started with the project Women's Day – every month on a last Saturday in Cultural Centre REX we organize serious of artistic workshops for women. our idea was that cultural spaces have to consider specific needs of women and incorporate in their program events related specifically to women. This program is very successful and women enjoy coming. Every event is organized in such a way that women of all backgrounds could come, enjoy in workshops and get information on women's organizations. Since this project was very successful we are continuing with this activity in 2009, but it would also be spread in Novi Sad and Nis thanks to cooperation with Novi Sad lesbian organization and Women's Space. They would organize similar programs in their cities with support of Zene na delu.
Within this program line we also put effort in networking with artists and theoreticians form around the world. In 2008 Zene na delu have hosted on various occasions different eminent artists and theoreticians. Locally we cooperate with Biro za kulturu i komunikaciju (artists Vladan Jeremic and Rena Readle), jelena vesic from prelom collective, Walking Theory, Kontekst Gallery etc. We are also very active within the informal network Slobodnakultura.org that deals with various relevant issues regarding contemporary art, intellectual property and artivism. We have also hosted in our space various eminent artists – Chto delaet? progressive art collective from Sankt Petersburg (winners of 2008 October Saloon / leading contemporary art manifestation in Serbia), Lawrence Liang – intellectual property expert from Bangalore India, or Brian Holms art theoritician form New York. These contacts were very important for us since we have opportunity to present and discuss our strategies in a global arena.
Zene na delu together with Queer Belgrade and Queeria opened October Saloon with performance which was strong political message for that festival.
INFORM - Increase the access of information to women and other social vulnerable groups through education, publishing and media
In 2008 within this program line we have worked on education and web as media. We have conducted project “How to attract girls to careers related to science and technology?” in 5 cities in Serbia with 400 high school girls as participants. The project was successful and we are currently working on developing further curriculum since many other high schools were interested in realization of this project in their surroundings. Within this project we have also established contacts with various institutions: high schools in 5 cities in Serbia (Loznica, Sombor, Krusevac, Velika Plana and Belgrade), Institute GOSA, National Employment Service in Sombor, Team for implementation of Poverty Reduction Strategy of vice president of Republic of Serbia, etc.
The other work within this program line is related to the support to women's and other peer organizations in establishing their web sites and providing technical support. We are currently developing web site for Novi Sad Lesbian organization and Regional Centre for Minorities just to mention the few. This activity is very important for us since this is potential income generating activity and we are developing models on how to sustain Zene na delu through this activity, but also to support other organizations as well. At the moment hosting activity is completely covering the costs of server we have and gives us possibility to expand server space we own. We are also the only feminist organization involved in promotion of Creative Commons licences related to the free exchange of content between creators and end-users, so we have participated in the all events related to the official launch of these licences in Serbia.
We are also running a web site zenergija.org which is very important communication tool for us.
COOPERATE - Support and network with formal and informal organizations and initiatives that share our politics, values and principals
The project “MOVING TOWARDS BETTER PROTECTION OF NEEDS OF WOMEN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS IN SERBIA” is part of this program line together with many other activities. Apart form this project we are part of the campaign “16 days of Activism against Violence against Women”. This year Zene na delu again contributed with travelling performance that was performed in 11 cities, including for the first time performance in the only female prison in Serbia in Pozarevac. This was not the first time that Zene na delu participate in activities in prison and we have established good cooperation with prison authorities and in the future we plan to conduct some activities there.
We are also part of the network “Women human rights defenders” that was organized by Incest Trauma Centre, and we take part in all discussions and meetings within this network. Zene na delu representative was participating in the meeting in Parliament that was organized in December this year.
We cooperate with many organizations/networks/festivals in the country and abroad/
Considering the visibility of Zene na delu in public we could say that Zene na delu activities are covered in the postivie way in all media. TV Metropolis invites Zene na delu to present activities on monthly basis, and various projects are interesting to the media to different extent. Since we don't have special budget related to marketing of our activities, we have made agreement with REX to use their announcements to promote our activities as well, which means that all our activities are presented in cultural monthlies and some daily newspapers. We are also being contacted to comment issues related to women and LGBTIQ population. We are currently working on establishing press clipping archive that would be available in the next two months.
Considering the internal capacity building, Zene na delu are using every available possibility to improve skills and capacities of its members, so in this year we have put emphasis on various capacity building programs related to EU funding so two members of Zene na delu have attended various training programs in this field. We are also involving volunteers on specific jobs and in 2008 our emphasis was on relations with media so we involved journalism students on this work which turned our to be quite effective. We are also working a lot on documenting various events and creating multimedia documentation that could be used for further promotion of our activities and organization itself. For example films related to the campaign 16 days are being used by many local, regional and European organizations.
In overall we could say that in spite of decreasing funding Zene na delu do succeed to strongly promote feminist values without compromising the organizational politics and values and that is the fact we are very proud of.
