The third seminar will conclude the twelfth year of the annual Czech German Young Professionals Program (CGYPP) in Ostrava on September 9 – 12, 2021. Once again, most of the participants could meet in person and enjoy the various program prepared by the Czech team. The program deals with different areas connected to the main topic – Ways out of the crisis. A total of 10 participants joined us on-site, while three joining online for several guest lectures and internal workshops during the seminar.
On Thursday, an informal exchange and a round of memories of the Berlin meeting opened the seminar. For the first debate, two local guests joined the group in Centrum Pant in the centre of Ostrava. Karolína Pláničková (this year’s CGYPP participant) hosted a discussion held by Sylvie Vůjtková from Arena Theatre and Andrej Harmečko from Cooltour association on the topic of the impact of covid-19 on performing arts. Both guests and participants defined crucial problems present in this area during the pandemics and discussed possibilities and challenges lying ahead.
When it came to the positive effects of the pandemic, Sylvie Vůjtková marked the following: “people at the cultural sector, and even in more traditional and state institutions, had to come up with something new – projects, ideas, etc.”Andrej Harmečko noted:” culture is not about performing only, but mostly is about meeting people and communicating with the audience” when discussing the difficulties of performing arts in the digital era.
The first day was concluded by participants presented their podcast ideas and the current process of podcast creation. You can listen to Czech German Perspectives Podcast on different platforms HERE.
The program is initiated and financed by the Czech-German Fund for the Future. The online seminar was organized with the support of the Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung, too.
