Burning curtains between Croatia & UK

In the period November 10 to December 7, 2019, a dear colleague Joe Hancock of the UK-based Burn the Curtain - South West Interactive Promenade Theatre Company has visited Croatia and Slovenia.

The visit served to explore possibilities to enhance cultural exchange and facilitate novel approaches in presenting and interpreting cultural and natural heritage, as well as engaging audiences with the heritage collections and institutions.

InK team consisting of Monika Vale?i?, Ana Stolar, Kre?imir Rajki and Sa?a Tkalec has facilitated part of Joe's Croatian tour and connections with the local institutions. The fifth InK co-founder, Marko Trupkovi?, due to other engagements, was present online in consultations and lively discussions.

Discussions with various heritage professionals and institutions were complemented with the exploration of the local cultural and natural heritage. In various combinations, the Croatian-UK crew visited Museum Old village in Kumrovec, Nature park Medvednica (EN), Park Maksimir, Castle Veliki Tabor, Ethnographic Museum, Museum of arts and crafts, etc.

Also, Joe also visited Vara?din, to meet with the team of the Vara?din for the European Youth Capital 2022 campaign, led by Nino Prelo?njak.

Particularly interesting for future cooperation are novel promenade performance-embedded approaches designed to engage museums' audiences and add another level of interpretation, meaning and relevance to their multi-layered collections.

Furthermore, InK and Burn the Curtain discussed how to implement the sustainable transfer of audience-engagement know-how from the UK performers group to the local individuals and groups, as well as to make such cooperation sustainable, innovate and developmental for the institutions and local communities.

The study visit by Joe Hancock was encouraged and facilitated in part by Ink ? Cultural Innovation Center and was funded by the EU funded i-Portunus mobility scheme.

A big thanks to the i-Portunus mobility scheme for funding my research trip to Croatia and Slovenia. Some awe inspiring landscapes, and fascinating stories behind them. Many interesting conversations, and many opportunities for new collaborations and learning. I look forward to taking things further.

- Joe Hancock shared on his FB wall.