The Foundation ‘Sarajevo, Heart of Europe’ on May 28 presented the projects that have been selected to mark the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, with the aim of sending a message of peace, reconciliation and solidarity around the world from Sarajevo. Sarajevo will host a number of European cultural, sport and educational events as well as multidisciplinary workshops to analyse the consequences of the outbreak of the First World War. The events will highlight Sarajevo as a city of the future and a meeting place of cultures and civilizations, dialogue and solidarity.
The programme runs throughout 2014 and 2015 but special emphasis will be put on the events that will take place between 21 June and 05 July 2014.
Natalia Dianiskova, in charge of the cultural programmes at the EU Delegation to BiH, noted that the European Commission (EC) adopted in July 2013 a decision to allocate 2 million Euro to the program “Sarajevo 2014” with the aim of contributing to making 2014 a year of remembrance in BiH, conveying European values of reconciliation, diversity and the commitment to face challenges together.
Out of this amount, approx. 930 000 (934,502.97) EUR has been directly allocated to the Foundation ‘Sarajevo, Heart of Europe’.
The remaining amount will be allocated to the following five cultural actors whose applications were evaluated as the best following a published call for proposals:
1. Cultural Heritage without Borders (CHwB); Project “Make it yours”;
2. ‘East West Center’ Theatre Company Sarajevo; Project “A century of peace after century of wars – memorial multimedia event for the victims of the First World War and other wars in the 20th century”;
3. ‘MESS’ International Theater Festival; Project ‘One Century of a Family’;
4. Narodna i Univerzitetska Biblioteka Republike Srpske; Project “Reconciliation through History Education”;
5. Municipality Stari Grad; Project „PHOENIX – Culture for future“;
More information on project activities of the Foundation ‘Sarajevo, Heart of Europe’ can be found here: http://archive.europa.ba/Download.aspx?id=1444&lang=EN and at their website www.sarajevosrceeurope.org
