Since the beginning of February 2022, our team no longer belongs to the city of Trenčín administration. We continue to work as the newly established non – profit organisation the Creative Institute Trenčín. Its abbreviation “CIT” has a beautiful Slovak meaning – emotion, feeling or sensation.
Guarantee of independence
The creation of an independent institution to coordinate the ECoC Trenčín 2026 program was an important condition from the jury evaluating the candidate cities. Experience from the European Capitals of Culture has shown that the coordination team must not be influenced by the election results. Dependence on the political situation threatens to make the ECOC program as presented and written in the winning Bid Book. Therefore, the jury had expected that the cities would come to the finals with the support of the city council and the region to establish and operate an independent institution.
This is not even a novelty in Slovakia – the program of the European Capital of Culture Košice 2013 was coordinated by a non-profit organization which transformed into CIKE (Creative Industry Košice) operating since 2015. Nowadays, CIKE supports and develops the cultural and creative industry.
The same thing is happening in Trenčín. In the autumn of 2021, the Trenčín Creative Institute (CIT) received the support of the city council and county deputies. Its creation was conditioned by obtaining the ECoC title. The non – profit organization was founded by the city of Trenčín and the Trenčín self – governing region in January 2022.
CIT will be under the supervision of the Board of Trustees and the Supervisory Board. The role of CIT is to create conditions so that projects can be organized and also to guarantee that everything is progressing in accordance with the goals and values of the Trenčín 2026 and the European Union. Creative Institute Trenčín will be just the coordinator of the most of the planned projects, they will be implemented by organizations from Trenčín, the Trenčín region, Slovakia or even abroad.
What is going on now?
According to the practice of the European Capitals of Culture, CIT will have two directors. One person will be in an executive position, the other will lead an art program. International open calls for these positions will be announced in the first half of 2022.
So far, CIT is managed by Lucia Dubačová, who led our team during the candidacy. We continue our work as the newly founded Creative Institute Trenčín until the arrival of new directors. They will be able to put together a team according to their requirements. With increasing activities open calls will be announced for new jobs. CIT will headhunt experts. This will happen gradually – for example, this year CIT is designed to have up to 24 employees, in the most intensive year 2026 up to 50.
“Our Bid Book is our plan and content of what we are going to do. We now have several months to give the plan a functional form. For example, administrative and system setup is currently in progress. We are setting up contractual conditions, such as employment contracts for employees but also conditions for external cooperation. We are preparing to announce the open calls, we are setting the budget and it is approved by the Board of Trustees. We have to have public procurement processes ready, as we will be working with public money, ”explains Lucia Dubačová.
The organisational structure of the Creative Institute Trenčín, the number of employees in individual years, the names of the first members of the Board of Trustees are given and published in the Bid book, in the English version on pages 85 to 88.
