What we do
Over the years, Clubture has developed strong capacities for facilitating continuous collaboration and networking among organizations, as well as for advocacy aimed at improving the position of the non-institutional cultural sector. Its efforts contribute to democratizing culture, strengthening citizen participation, and ensuring the availability of cultural content throughout Croatia.
Through annual gatherings, program exchanges, and collaborative initiatives, Clubture enables the transfer of knowledge and skills between more and less experienced organizations, while also fostering connections that support sectoral development. The network continuously works to improve the organizational processes of cultural associations and to strengthen their capacity for program implementation.
Clubture – HR: Program Exchange and Collaboration is a long-term program of the Clubture Network, continuously implemented since 2002. It is based on direct collaboration among independent cultural organizations (associations, artistic organizations, and informal initiatives), which exchange content or jointly develop and implement partner projects. Its model of participatory decision-making and budgeting remains pioneering in both domestic and international cultural policy contexts.
Clubture maintains a broad network of external collaborators—including researchers, lecturers, cultural policy experts, cultural managers, trainers in innovative cultural models, and various practitioners—whom it engages based on the needs of member organizations or specific requests from the sector.
Clubture Forum was initiated in 2008 in order to create conditions for continuous transfer of information, specific knowledge and skills among independent cultural organizations, to strengthen partnerships among them and to contribute to their increased visibility vis a vis decision makers and wider public.
The network systematically raises issues of artistic freedom, political pressure, and unstable funding in the public sphere and in dialogue with decision-makers. Drawing on its legitimacy, visibility, and institutional access, Clubture articulates sectoral challenges as matters of public interest, supporting those actors who lack the capacity or security to advocate independently.
Clubture is internationally recognized, both regionally and beyond, as a key platform for the independent cultural scene and an innovator in cultural practice.
Clubture has carried out a range of activities to strengthen the capacity and visibility of the independent cultural scene in Croatia and the SEE region. These include media initiatives (04 Megazine, Kulturpunkt.hr), educational and discursive programs (seminars, workshops, conferences, residencies), and advocacy in cultural policy at both local and national levels. Through these efforts, Clubture has also fostered the networking of independent cultural organizations across the SEE region (Kooperativa) and has initiated the establishment of the Network of Socio-Cultural Centers.
Clubture is actively engaged in advocacy and policy monitoring in culture, civil society development, and the protection of public goods. Over the past 15 years, it has initiated or contributed to numerous actions aimed at improving the position of the independent cultural sector in Croatia, as well as campaigns focused on preserving public space and public resources. It has led processes aimed at strengthening democratic governance in culture and has contributed to the establishment of Pogon – Zagreb Center for Independent Culture and Youth, the Kultura Nova Foundation, and the Network of Socio-Cultural Centers.
The network has also developed key documents associated with what can be understood as a new model of public culture, including the Code of Good Practice for the Establishment and Functioning of Civic-Public Partnerships, a proposal for the Act on Cultural Centers, an analysis of the impact of the European Social Fund (2014–2020) on cultural organizations, and an analysis of space allocation for culture under the Law on Cultural Councils and Financing of Public Needs in Culture.
Clubture is a member of local, national, regional, and European advocacy networks and participates in the work of the Council for the Development of Civil Society across multiple consecutive mandates.