Kulturni Centrum Rehlovice lies in a small village in northern Bohemia of Czech Republic, a region, formerly part of the now-vanished Sudetenland, approximately 8 kilometres south-west of Ústí nad Labem and 68 km north-west of Prague.

Founded in 1999 Kulturni Centrum Rehlovice, was born with the aim to organize mainly German-Czech cultural events such as art symposia, study tours, exhibitions, literary meetings, lectures, theater and film performances. A meeting place of cultures where art and creativity are meant to bring people together and open a door for intercultural dialogue.

Last  25-28 April 2013 CAfE cultural managers and learners visited the region, to learn about their cultural activities, its contextual background and particularities. Along the 3 days visit, CAfE members inspected the Kulturni Centrum, the disappeared villages in the surrounding rural area, got to know about Czech-German history of the region and also about the actual cultural landscape of the near by city Usti nad Labem to finally, all together, sit down for creative dialogue and brainstorming along the KulturBrunch meeting day.

How could the community of Kulturni Centrum Rehlovice continue to grow up in a sustainable and creative way?

This was the main question placed on top of the table and here we would like to share some of the recommendations that were suggested during the CAfE workshop session in response to it:

–       Get to know your actual publics. In this way you might also discover which aspects of your cultural offer should be highlighted and perhaps also discover potencial collaborators for future projects. Think about your type of visitors and divide them among people who would like to be informed about your proposals and those who want to get active and join forces.

–       “Would you like to get involved…?“ Share your needs out loud. Be open and clear on letting visitors and interested people know that your are willing to know them. Remember “ A clear offer makes a clear support easier”. Provide interested publics with tools to make this connection a functional one. Think about which strategies might better fit your project: a big board on location? a visitors book? an online database? or maybe an Open Call? If dealing with many different activities, it might be usefull to catagorise under various profiles, for example: music, painting, performance, etc.

–       Reward contributions. Give something back and let people now about it. No matter what, there’s always something you can give back in exchange. Can you connect people with others? Can you offer a page at your anual catalogue? Will you publish an article on a magazin or blog? Is there a possibility to win an award? Can you facilitate a working space?

–       Cooperate with those already around you. Have a look at other cultural institutions around you and seek for integrative strategies in order to be able to gather resources, exchange program, connect users,…… there are many different ways to be sustainable and implement synergies. Particularities, needs and vision of each partner will determine the path for a common success.

Any other ideas? please feel free to join the discussion and post your comments!