The Culture Working Group (CWG) was born in 1997 and aims to show people that they are surrounded by culture through music, theater, cinema or any kind of art and history. CWG was created as a space where people can give their own interpretation and meaning. The activities you can find in the group are Intercultural communication training, online discussions, creating compilations, promoting culture among AEGEE members, challenging AEGEE members to discover the meaning of the word “culture”, demonstrating that culture can be found in the way people behave, think, dress and others.

After a lot of work and a lot of research, Culture Working Group was able to bring to the attention of the AEGEEans the third edition of the Quotes Calendar 2015. The team in-charge of the calendar was composed of: Erika Bettin (AEGEE-Venezia) who collected the quotes, categorized and proofread them; Inge Zlatkou – AEGEE-Ioannina, who was in-charge of the design and Sabina Guja (AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca) the CWG speaker. The girls have managed to fill all 365 days of the year with 365 quotes starting with “All we need is love, but a little chocolate from now and then doesn’t hurt” (Charles M. Schulz) on the 1st of January and ending with “An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves…” for the 31st of December.

Erika was the one who took the lead on creating this year’s calendar, coming up with the idea of collecting quotes from all over the network, thereby making all of the AEGEEans a part of the team in creating the project.

The categories from which the quotes are inspired are creativity, music, movies, literature and inspiration, to name just a few, all of course having their own dose of motivation. For instance, May’s quote was “Every day may not be good, but there’s something good in every day!” If you haven’t got the calendar yet, you can download it from here.

Inge Zlatkou, who created the layout says that “since each month has its own topic, you can get an idea of what pretty much to expect when reading the quotes. Sometimes reading a random quote can be frustrating if you don’t know the general context that it belongs to.”

CWG is now trying to adjust to the new form of Group adapted at AGORA Asturias which is the Interest Group.

Asked about their future plans at the beginning of May, Inge replies: “About CWG’s current plans, until further notice we continue with our current projects, the biggest being right now the collaboration with SUs. This year we have six SU who are collaborating with us. Our help is focused on offering advice and ideas for organizing cultural, fun, entertaining and engaging activities for their SU. We also did a few short interviews with the antennae in order to help them promote their activity within the network through CWG’s means of communication”.

“For this project” she continues, “we have a group of four CWG members acting as contact person between the organizing antennae and CWG: Paula Rodríguez (AEGEE-Castellón), Jovana Trajkovic (AEGEE-Belgrade), Erika Bettin (AEGEE-Venezia) and Sabina Guja (AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca).”

Last year the collaboration with the antennae that chose to work with the Culture Working Group was good and they hope that this year it will be even better. “We are hoping that these SUs will be memorable and fun for the participants, and present the culture of their locations well. We are always ready to help antennae create good and culture focused events” concludes Inge.

Written by Gabriela Cioată, AEGEE-București

Like every month, The AEGEEan elects a member who stand out for his or her contribution to our association. In October this person was Sabina Guja from AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca, rewarding her for being the Public Relations (PR) responsible of the Culture Working Group (CWG) and having been part of two proofreaders team (The AEGEEan and the Key to Europe), a job that is often not mentioned, but helps the associations publications to have a high standard of English.

The AEGEEan: Can you please introduce yourself? How long have you been in AEGEE and what is your European Level experience?

Sabina: I started in AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca in November 2011, after meeting Yvonne Antonović from AEGEE-Utrecht at a Youth in Action project in Serbia. She got me really curious about AEGEE and as soon as I got home, I contacted my local and that’s how it all started. For a while I was active on the local level (being main organizer for our pre-Agora Budapest event was my crowning achievement), and after that I moved on to the European level by being a member of the Culture Working Group, where I coordinated the Movie Library  and a few other smaller projects and finally became Public Relations responsible last autumn. Now I am living in Brno (Czech Republic) and I try to attend most of the meetings of AEGEE-Brno, but my heart stayed with Cluj-Napoca.

You are a proofreader for The AEGEEan and you were a proofreader for Key to Europe. What is the most difficult thing about being a proofreader?

I think the most difficult thing about being a proofreader is trying to hold on to a high standard, while also keeping the personal style of the author. I don’t think it’s any secret that not everybody has awesome English skills and of course we are very happy to have articles to proofread, but sometimes it can be really challenging trying to understand what the real meaning of a sentence is.

Proofreaders are always unnamed as they work “behind the curtains”. Do you have some fun facts concerning the task?

Well I can’t remember any specific details right now, but I can imagine it can be funny to watch me proofread, because a lot of times I will start talking to the walls and asking them what sentences mean… I’m not sure when they will be able to answer, but I am persistent.

You are Public Relations responsible for the CWG. What was the best initiative that you had in the Working Group?

I think my best initiative would be the cards CWG gives out at their stand at the Agora Fair and EPM (former EBM) Fair. We started at EBM Lublin, continued at Agora Patra and now are in the finalization process for Agora Cagliari. Here’s a sneak peak at what you can expect, and this is just one of our cards, so be sure to drop by our stand.

Weekly Newsletters are a helpful tools for members to be updated on the most recent happenings in the Network. The CWG made one to cover the Venice International Film Festival (VIFF). You said that it doesn’t happen very often. How did you feel in September?

When I sent the info about VIFF I wasn’t sure if it would be published or not, because my past experiences with the newsletter were not so great, but this time it happened! So, of course I was excited! The whole network could see we are active and more importantly read about VIFF from one of our own AEGEE members, not just from mass media.

You are in the board of CWG. Lately, we saw some discussions about the current status of Working Groups. What do you think about the topic, being actively involved in one of them?

I saw the discussions and I agree that there is a crisis in the Working Groups, if we can call it that. Having a lot of members, yet few active can be discouraging for a board. At the same time, we are talking here about volunteers, so forcing people to be active isn’t the option. I don’t think that criteria such as doing a certain amount of tasks would help, the desire to be active should come from within. I also think that, from a member of the board’s point of view, it’s much more fun and easier to work with people who want to do it, because the task actually speaks to them, rather than because they have to do it.

Agora Cagliari is approaching, can you give us some anticipations about Agora Fair or Cultural European Night?

Like I said, our cards will be there and you will get to meet some of our members and chat with them. Other than that let’s keep it a surprise.

What are your future plans?

I am not sure yet. My term as CWG board member is coming to an end, and I am not sure what my next step will be. What I know now is that I will remain both proofreader and CWG member for another year, but to what degree my involvement will be, remains to be seen.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Venezia

The idea of the ‘December stories’ project came out of curiosity: how do other people celebrate their cultural events in December? What makes the Russian Christmas special and what do they do on the 24^th? Do the Turkish celebrate anything during the ‘holiday season’? What do the Dutch do? And do they do the same in Belgium? What about Finland, the land where Santa Claus is supposed to live?

The easiest way to know this would probably be to just ask our fellow AEGEE members. After all, who would know better than people who experience all these traditions first-hand? AEGEE is spread far from East to West, from North to South and covers so many cultures, that might or might not have a connection with the Christian holidays that are abundant in December.

So throughout December, the Culture Working Group (CWG) would like to share some of your personal stories with the Network. It’s one thing to read about a holiday on Wikipedia and another one is to get to experience it. But because not all of us can travel, having our members explaining, in their own words, what holidays they have is and how they perceive it would help all of us to understand them better.

Ultimately the goal is to get ready for your holidays, make the spirits lighter and get excited for everyone’s own family celebration and for that of our friends from all over Europe. Some CWG members have already answered our request for stories, but we believe that more stories are more fun! So please no matter where you are from, share your story with us.

Write to cwg@aegee.org before the 10th of December & tell your story!

Don’t forget to add your name, Antenna and tell us all about the name of the celebration, what makes it special and your own personal story. Your stories will be featured throughout December on the CWG-website and Facebook page. And an overview of the best stories will be published right here in The AEGEEan.

Help us make this December truly cultural!

Written by Sabina Guja, AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca & PR for CWG

On the 21st of October an e-mail was sent by the Incoming Responsible of Agora Zaragaoza to the participants. The mail contained information about the Social Program and all parties’ themes. Today The AEGEEan brings you an interview with the Agora team’s PR responsible, Silvia Sierra (AEGEE-Zaragoza) about these parties. 

How has it been working on the social program for the Agora? What difficulties have you overcome? 

Actually, it has been very hard. It’s not easy to find a place where one can organise a party for around 800 people and, above all, to find a place that also isn’t very far from the Congress Palace where participants will spend the night and where the rest of the Agora will take place. But in the end, the amazing team of the Social Program has succeeded.

It is well-known that there are people in AEGEE-Zaragoza who are not so interested in theme parties, why is that the case?

It’s because when we travel, we are used to take ‘Ryanair-suitcases’ (e.g. very small suitcases), and it’s very difficult to find space in your suitcase for normal clothes, shoes etc., so if we don’t have to take special clothes for parties it’s easier to prepare the luggage.

Has this affected the decisions regarding the social program? 

Yes and no. We have chosen some parties which cannot be omitted because of the dates of the Agora, or just because it is an Agora, but with the rest of parties we have tried to find some themes of which the costumes are very easy to find and to put into a small suitcase.

Which themes will there be for the parties?

Suit up Party (of course), Halloween (be ready to be scared…), Cultural European Night (with all countries’ tradition, but without typical alcohol or food from the rest of places) and White T-shirt Party.

Why have you chosen these particular themes?

As I have said previously, we have chosen these themes because some are “compulsory” in an Agora (Suit up) and some in the Autumn Agora (Halloween) and the rest of themes have costumes which are very easy to find and don’t take up a lot of place in the suitcase.

Where will the parties take place? Any special places?

Almost all the parties will take place in places very near from the Congress Palace, so participants won’t have to walk a lot to get there (some days about ten minutes, other days, just one minute), except one day, where the participants have go to the party in buses.

Organizing European Night must be difficult, have you found a place for it?

We’re not going to have traditional style European Night because, indeed, it’s very difficult to find a very big place where we would be allowed to drink our own drinks and and eat our own food. So we are going to celebrate a Cultural European Night, in which people can just show us their traditional costumes and dances. We have chosen the idea for the party and the place but it is the Culture Working Group that selects the performers.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

These days, all the Working Groups of AEGEE are in the middle of elections for new boards. The Sports Working Group (SWG) reflected on their year as the board of the SWG, and in this interview the Culture Working Group (CWG) and International Politics Working Group (IPWG) also look back at their time as board members since Agora Budapest.

During the time the IPWG has developed a new debate platform at the beginning of 2013, called AEGEEDebate. Besides this, they continued to update their blog website with new articles about International Politics. They continue to tackle various issues in AEGEEDebate which are relevant today. The success, however, depends on the will of AEGEE members to participate in the project.

One of the things that the CWG have been working on is the Cultural European Night (CEN) “During some months we developed a campaign to encourage organisers of all kind of events to introduce culture facts in their events. Culture European Night was one of those facts. Our principal aim is to include cultural topics like songs, typical dresses, some small explanations… That is the reason why promoting reports and contests like the best Cultural European Night Award have been created.”

Regarding the discussion on whether alcohol should be part of European Night or not the CWG comments “This debate has been one of the most famous. Hundreds of different opinions, comments, discussions… It is clear, everybody has a not ambiguous point, you simply love or hate it. Inside the CWG board we have our own personal opinions and have also debated about our general impressions and which point we should support. But what we have in common for sure is our desire of introducing Culture in all the CENs. Our desire is to have some shows, speeches, to learn about other cultures. The aim of the CWG is not to ban anything, but to enrich each event. If people want to drink, we are not going to tell them not to drink; people should be responsible for themselves.”

What have been the highlights?

IPWG: Networking. Since you are in the board you can get new, useful contacts with other people who are doing similar activities.

CWG: Without any doubt, we remark two occurrences: The recognition the CWG got for being the most active WG during the last Agora, and the creation of the new project EurStory. In the whole term were proposed 19 projects and 12 of them already carried out or done. Fifteen people have been actively responsible for these projects and many members have contributed. The board 2012/13 is very proud of this and believes in the possibilities of this cultural family for the next year. About EurStory, this is another sign of motivation; you do not always have the chance to watch the origin of a new AEGEE project inside a Skype members meeting debate. We wish all the best to this new family.

Both of the Working Groups agree with the SWG that keeping the activity high is difficult. To the question on what makes it difficult being a board member they say:

IPWG: To create communicate channels with members.

CWG: When a group has touched their zenith, the most difficult part is keeping the level of activity. We all are volunteers and have many different things to do in our lives. This was the challenge of the second term, which was not as active as the first one.

Will any of the current board members continue in the next board?

CWG: That is still not sure, but the current board agrees, there are many newbies inside the group who are perfectly able to continue this project and even improve some things. The current board members are continuing being active, of course, but we want to give the initiative to new minds, new points of view, a new capable generation. And this WG has enough potential board members for more successful years.

IPWG: It is not decided yet and it is dependent on the interest of others. Changing faces and bringing new ideas is, however, preferable.

It is certain that it is possible to learn and grow a lot while being a board member of a Working Group. “One of the best ways to “taste” the European feeling of AEGEE is joining the board of a WG. Inside a WG you have the chance to discover and get to know new people who organise projects and debate about the topic you like, in this case culture. So, it is easier to enjoy what you do and to find things to believe in. If you, member of the CWG, are motivated in your antenna and want to increase your knowledge and your experience in AEGEE, and of course you want to have much fun, we highly recommend you to join this cultural team; for the board 2012/2013 it was an amazing experience. We feel very grateful and motivated, and of course we will be glad to give a hand to the next team,” the CWG responds to The AEGEEan on the question on why they would encourage others to become part of the board.

For the rest of 2013 the IPWG would like to stick to the primary purpose of IPWG. That is to provide a discussion among the members, and at the same time they are preparing for Agora Zaragoza. There the participants can meet them at not only the fair but also taking part in the workshop hosted by Speaker Ivan Bielik.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

Two girls from The AEGEEan have been chosen as fair managers for Autumn Agora Zaragoza. One being Anna Gumbau (AEGEE-Barcelona), the editor of the Working Groups/Project Teams section and the second being Dasha Onohova (AEGEE-Moskva), who is famous for the pictures she takes at the statutory events. The two girls also Work together in the Culture Working Group (CWG), but there is much more to their AEGEE story and The AEGEEan shares it with you here.

Dasha

You have been doing many thing in AEGEE, but how did you actually join the organisation and when?

Anna Gumbau: It was in late 2011 when I first heard about AEGEE, while looking for a chance to practice English, travel around Europe, meet people with similar interests and gain skills. It seemed just perfect for me. And it was quite funny since I joined AEGEE-Tarragona while I was actually from Barcelona, so I was not active on local level at all. But then I came back from my first Travel Summer University (TSU) so excited and full of AEGEE spirit that I got in touch with AEGEE-Barcelona and attended my first meeting. That day was our former president’s birthday party and I was invited straightaway. The feelings were amazing! It’s a story that started not so long ago, but I hope it will last for many years.

Dasha: I joined AEGEE in June 2011. One of my friends told me about AEGEE, and I joined. I was an organiser of our Travel Summer University (TSU) vol 3 and there is no way back anymore! It has been the best time of my life, since I joined AEGEE.

What are your favourite memories so far?

Anna: The first meeting with the AEGEE-Barcelona members will remain special for the good atmosphere I could feel from the beginning. I have been a member of several other organizations, but at that moment I realised I had found my place. Of course, being the Summer University Coordinator with the wonderful people from AEGEE-Las Palmas has been one of my most vivid memories and a time I learnt a lot, also about myself, my strong and weak points. And every event I have attended so far has given me the spark and the motivation to keep carrying on, so each of them is memorable in its own special way.

Dasha: For me, my favorite memory is still my first event with AEGEE, the TSU vol 3! We will see what other favorite moments I will get soon.

Why did you apply to become fair manager?

Anna: I always say that my journey on the European Level started at the AEGEE Fair in Budapest. I attended the Agora as a visitor, I had just become active in AEGEE-Barcelona and had no idea about most of the bodies on the European Level (EL). But I came back to Barcelona with lots of ideas and motivation to take a new step in AEGEE, and that was thanks to the Fair. It was exactly one year ago, and now I want to give back to the AEGEE Fair what it gave to me at that time, which is something that changed my views upside down. Besides, I also have a deep emotional link with Zaragoza, since my mom’s family came from the region of Aragón. There was no better time and place to be Fair Manager! I first thought about it in July, during the European Structured Dialogue event in the same city of Zaragoza, which I attended as Communications Responsible. Then, when the open call was issued, I got in touch with Olga Rivero, the Fair Manager in Agora Rhein-Neckar, who gave me lots of good advice even though we hadn’t ever met before! All summed up, nothing could stop me from applying.

Structured Dialogue event in Zaragoza

Dasha: Because it’s a great opportunity to get new skills and it is something I can do to make something good for my lovely AEGEE organisation!

What do you think about working in a team of two fair managers?

Anna: To tell the truth, I had spoken to Dasha the day after the application deadline, and when I found out she had applied too I feared at first that I wouldn’t be selected. But then I thought there could be a chance that both of us could work together as a team. It helps for sure when it comes to task division, and that’s what we actually decided: I’ll be in charge of the direct communication with the EL bodies, whereas she’ll be in charge of the visual part of the Fair. I must say that fortunately we are not alone in this: we have received incredible support and advice from Kathrin Renner (CD appointed member), Madalena Sousa (Research & Administrative Officer) and Elena Antova (Secretary of the Agora), who are giving us lots of feedback. I can’t be thankful enough also to Olga Rivero, who is helping us as the direct contact between the Fair Team and the ZarAgora organizers.

Dasha: It is a good question! Before the announcement of who was going to be the fair manager, we talked with Anna Gots from the CD and she gave the idea of having the possibility of the two of us working together. We crossed our fingers, and it happened. She is so amazing and I am happy to work with her! We already know each other and have gotten the opportunity before to work together thanks to the European Level of AEGEE!

You have already been working together in the CWG, does that help in the preparations for Agora Zaragoza?

Anna: Sure! I knew Dasha as the PR Responsible of the Culture Working Group and I always saw her as a very creative and artistic person. I already feel it, since I can notice her personal touch in her visual conception of the Fair. It’s something I have never been good at, so I am really thankful to be together in the same boat!

SU in Brussels 2013

You are both active on the European Level of AEGEE, why?

Anna: Because from the very start I’ve found lots of inspiration in the different bodies I’ve taken part. One of the people who has encouraged me the most was Guillermo García Tabarés, at the beginning of his term as speaker of the CWG. The motivation that drives me to keep taking steps in AEGEE is to *learn* every day, and I have found a place where I am developing and improving myself, where I can feel useful and test my skills, where I have met awesome people and lived memorable experiences. Just as an example: I was recently reading my first articles in The AEGEEan and I’m amazed of the difference in the quality of the writing that one year can make!

Dasha: For me AEGEE is a big field, where you can plant and grow everything! It can be all your ideas, your projects, basically whatever helps in making our future better! And AEGEE already has a lot of Projects, where you can grow personally! I always try to improve myself and the world around me. For example I am a board member in CWG, where I am the PR responsible. In my time in the CWG, I have met a lot of people in AEGEE, worked with them, and we have created great projects all together. We have been focusing on how to improve the cultural level and involve people in AEGEE. I am not just doing the PR of the CWG on social platforms, but also I am part of the teams of some of the projects of the CWG. I also attend a team of some projects of CWG. One of them is the “Culture European Night Awards”, which aims to improve the “Culture European Night” on the local level of AEGEE. The local with the most cultural European Night (EN) will get a special prize at every Agora during the Cultural EN (CEN). To get more information and how to participate in the project, go here!

Would you encourage others to take the step to EL as well? And why?

Anna: Definitely! In fact, one of the tasks I would like to carry as the HR Responsible of AEGEE- Barcelona is to introduce the members of our local to the European Level of AEGEE. Very few of us are currently active, and there are lots of opportunities each one of us can benefit from. In this sense, my biggest hope as a Fair Manager is to create an atmosphere full of inspiration and AEGEE spirit, and that at least one member can come back to his/her city with the enthusiasm to do lots of things, which is what happened to me one year ago. Therefore I encourage everyone to take part in the AEGEE Fair, and to make it memorable!

Dasha: YES! I definitely encourage everyone to participate in WGs and Projects of AEGEE! You will learn a lot there, about how to work in a team, you will find new friends, who will support you in your ideas and together you can change the world!

Anna

What have you been doing since being announced as Fair Managers?

Anna: We had our first Skype meeting to define our “concept” for the AEGEE Fair and were given the knowledge transfer by Olga and Anna Gots, who were the CD members in charge of the Fair. We also got the map of the venue, so we started working on the possible distribution, the visual concept, and I have sent already the open call to the mailing list.

Dasha: We already had our first Skype meeting, exchanged lots of e-mails with ideas and have already sent the open call to the Network! But our term just started, and we have much more work to do! For example involve people in the AEGEE FAIR, make booklets, as well as other preparations for the fair! I work in an amazing team, and I think this AEGEE FAIR will be great!

The AEGEE fair usually requires the European Level bodies to be very creative. What creative things to do you as fair managers plan to do?

Anna: We are mostly keeping up with the work of our predecessors but trying to introduce some improvements. However, we plan to make it visually attractive and inspiring, probably by introducing the idea of some AEGEE museum. We took the first step, which was to define the overall concept of the Fair… we’ll see later how we’ll transform it! However, Dasha is the creative soul of the team, and there are many ideas we discussed and we both would like to see happen.

Dasha: We already have some ideas, such as collaboration with the CWG like “AEGEE Museum” (a museum that shows the talent of our Network of their art pieces: sculpture, painting (any kind)…) and a big “SUSHKA” (which is some kind of photo exhibition on rope). I would like to encourage all AEGEE members to take part in “SUSHKA” (bring with you 1-3 photos from any AEGEE event and hang them on the rope on the Fair) and “AEGEE Museum” (if you have talent, show your art to everybody, we have a special place for you at the fair)! The rest of the ideas are a secret but keep calm and look forward to the news!

With the fair safe in the hands of these two girls and all the other helpers it is for sure that there is now one more thing to look forward to for the Agora Zaragoza next month!

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

The Culture Working Group (CWG) carried on an initiatie focusing on films that made history in each European country. Take a look at this awesome project and read the interview we made to Sabina Guja (AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca), the main coordinator of this initiative.

Was this your idea or was it a project promoted by the CWG? How did the idea take up?

Sabina, from AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca

The Movie Library project was an idea that came up at a meeting. We were just brainstorming about which elements of culture we could promote and how. I don’t remember exactly who came up with the suggestion of a movie library, but it sounded like such a cool idea! I immediately started thinking about how it could be done in a fun and easy way, and at the same time to be presented in an attractive way and widely available to many people. While exchanging ideas over Skype, we came up with bits and pieces that ultimately led to our final plan: get as many AEGEE members as possible to submit movies from their own countries, that they consider to be representative.

Were there many AEGEEans around the network able to help you out with the films for each country?

Of course, we couldn’t have done it without the help of the network. Together with Danae Matakou (AEGEE-Athina) and Dionis Koci (AEGEE-Torino), I put together a small survey for interested AEGEE members to fill in. We received help both from the CWG and from the boards around the network in distributing our survey. We were happy we managed to get replies from 20 different countries with around 80 movie suggestions in total.

Danae, from AEGEE-Athina

 Was there a selection or any criteria to be respected in choosing the films?

No, we relied on the judgment of our members when it came to the movies included. Also, I don’t believe there would have been any way for us to make a selection, as every culture is unique and values different things. We wanted to have as many genres of movies as possible, so our list includes amongst others: horror, comedy, love story, drama, documentary etc.

What is the aim of this project?

The main aim was to help spread locally-known and appreciated movies and help making understanding different cultures easier. From the start we decided that we didn’t really want to promote the latest European blockbusters, but to find less-known movies, local hits that we wouldn’t hear of otherwise. We wanted to try and capture an image of what makes us different, but at the same time similar. Also we were really happy that we received information about old movies as well. The oldest we have in this edition is a movie from 1955.

Do you think that we are watching too many American films, and in this way we are somehow neglecting our European cinematography?

Dionis, from AEGEE-Torino

I believe that some of us might be watching many American movies, because European cinematography is not promoted as widely as the American one. In many cases, European cinematography is regarded more as fit for festivals than for a wider audience. On the other hand, Europe is culturally so much more diverse, in my opinion. Just taking into consideration the number of countries that are in such a small place as Europe, and you already have so many types of movies and unique ways of approaching subjects. It’s a pity we don’t get to see European movies more often in the cinemas!

Many of the AEGEEans will for sure say: “I didn’t know about this project and I wanted to make more suggestions!” Is there any hope for them to collaborate?

Of course there is, and we would be very happy if they would help us grow the second edition. Those who want to help us can send an e-mail to cwgmovies@yahoo.com answering these questions:

* What is the title of the movie (original and translated)?

* What year was it released in?

* What genre is it?

* Did it win any awards?

* Please write a short summary

* Who is the director?

* Who are the main actors?

* Is there a trailer for the movie?

* Why should we see it?

This information is also available in the Forward of any of our four volumes of the Movie Library, which can be viewed on the CWG website here: http://www.wg.aegee.org/cwg/?page_id=797

Written by Cosmina Bisboaca, AEGEE-Torino

“She has been responsible for the successful revival of the Cultural European Night at the EBM”. Who is this mysterious person, you might be wondering? It is Alice Bednarova from AEGEE-London. The European Night during Autumn Agora Budapest raised many questions and gave way to many discussions. The Culture Working Group (CWG) has decided to take things under control starting with EBM-Valetta and return the initial spirit of the event. This time the very person who helped in the revival of the CEN concept has been elected member of the month, and The AEGEEan was glad to interview Alice.

The AEGEEan: Could you start with telling us a bit about your life in AEGEE?

Alice: I became an AEGEE member in 2010. To be honest I found AEGEE only by chance. I remember I was browsing through the internet searching for what am I going to do in the summer and I found the Summer University (SU) project, so I joined. After the SU I became very active because I wanted to and because I was doing my Erasmus in Athens.

And you are also active in the CWG?

Yes. I started with the CWG in 2012. I was looking for the way I can get involved in AEGEE and at the same time how this activity can correspond to my interests.

So you are into culture. Any other hobbies?

That’s my huge hobby and also my job since I am studying about galleries and museum sector. The course – Museums, Galleries and Contemporary Culture – is a new project of the University of Westminster. I spend my free time in galleries where I either work or simply enjoy my free time. Of course, I love travelling too. I also work in a little coffee shop. There is no way to survive without a job here.

 You were the one responsible for the Cultural European Night (CEN) at the EBM. What’s the story behind it?

I answered the open call for a person that would be in charge of the CEN at the EBM. We all knew that the last CENs were not successful so far and many voices had risen after the last European Night at the Agora Budapest. There was even this article in the AEGEEan questioning the original purpose of this event and it has been even broadly discussed whether this kind of event in this form should be kept on the program of statutory events. Since the whole CWG see the huge importance of having the CEN we have decided to try to bring a new concept to it- keep the ‘fun elements’ such as the drink and food fair but also, more importantly, –  show that CEN is more a celebration of cultures than just a party with free booze.

As far as I understand, you started dealing with the CEN as soon as you joined CWG? Or did you help out with other things first?

No, actually, this was the very first event. There were many ideas how we could change the EN to make it more cultural. I thought we needed to make it more interactive, to encourage people to join the program. I have requested a projector from the organizers where we played for the first time the CEN video (that was an amazing work from Dasha, AEGEE-Moskva). The most difficult part, however, was to make people join the program. I do not even remember how many times I have sent a reminder saying the same worlds: always asking people to bring their folklore and perform. A week before the event we had only one performance confirmed! I felt that this was going to be a disaster.

During the EBM some guys from Turkey came to me willing to show their dances and not only I had to limit their part because they would make the whole night only Turkish. The Dutch part was also amazing thanks to the organization of Hanke, from AEGEE-Enschede. It started with three – Turkish, Dutch and Greek.

I counted on having more, but was happy with at least three. But then more and more people started joining. Beata organized the Hungarian performance, followed with Anna Gots with the Ukrainian folklore.

Every single performance was so well done. Some of them were simply breathtaking.

 Is there anything you would like to tell our readers?

I would like to say how happy I am for being part of AEGEE. It means a lot to me. Even though we are often working very hard, we end up being rewarded greatly afterwards. I would like to thank also to Danae Matakou and Guillermo Tabares Garcia for their support in the CEN project.

Thank you for all the efforts to Alice and the Cultural Working Group. We are looking forward to the European night at the next AGORA!

 Written by Olga Volovyk, AEGEE-Kyiv

+ Do you know what the Working Groups did in September?

+ Are you aware of what kind of tasks they develop and which topics they are tackling?

You can check the document on the Issu down here, or download from here http://goo.gl/KfQ0g

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