ART RADIONICA LAZARETI (Art Workshop Lazareti)

Art Workshop Lazareti of Dubrovnik, an independent art organisation, in 1988 started organising exhibitions, performances, lectures and other art events in the public, civic spaces of Dubrovnik. Throughout the more than 20 years of its existence, the position of ARL/AWL has changed, but what has remained the same is the problem-seeking and investigative approach to contemporary art and society, their interaction, interdependence, interrelations and the discourses with which they speak to each other. Today AWL runs an Independent Cultural and Social Center in the premises of Lazareti, Dubrovnik. Through its art programmes, the Antitoxin Programme (workshops,lectures, extra-institutional education, film programmes, panel discussions and public actions, as well as publishing) and the Quarantine project, AWL has brought contemporary art into the life of Dubrovnik, independent art production and culture, as well as critical and theoretical discourses about art, culture, civil society and politics, and opened up a public space for active engagement with the problems of the local community. The annual programmes of Lazaretto Art Workshop comprise the programme of contemporary visual arts in Island Gallery; the programme of contemporary and independent theatre and dance projects and performances – Quarantine Stage; music programmes, film and video programmes; Summer Cultural Fever; Antitoxin – workshops, panel discussions, round tables, lectures, committed programmes, film and video projects and publishing) and the Quarantine Project (for the reconstruction and revitalisation of the whole complex of the former port quarantine area, called Lazaret / Lazaretto, creating new culture, education and art-related contents). AWL has 2 persons fully employed in 2010; it's annual budgets in last 3 years vary from 100.000 EUR to 60.000 EUR in 2009. Sources of funding: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia; City of Dubrovnik; National Foundation for Civil Society Development; Erste Foundation, Dubrovnik-neretva County