British Council Slovenia

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British Council v Sloveniji
Trg republike 3, SI-1000 Ljubljana


Phone386 1 300 2030
Founded byBritish Council





The British Council office in Slovenia was established in 1992. It has engaged widely in the Slovene social and cultural scene through co-operation with governmental and non-governmental institutions, ministries and independent programmers.



Background

The programme of the British Council Slovenia has changed a lot. At the very beginning the original task - to develop a wider knowledge of the English language - was put into focus, however quite soon it resulted in high-quality teaching that was offered by local schools of English. Gradually an ongoing cooperation with local cultural producers was developed with an aim to present British arts and culture to Slovene audiences: thus a multimedia site-specific installation Map to Paradise from Ljubljana by Peter Greenaway was co-produced in co-operation with the Muzeum Institute in 2000 and the exhibition The Cradle To The Grave - Selected Drawings by Damien Hirst was on view at the International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana in 2003. The internationally established festivals in Slovenia Mladi levi Festival, Exodos Festival, Druga Godba Festival, Ljubljana International Film Festival (LIFFe) or the City of Women Festival brought numerous British artist over with the British Council's support.

British Council Slovenia initiated programmes such as ‘'Animating Literature'’ programme that hosted British authors Diran Adebayo, John McRae and Donald McLaughlin, amongst others, or an anthology of contemporary British short stories, translated into Slovene through a co-operative project with the Študentska založba Publishing House. From 2002 through 2008 the BC office in Slovenia collaborated with the UK agency Visiting Arts and the Ministry of Culture on the Slovenia Cultural Profile project (website and book).

On behalf of the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the British Council in the period 2004-2007 managed the annual Chevening and Valvasor-Chevening Scholarships cofunded by the Slovene Ministry of Culture. Scholarships covered 3-12 months of postgraduate study in the UK related to commercial management of culture and cultural heritage, management of cultural tourism, audio-visual and media industry, specialised technical professions and performing arts and film production. A dozen of today most successful cultural managers, gallery owners and producers got their vital education in the UK.

The British Council Slovenia also ran various science-based programmes (including the Network Research Programme) in partnership with the Slovene Research Agency (ARRS).


Creative industries

In 2004 first workshops relating to new approaches to cultural infrastructure and the creative industries (Modernising Heritage, City Revitalisation, Fashion, Design) were organised with Slovene partners. Since 2005 Slovenia has participated in the annual Young Creative Entrepreneur (YCE) programme awards competitions, focusing on Design (2005), Publishing (2006), Screen (2007), and Fashion in 2012. Slovenes have been nominated as finalists several times, with young entrepreneurs being rewarded with a tour of the relevant UK industry, where they have met with key people from the trade. Today several programmes of the BC Slovenia are dedicated to Creative and Cultural Economy in order to connect people in Slovenia who work in the creative and cultural industries with those in the UK.

In April 2012 British Council Slovenia with Adria Media co-organised a spring edition of Philips Fashion Week at Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture. A fashion designer and a filmmaker, Kathryn Ferguson, talked about the topic of Fashion films and held a lecture.

English language

The British Council in Ljubljana supports English language learning by offering several UK exams - for example the University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations and the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) on a regular basis.


See also

External links