A President and A Party

The final day of the Atelier Young Festival Managers Conference was one of reflection, celebration and many fantastic quotes.

Slovenia's Stunning Caves

But first, a few of us began with a visit to some of Ljubljana's stunning caves. I've been to a few caves in my life, and I find the formations of stalagmites and stalagtites and the ever changing shapes in the rocks absolutely fascinating. But nothing compares to Ljubljana's offering in this area. After a train ride (more like a rollercoaster ride!) through the cave system, we explored on foot, and even caught a glimpse of Slovenia's famous "human fish" dragon. It was an incredible experience that I reccommend to anyone dropping by Slovenia's captial city.

Arriving for the first Atelier session of the day, we shared our thoughts on the conference, commenting on what it had done for us, and where we were planning to go from here. Thoughts from all participants were extremely positive. For myself, I came into this conference pitching a festival that tours to different cities around the world. I now know what conversations need to occur in order to make that happen, and I know how to get them started. I've been completely inspired, each and every day; with new ideas for my festival, for commissions and I've been introduces to Slovenian artists that I'd like to work with in the future. With particular relation to digital technologies, I've discovered new ways of engaging an audience or creating participative projects.

My Atelier Certificate

We all felt that we have a strong new network here - the seeds of many potential future collaborations between us have certainly been sowed. But I'm also confident that I can say that I now have friends in 21 countries around the world.

I will never forget the Atelier, and I will never forget all of you. - Sean Buhagiar, Atelier Participant.

Most of all, I'm leaving the Atelier with the reassurance that I can do this. Although by festival idea is extremely ambitious, I know now that it's possible and that it's going to be more than worth it.

Moving to the closing ceremony of the Atelier, we were honoured to be graced with the presence of Slovenia's President, Dr. Danilo Türk.

Gerard Mortier of Teatro Real de Madrid gave an extremely inspiring closing lecture. He talked of how, in the arts, we adapt to the world:

We are not living in a crisis. We are living in an important moment of human history.

Atelier Party!

He spoke of how we can begin to change the world together. He also spoke of past works and how it's not always appropriate to use them:

We should only use art works from the past as far as they can tell us about our history.

But Gerard's most important message, I feel, was simply to Go your own way.

The Atelier culminated in a beautiful party hosted by the Ljubljana Festival - good food, a brilliant orchestra and friends coming together with chatter, laughter and dancing. The party affirmed for me, that this will certainly not be the last time that we all see each other.

Once an Atelier, always an Atelier.

A follow up blog, along with a vlog of the Atelier will follow in about a week or so.

My attendance at the Atelier Young Festival Managers Conference is funded by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation- www.jerwoodcharitablefoundation.org