In March the Croatian association Kids Meet Art was granted the title of Creative Ambassadors by the Croatian MEDIA Desk and the Ministry of Culture (Department Creative Europe). A great honour for ECFA members Edita Bilaver (President of Kids Meet Art) and Ivana Alpeza (Programme director).
Since 2011 Kids Meet Art consistently creates and develops projects with the aim to bring the audio-visual arts closer to children in Croatia. Within their Seventh Continent programme, Kids Meet Art organised more than 600 cinema screenings for over 120.000 children (4-15 year olds). Other popular projects are Seventh Continent on Tour, the Film Debate Club and Seventh continent for Preschoolers. Partners in the implementation of these projects are the National Ministries of Culture & Education, the Croatian audio-visual industry, schools and cinemas, thus developing a nationwide platform for film education and film literacy among young people.
But the title of Creative Ambassadors, Kids Meet Art owes to the ‘Films for Kids in Hospitals’ project, funded by MEDIA and implemented jointly with two other ECFA members: JEF (Belgium) and BUFF (Sweden). In this project three national platforms have developed a selected film database and made extra material available for children in hospital beds and revalidation centres, granting them access to quality film and a special festival experience, while they’re physically unable to go the cinema. Edita Bilaver and Ivana Alpeza: “We are proud to act not only inclusively for those hospitalised children, but to also offer access to European quality cinema through an innovative distribution channel.”
Whoever is interested in joining these ECFA members in their initiative can find more information here.
Watch the project presentation.