These are the hosts of the Caravan

Iliosporoi. Athens, Greece
Bitola Youth Forum. Bitola, Macedonia
Mjaft. Tirana, Albania
Plagus_M. Plav, Serbia & Montenegro
In Stage. Belgrade, Serbia & Montenegro
Kulturanova. Novi Sad, Serbia & Montenegro
Uruk. Banja Luka, Bosnia & Herzegovina
ZoFi Kapolcs, Hungary
Ecotopia. Zajezka, Slovakia

See below for a description and the contact details of the hosts

Iliosporoi is a Greek environmental and social NGO, consisting of political and ecology activists. It is in contact with many local musicians, djs, performers and fine arts students. Our main aims are promoting active public participation in sustainable development strategies and demonstrating alternative solutions in local communities; promoting intercultural exchanges and balanced international cooperation among European partners. Through our ecological values and visions we want to trigger active citizenship of young people on everyday politics and decision making. That’s why we try to offer an information and action to youth network for the promotion of political and social ecology. The organisation acts in a very difficult social framework, because of the lack of interest, especially from young people, to contribute to social issues, to have social or political interference on issues mainly concerning their generation. In the light of those, my association believes that hosting the "Art and Activism Caravan" will sparkle the interest of the local community in social and environmental issues and will support the local projects. We believe that there is a strong need to find new forms of political expression and protest based on arts, satyr, parody and sarcasm.

Contact person: Michalis Theodoropoulos
Email: michalis@medsos.gr
Website: Iliosporoi

Youth forum Bitola is a regional, non-governmental organization. Our NGO has as main target group youth and isuess which are dealing are culture, arts, intercultural learning and protection of human rights. We count 80 members, ranging between the ages of 14 and 30 and most of them are artists which are involved in many projects of diferent kind. We have organized many cultural activitie like: Music, concerts, theatre performances, cult movies review... and many workshops,seminars and debates with subject of human rights protections especially in the field of protection of minorities group. We are in contact with actors, musicians (all kind), painters, video art, graffiti makers ... established art and underground. We have good cooperation with Roma groups in Bitola.

Contact person: Alek Misevski
Email: forum_na_mladi@email.com
Other groups involved: YMCA Bitola

Mjaft! is a civic movement active in Albana for three years now. It
encompasses a diversified program that places civil society and all is
components at the epicenter of its work. The vision of the MJAFT Movement is
to achieve a well-governed Albania with active citizens, strong communities
and a positive image in the world.

The MJAFT Movement believes and advocates for a good democracy, proper
governance and a prosperous society in Albania. Thus, its mission is to
increase active citizenship, strengthen the sense of community, promote
responsible governance and improve the image of Albania in the world
through: encouraging participation of citizens in decision-making by
influencing and monitoring policies at both local and national level;
promoting volunteerism, and improve cooperation within communities;
rehabilitating the sense of protest.

The MJAFT Movement is happy to host the Art and Activism Caravan, as an
opportunity to broaden and strengthen the methods of civic reaction and
empower our youth with concrete and creative ways of raising their voice.

Contact person: Borana Lushaj
email: boranalushaj@mjaft.org
Website: Mjaft

Plagus_M aims to activate young people who have ideas and talents with support of art. We think that this can be a great challenge both for us as a very young NGO and for the young people of this region. Plav is a small city on the Northern part of Montenegro, and the whole north of Montenegro is neglected by the Government and almost nothing is done for young people in this area, but we want be active and do something about it. Plagus_M organises meetings, workshops, education, lectures, trainings and practical work with youth. We work in network on local and regional level. We do amateur theatre, dancing group, local concerts, exhibitions on local level, recreation tours (mountaineering, hunting, fishing, etc), sports.

Contact person: Iso Djesevic
Email: plagus_m@hotmail.com, iso_djesevic@yahoo.com

"Stani Pani"

Contact person: Milan markovic & Igor
email: markovic.milan@gmail.com
Website: StaniPAni

"In Stage Organization - ISO" is a non-government, non-profit organization. The members are young experts in areas such as: acting, theatre directing, social work, pedagogy, psychology, philosophy. The goals of "In Stage Organization - ISO" are: affirmation of civil values through art, stimulation of active participation of citizens in development of civil society through art expression, the development of programs for cultivation of art as healing process and stimulating of individual development through creativity and creative expression, education and development of consciousness about content and importance of humanity, human rights, creativity and civil society, the exploration of new forms of artistic expression and affirmation and popularization of these activities in public. We focus on usage of art (theatre methods and techniques) in work with marginalized young people. In Stage trainers can give workshops in forum theatre, improvisation and slapstick (pantomime with music).

Contact person: Bojana Krstic
email: bokik@verat.net
Website: In Stage

Other groups involved: QueerBeograd
Website: QueerBeograd

AAC kulturanova (“Association for Alternative Creation”) is a non-government, non-profit organisation founded for popularisation and affirmation of art and cultural spirit. It was founded in May 2001 in Novi Sad (the capital of Vojvodina, region in Serbia) and since September 2002 it’s been active in Belgrade as well. Organization was founded as “umbrella” association of various non-formal independent art groups and individuals, young artists from Novi Sad. Organization’ focus is on development of urban youth culture and raising awareness on relevant social issues, with the vision of building creative platforms for youth in Novi Sad and in region. The base field of our activities is experimental arts. We’re interested in exploration of artistic frontiers (interaction of art and science, art and society, art and nature…). AAC kulturanova is very much concerned how art can effect environment and how can it benefit to local communities. Through our activities we are promoting cultural diversity and cultural tolerance and we see cultural rights as important part of human rights.

The main aims of the organisation: presentation of artists on our web-pages; artist’s integration by our projects; making connections with other regions by projects with our partners organisations; creation of a network with similar organisations; constant improvement of intercultural communication on local and regional levels and of youth cultural policy. Our main fields of our work are: resource centre; festivals & events (culture); lectures, conferences (human right, youth policy); workshops, seminars (education). The organization enlists nearly 80 young people, mostly artists from various spheres of art (performing arts, theatre, music, DJ, sculpturing, graffiti, comic, architecture…), but also interested in the organizing part of artistic work (cultural management, production, journalism).

Contact person: Milan Vracar
Email: miiilaaaan@yahoo.co.uk
Other groups involved: Volunteers' Centre of Vojvodina (VCV), Society of students ofbiology

URUK, Association for Development of Urban Culture, is a relatively young organization (it has started with its activities in February, 2004, and it has been registered since July 2005), however, it is made of experienced individuals that have been making impact to the cultural and NGO life of Banja Luka and wider area through their work in other organizations and projects from the previous periods until today. The primarily reason for the foundation of URUK is the lack of adequate framework for initiating the urban culture mechanism and cooperation with similar organizations in Europe that we have had contacts before. Thanks to the mentioned contribution of individuals from URUK, the organization has gained trust and support of independent and urban artists, activists and organizations in Banja Luka and the wider area.

Officially, we have 54 members, but the number of associates and friends that work together with us is much higher. URUK aims are development of the urban culture, improvement of the local art scene, promotion of civilian activism and self-realization, development of sustainable and cultural tourism, and sustainable development of the local and wider community. URUK is hosting the EYFA Cultural Caravan in Banja Luka to bring new values in city cultural life together with new knowledge in cooperation with leading Europian youth cultural organizations.

Contact person: Zeljko
Email: zeljko@blic.net
Other groups involved: Race

ZÖFI, - Hungarian Young Greens - is an all-volunteer group of young green activists. ZoFi represents the full spectrum of the European green agenda: apart from the 'classical' issues of nature-conservation and the protection of the environment, issues concerning the protection of civil-rights (e.g. equality before the law, anti-discrimination struggles), the protection of human dignity (e.g. solidarity, equal opportunities, caring for marginalised minorities) and anti-violence (e.g. antimilitarism, violence-free families and communities) are all considered equally important. It is our fundamental belief that you cannot have a healthy environment without having a healthy society, that environmental and social questions can only be resolved in the long term through recognising the organic, inherent inter-dependence of the two spheres.

Kapolcs - Valley of Arts
The Caravan workshops take place in the Kapolcs - Valley of Arts festival. In Kapolcs there is a "green courtyard", a place where Budapest based NGOs, organize programmes for the attendants of the festival.

Contact person: Jagodics Edit
Email: info@zofi.hu
Website ZoFi: ZoFi
Website Valley of Arts: Kapolcs - Valley of Arts

Ecotopia is EYFA's annual two week activist gathering of young people from all over Europe involved or interested in environmental and social justice issues. This year, Activist Art will be one of the main themes.

Find more info elsewhere on the EYFA website: EYFA Ecotopia