CULTURE AND COMMUNITY
The aim of the project is to establish channels of communication and cooperation between the local government and the local independent cultural organizations and in that way contribute to the decentralization of the cultural policy making.
It will point out the interdependency of the above mentioned agents and the way they can complement each others activities, resources and experiences.
This will help the local administration to create their local cultural policies by using the long working experiences of the independent organizations and in return the cultural organization can implement projects in accordance to this local cultural policy using the resources of the local administration.
This will be done through the following activities:

• Culture and community – Seminars – Two major seminars involving the city of Skopje, the municipality of Cair – Skopje, several independent cultural organizations, Cirkus Cirkor and Botkyrka commune from Stockholm Sweden.
• The Month of the Bazaar – a series of cultural events assembling a very broad range of co-operators and partners such as The Ministry of Culture of Republic of Macedonia, the city of Skopje, The municipality Centar and Cair, Albanian Theatre and Turkish Theatre, The Drama Theatre across Macedonia, The Faculty of Dramatic Arts independent cultural organizations etc.

CULTURE AND COMMUNITY – SEMINARS
The activity consists of 2 major seminars.
The first seminar was held in October 2005 and lasted three days. The seminar had informational character with discussions about the cooperation between cultural institutions and municipalities with special focus on the cooperation in Botkyrka Commune in Stockholm, Sweden; discussing about the needs, potentials, capacities and possible models of cooperation between the municipalities, independent cultural institutions and different communal agents in a Macedonian context; and creating a working group of different organizations that will work on preparation of concrete project proposals that can be developed and realized in cooperation with the local government. The second seminar will be held in spring 2006 and will discuss the project proposals from the working group, identify the most realizable and significant ones and start the preparation for them, and intensive project management training or LFA course in which both municipality officials and independent cultural organizations will take part.

THE MONTH OF THE BAZAAR
CTC is a consulting member of the Governments cross-departmental working group for the Revitalization of the Old Bazaar in the section for Culture. CTC in the role of the consultant for the cultural aspect proposed a pilot project that will join all relevant actors within culture to create a one month of cultural activities in the old Bazaar under the name The Month of the Bazaar. The activities range from theatre, dance, music, open air film projection, painters colony, special art installations, an open air book fair etc.
The first The Month of Bazaar was held between 14th and 22nd of September 2005. It consisted a large number of theatre performances, concerts, exhibitions, projections of documentaries and etc.
This project is very relevant for CTC within the program All for Culture-Culture for All for two reasons:

• It summons all forces within culture in the city of Skopje and the local Bazaar community to promote the cultural value of the Old Bazaar as one of the most important and unique cultural heritages that is equally relevant for all ethnicities living in Skopje but also all over Macedonia.
• It will be realized in very close cooperation with the local government. In this way it becomes a unique cooperation of this kind between the local government and an independent cultural organization as CTC. This cooperation will also be a model for future cooperation of this kind with other independent cultural organizations.