To all the friends, participants, supporters and partners in the culture_on_tour project

We are very proud to announce that the project Culture-On-Tour, organized by the Lighthouse Centre for Culture and Education, is ready to start with its programmes and activities on April 20th in Novi Sad, Serbia. The project will last for five weeks and will end on May 27th 2007.

During these five weeks the project will be focused on bringing together Roma and non-Roma groups of teenagers and young adults. Roma, Hungarian, Slovak, Czech, Romanian, Ruthenian, Croatian, German and other minorities and a Serbian majority will attend this melting pot.

Now imagine connecting all these young people using the tools they love: photography, art, video, creative writting. Picture them in your mind cominging together to learn from each other, face to face. Suddenly, borders or religion have no relevance. Contact turns into communication which develops into learning experiences and perhaps friendship and understanding.

We want to bring them closer together with the objective of promoting values of tolerance and mutual understanding. Only by putting them together in the same room, in the same program, in the same activities, having them share their thoughts, problems, ideas and visions can we raise their awareness, start a dialogue and bring these young people toward better understanding and finally toward mutual respect.

Thematic discussions are probably the only occasion for both, Roma and non-Roma youth to meet face to face and to discuss together important topics inherent to their imminent future. The main topics will be about the possibilities these young people are faced with for their future. We will start discussions focusing on different cultural and economical backgrounds these young people are coming from and what influence this has on their economic future as well as the cultural and political life they face in their country, region and in a wider context of a new, expanding European Union.

During these open forums we will touch upon issues such as prejudices, luck of trust, stereotypes, and misunderstandings. However, they will also discover how many things they have in common, that some of their problems are very similar,-although they come from very different backgrounds- and that they share common goals in most cases. Results of these symposiums are de facto seeds for their future life, for understanding and acceptance of different cultures, values and will. This will be of vital importance for their future reality.

Our goal is to broaden the minds of these young people, to help them communicate and work together, and to have them acknowledge and respect each other. We know that we don’t have the solution to all of their problems, nor do we have answers to all their questions, but if these young people can start understanding and respecting each other then we can take a first step into building their society  into a better place to live.


Please feel free to join us in Novi Sad during this five-week period. We will be happy to show you around, introduce you to our participants, and include you in our workshops. Our address is: Vojvode Bojovica 13 (black house), Novi Sad, Serbia, or visit our regularly updated web site 


Yours sincerely,
The Lighthouse Team