Board
DOMAGOJ ŠAVOR (president) was born in 1984. Over 15 years of experience in producing independent cultural programs, coordinating platforms and networks in independent culture in Croatia. Since 2018, in the Clubture network, he has been coordinating the Clubture-HR program of exchange and collaboration, as well as activities that include monitoring of public policies in the field of culture and civil society, advocacy and networking with local, regional and EU networks in culture. He is a member of the Government Council for the Development of Civil Society in the field of culture (2020-2026), the Program Council of Pogon – Zagreb Center for Independent Culture and Youth, and is currently president of the Network of Social and Cultural Centers DKC-HR.
POLONA TORKAR (member) is the Head of the Expert Office and Vice-President of Društvo Asociacija, Slovenija, and has been working in the Slovenian independent cultural scene in various roles since 2006, including as Editor-in-Chief of Radio Študent, and as a project manager or part of production teams of various Slovenian NGO’s like Ljudmila, Art & Science Laboratory, developmental arts space osmo/za, KUD Channel Zero, Paraliterary Association I.D.I.O.T. and others.
LUKA KNEŽEVIĆ STRIKA (vice-president) is a photographer, visual artist and cultural worker. He contributes to various, mostly self-organized collective practices in the fields of art, spaces and activism. He founded or co-founded artistic collectives, artist-run spaces, programs and awards such as Belgrade raw, Jednostavno rečeno, Ostavinska, Commendation and Multimadeira. He served as a member and chairman of the Steering Committee of the Association Independent culture scene of Serbia. He is involved as an educator and facilitator in the projects of support of migrants run by Group 484. In 2013, he was a curator of the yearly program of the Artget gallery of the Cultural centre of Belgrade. His works were shown in galleries and museums in Serbia, Germany, Austria, Croatia, Sweden, Estonia and are part of the October Salon collection. His photographs were published in weekly magazines, books and other publications.
KATARINA PAVIĆ (member) is a cultural worker, activist, and a researcher. She started engaging with the independent cultural organisations in Croatia and wider post-Yugoslav space in 2005. Katarina worked as the overall coordinator of the Clubture Network – a collaborative platform bringing together independent cultural organisations in Croatia, in the period 2009-17. She was also a youth rights advocate, the member and the president of the board of Croatian Youth Network (MMH / CYN) 2008-13. During this period, Katarina was closely involved in the organisation of various activities during multiannual campaigns of the local Zagreb Right to the City movement, as well as other large-scale direct actions tackling public spaces and the commons in Croatia, initiated by the independent cultural actors. Katarina was also the first coordinator of Kooperativa in the period of its establishment as a regional platform (2012-2015) engaging in development of its programmatic and governance structure.
Katarina engages as an advocate and researcher on the intersection of civil society development, activism and cultural critique. She was twice elected as a member of the Council for Civil Society Development and the first ever representative of the independent cultural organisations. She participated as an expert in creation of different strategic and programmatic documents, including multiple national and local youth programmes, cultural strategies and other programmatic documents tackling civil society development. Nowadays, Katarina works as a researcher and collaborates with many different cultural organisations, in the region and elsewhere. She researches connections between independent cultural actors and vibrant democracies. She received an MA in Culture industry from Goldsmiths, University of London. Katarina will commence her doctoral research at Coventry University in autumn 2024.
NIKOLA PISAREV (member) graduated from the University of St. Cyril and Metodij Skopje, Institute of Art History and Archaeology, in 2015 MA in PR and Strategic Communications at High School for Public Relations and Journalism in Skopje. At the moment, he is the program director at Contemporary Art Center Skopje where he has worked since 1999 (before that he was working at State Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage). Since 1999 works on the improvement of cultural and social life of communities in Macedonia and western Balkans. Author of many projects that still have strong feedback in western Balkans like projects PhotoVoice, Mobile/Montage Gallery, Citizens activator, Rurual communities culture, (project awarded by SCP AND SDC with a special award for social impact), Urban Art Actions (one of widely recognized CSOs projects in the history of Macedonia). Founder of numerous civic initiatives among which are: I love GTC, Initiative for saving Radika River, Initiative Arsena for clean drinking water in Gevgleija, Parkobrans, and many other community initiatives. One of his biggest achievements is that he was the first to start using creative communication and actions in CSOs projects and successful solving different community problems. He is the author of many articles from fields of Art History, Urban environment and urbanism, social anthropology and civic activism.