Guidelines for hosts
Information for potential Host organisations
The Gulliver's Connect Programme is open only to professional arts practitioners (visitors) and arts/cultural organisations (hosts), from the EU member states and Russia and the former Soviet Republics The aim is to facilitate collaborative partnerships in the cultural sector between European countries and to encourage the process of 'learning from practice'.
The idea is that via a work placement framework a visiting arts practitioner becomes a temporary member of a host organisation's working team with a specific role, task or project. The work placement period is a time for both the "international visitor" and the "host" to learn and experience each other's working practices, cultural identities, national situations and to establish new international cultural relations or strengthen existing ones.
The host organisations should be an arts and cultural organisations who have demonstrated good working practices in adapting to the new situation and climate of their countries.
The visiting arts practitioners have 1 - 3 years project, organisational or management experience. They are able to demonstrate that the impact of the work placement experience will contribute to systematic changes in their local cultural environment. Priority is given to those applicants from the regions i.e. outside the capitals and the big cultural centres of a country.
There are approximately 20 bursaries for the Gulliver's Connect 2008 programme of approximately € 1500 each. The bursary covers the costs of travel, accommodation, a daily allowance and a symbolic amount of € 25 towards the communication costs of making the placement arrangements. The method of bursary payment is only by bank transfer and will be sent in advance of the work placement. The work placements are for a period of generally 4 weeks, with a minimum 3 weeks and a maximum of 6 weeks, if this is feasible within the given budget.
Host Organisation Responsibilities
Potential host organisations must be able to recognise the mutual benefits of this experience.
i.e. a comparison of working practices and dealing with national funding systems or lack of them can provide useful insights as to more productive methods to carry out an area of work.
At the same time, host organisations must be aware that they have a large role to play in carefully planning and caring for the work placement.
To ensure that the work placement is productive, host organisations are responsible for planning in advance a specific project or a range of activities for the international visitor. This should be in the form of an offer but open and flexible enough to take into account the needs of the international visitor. Therefore pre- placement communication with the visitor is an essential requirement and both host and visitor should know exactly what is expected of each other before the work placement takes place.
It is important that the international visitor has a place where he/she can work from within your organisation. The minimum is a desk but depending upon the tasks or role the visitor is performing - they must be provided with the resources necessary to be able to carry out their work effectively. (i.e. phone and or computer)
Host organisations are also responsible for the accommodation arrangements for the international visitor and will receive by bank transfer the bursary amount to cover this cost. The accommodation should be a self contained apartment or a room in a shared house with access to bathroom and kitchen facilities. Hotel accommodation is only covered when for example during the placement period a festival or a workshop takes place at a different location in the host's country.
Please read the document "Gulliver Connect tips for the Hosts" on the right of this page
