On hand to speak at the round table on the Institute’s periodical publications were Member of Parliament Ivo Jelušić, CHF director Marin Knezović, scientists Petar Vuković and Mario Bara and the director of the Institute for the Culture of Vojvodina Croatians of Subotica Tomislav Žigmanov.
A round table discussion was staged at the CHF December 5th on the topic of the periodical publications of the Institute for the Culture of Vojvodina Croatians and the cultural memory of the Croatians of Vojvodina. The publications of this Subotica-based institute, it turns out, are an expression – in terms of content, style, typography and authors – of the shaping of the cultural memory of the Croatians of modern Vojvodina.
On hand to speak at this well received round table were Member of Parliament and president of the CHF Board of Directors Ivo Jelušić, Croatian Heritage Foundation director Marin Knezović MSc, Zagreb-based scientists Petar Vuković DSc of the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of the Humanities and Social Sciences and Mario Bara DSc of the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies and the director of the Institute for the Culture of Vojvodina Croatians of Subotica Tomislav Žigmanov.
It was noted in the discussion, among other things, that the Institute for the Culture of Vojvodina Croatians (http://www.zkvh.org.rs), established in 2008, is the first professional institution in the field of culture in the Vojvodina Croatian community. The institute’s core programme mission, as set out in its founding documents, includes collaboration with scientific, academic, development and applied research in the field of culture, the arts and the sciences. It also includes work in the fields of bibliography and archival sciences, management and education in culture and the encouragement, organisation and staging of culture production among the Croatian minority community in Vojvodina. The institute’s activities include publishing, research, library and archival activities, working with museums, galleries and collections and the protection of cultural property, natural and other heritage and creating a database.
It is important to note that, since its inception, the institute has worked on improving and developing international cultural cooperation between the Croatian national minority in Vojvodina with the Croatian homeland and neighbouring countries. It has done so by gathering people from the scientific elite around its own programme activities and by involving them in new research to build a better future for science and better perspectives for researchers, especially among the younger generation.
On hand for the event were members of parliament, representatives of the ministries and of the State Office for Croats Abroad, university professors, many of the authors contributing to publications of the Institute, Vojvodina natives living in Zagreb, journalists and writers.
The round table event also included the presentation of issues No.4 and No. 5 of the Scientific Research Yearbook and issues Nos. 1 and 2 of the Nova Riječ (New Word) magazine for literature and the arts. The participants also spoke of the other significant results of the Institute’s work to date, including twenty-three publications, a dozen scientific research campaigns with outside associates, some thirty symposia, the on-going supplementation of a critical and integral bibliography of Vojvodina Croatians, library activities, a major series of exhibitions and concerts featuring Croatian composers from Vojvodina and the release of several audio recordings.
The Institute’s yearbooks systematically publish scientific and academic papers that treat the many aspects of the social life of Croatians in Vojvodina, including those significant to national identity in the domain of the social sciences and humanities.
The published content and editorial concept are the result of the planned, competent and visionary work of the Institute. The editorial board has also consciously endeavoured in the published papers to represent the sub-ethnic diversity among the Croatian community in Vojvodina and its territorial distribution.
The first issue of the Institute’s Scientific Research Yearbook was published in 2010. It included a representative selection of scientific and academic papers on Croatians in Vojvodina published in the previous ten years. The second issue appeared in early 2011 and presented readers with twelve scientific and academic papers on 376 pages that treated as their focus of attention some aspect of the social life of the Croatians of Vojvodina, both in the past and the present. The third issue of the yearbook was released in 2012 and featured ten scientific and academic papers on 384 pages. The fourth issue, in 2013, offered as many as seventeen papers on 464 pages that focused on some facet of the social life of the Croatians of Vojvodina. The fifth issue of the Institute’s Scientific Research Yearbook was released in May of 2014 in the customary print run of three hundred copies. It’s 390 pages featured fourteen scientific and academic papers. The papers of the fifth issue were penned by twenty-eight authors from Vojvodina, Croatia and Hungary (Stevan Mačković, Robert Skenderović, Dražen Živić) and those of the younger generation (Ivana Andrić Penava, Ljubica Vuković Dulić, Vladan Čutura, Ivan Armanda, Dominik Deman, Željka Zelić). The fifth issue of the yearbook also included reviews of all publicist and scientific papers on Croatians in Vojvodina published in 2012. In short – a brief guide to the types, nature and content of books published in the year prior to the release of the yearbook that focus on the core topic of Croatians in Vojvodina. The year-round efforts of chief editor Tomislav Žigmanov and his associates produce one volume every year, each successive edition being more comprehensive and offering more content.
The Institute’s periodical activity also includes the Nova Riječ (New Word) magazine for literature and the arts, published by the Institute for the Culture of Vojvodina Croatians with the logistic support of NIU Hrvatska Riječ (Nova Riječ Newspaper Publishing Institution) since late June of 2013. The magazine aims to produce two issues every year, with Tomislav Žigmanov serving as chief editor and Vladan Čutura as deputy chief editor. The magazine’s editorial board includes Katarina Čeliković, Bernadica Ivanković, Mirko Kopunović, Nela Tonković, Ljubica Vuković Dulić and Željka Zelić. The magazine’s second issue went into print in mid January 2014 for the autumn-winter 2013 season. Thus far it has met expectations in terms of the high editorial criteria established with regard to the presentation of literary content and its treatment of literary and art phenomenon.
Speaking at the promo event moderator Vesna Kukavica noted that, “It is difficult to summarise in brief all of the achievements of this, in every regard, exceptional institution, which has demonstrated brilliant results in everything it has undertaken. Until such time as periodical publications are, like those produced by Australian Croatians, available on the Hrčak Portal of Scientific Journals of Croatia (http://hrcak.srce.hr) we can continue to follow its work, the events it organises, the continuity of publication and projects on the Internet portal of the Institute for the Culture of Vojvodina Croatians.”