The two-day event “Days of Roma culture and Sofka Nikolić Evenings”, which is implemented in the framework of cross-border project between the B&H and Serbia under the title “Support to cooperation, inclusion, education and the promotion of Roma culture in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia-SA-ŠA” funded by the EU, will be open by artworks exhibition of Roma artists from B&H and Serbia on Wednesday in “Art House of Sevdah” premises.
This is the first of the two-day event, which will be realized in the framework of this project. The second is titled “Cultural evening dedicated to the promotion of life and work of Sofka Nikolić” which will be held on Thursday, 27 March, also in the “Art House of Sevdah”.
On March 26, 2014, the event ”Day of Roma Culture” in Bosnia and Herzegovina was held at the Art House of Sevdah in Sarajevo on March 26, 2014. Tomorrow, another event – ”Cultural Evenings Dedicated to the Promotion of Life and Work of Sofka Nikolić” will be organized also at the Art House of Sevdah.
The event contains numerous interesting details on Roma culture and art, such as an exhibition of paintings, traditional clothes, songs of Sofka Nikolić, folklore games and artisans’ products.
The Assistant Mayor of Sarajevo for Local Self-Governance and SA-ŠA Project Coordinator, Dragana Solaković, said for the Fena Agency that the goal of the project was promotion of Roma culture and tradition in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, informing the public about the artistic and literary achievements of Roma people, traditional clothes and traditional crafts and promotion of the life and work of the singer Sofka Nikolić, whose life is linked to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. She performed between two world wars in the biggest European cities and was the most sought after singer of Europe.
– Also, the project aims at improving the position of Roma people as the largest national minority in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Europe by establishing a cross-border cooperation between NGOs, exchange of experiences and finding common solutions for social problems, increase in education level and information of Roma people on the importance of education, health protection, entry into birth register, gender equality and other problems faced on a daily basis by the Roma population – says she.
The representatives of the embassies of the Republic of Austria, Federal Republic of Germany, Czech Republic and Republic of Serbia were also invited to the event, since these are countries in which Sofka Nikolić made records and where she left an indelible trace.
The EU finances the ”SA-ŠA” project with an amount of 295,134.17 EUR, and it is implemented by the City of Sarajevo in partnership with the National Council Roma National Minority in Serbia, Sarajevo Regional Development Agency SERDA and Hilfswerk Austria International in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
