At the very end of 2016, a year that has been marked by noticeable activities and recognition of theatre for children and youth in Croatia, ASSITEJ Croatia celebrated another birthday. The celebration of 20 year-long existence, hard work and continuous encouraging of theatre production in Croatia took place on November 25th in Virovitica, a small town in the Croatian north.
Established in 1996, ASSITEJ Croatia, today a leading association, gathers 35 collective and individual members in an informal theatre network of professionally managed theatres. Number of celebrated years and quantity of participating members reflect the quality and importance of ASSITEJ’s mission and vision. Hence, the hosts of the celebration were people strongly involved in work and professionalization of theatre for children and youth: Leo Vukeli?, Miran Hajoš and Romano Bogdan, i.e. the president and members of ASSITEJ’s Management Board, people specialized in many aspects for art, theatre and youth work. Furthermore, the celebration was attended by some founding, some former, and some present prominent members of the association (Ivica Šimi? video calling from China, Vitomira Lon?ar, Jasminka Mesari?, Rajna Miloš, Dražen Feren?ina, Rene Medvešek…), who were all personally noted for their engagement and great contribution in this field. For that night, the theatre stage in Virovitica was also taken by some of the most famous and active theatre groups, and by the end of the night, the Annual Meeting of Professionally Managed Theatres for Children and Youth Awards were handed.
The main ceremony was accompanied by poster exhibition of festivals organized by ASSITEJ Croatia, writer meet-ups and a party for ASSITEJ’s partners and friends.
Assitej Croatia was established in 1996 as an equal member of the renowned theatre organization Assitej which gathers national theatres from across the world. The goal of Assitej Croatia is to be the leading umbrella association of theatres for children and youth. In cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education, efforts have been made to establish quality criteria in the market of children and youth theatres.
Assitej Croatia is financially supported by Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia and City of Zagreb, City Office for Education, Culture and Sports.
