Description of organisation

The Culture Center Delavski dom Trbovlje is the main cultural institution in the Municipality of Trbovlje, while its activities also strech beyond municipal and regional borders. As part of the public service, it provides support to cultural activities in the municipality and the organization of cultural events for citizens. With its program of contemporary art (new media) production, it integrates into contemporary art trends worldwide and is one of the centers of contemporary art in the country and in Europe. Through the Speculum Artium festival, it brings to the local environment and Slovenia projects that are emerging at the intersection of art, science, technology and economy. In this way, it provides the domestic audience with an insight into modern trends in the field of culture, and the local environment with quality content that serve for entertainment, as well as for education of population and the spiritual growth of the individual. In addition to the basic program, Delavski dom Trbovlje runs an EU-supported project, Network of research arts centers RUK, where we implement a program of connecting art, science and technology throughout the year, with an emphasis on supporting project implementation. As part of this project, a modernly equipped DDTlab was set up in 2019, which enables us to work in the field of robotics, virtual worlds and interfaces between the brain and computers, the later beeing a likely technology of the future. The goal of Delavski dom Trbovlje is to maintain its role as a regional center of art and culture, and further develop also in global connections in the field of science and art. Thus, Trbovlje is becoming a recognizable point on the map of creative centers in Slovenia and Europe, a place where the future is (co) formed. The target groups covered by the institution are different. As part of its public service, it addresses the wider local public with its activities (cinema, theater, gallery, social spaces), where we offer them various cultural content through a selected program, from entertainment to more demanding and more complex forms of art. In addition, Delavski dom Trbovlje is also a key social space for the local community, where people gather. We place great emphasis on cooperation with local educational institutions in order to include a young audience in our activities, which will continue to visit us in the future. We also do not neglect the elderly population, where we maintain regular contacts with the Trbovlje Retirement Institution and the Trbovlje Retirement Association, whose protégés and members regularly participate in DDT activities (chior contests, exhibitions, participation in the Speculum Artrium festival). The Delavski dom building was built in 1956 with the self-contributions of all Trbovlje residents, so we are committed to creating such a program that is accessible to all target groups, with special care for people with fewer opportunities and socially disadvantaged groups. During the year, over 150 different events take place in our institution, of which more than half are without entrance fees, as material conditions should not be a criteria for access to cultural content. Together with the local association of the disabled poeple and the municipality, we have arranged access for people with reduced mobility to our building, and we also regularly organize cultural and social meetings for the disabled. We enable local associations and individual artists to create and present their works in our facilities. Besides taking care of the local population, the program of Delavski dom Trbovlje addresses the audience across the borders of the municipality, even the state. Especially with the new media cultural program, Delavski dom Trbovlje connects into worldwide networks of artists in the field of contemporary art and digitalization of society. Every year, the Speculum Artium festival hosts over 20 artists, engineers and scientists from all over the world. Our connections extend to Japan (University of Tsukuba, Hiroshi Ishiguro Lab), USA (UCLA) and more nearby Austria (Ars Electronica). Such connections are also important for the local community, as in this way global ideas and solutions penetrate into it, and the local community also progresses. A concrete connection between experience from abroad and domestic tradition is the Virtual Museum of Mining 4. dritl, which operates within Delavski dom Trbovlje and preserves the rich mining tradition of the place, with the help of modern technologies and visual practices. In this way, it serves both the local community, preserving their own identity in a modern way, as well as tourists from elsewhere who are interested in the experience of the local population.

Inclusion topics

This organisation is willing to involve volunteers who face situations which make their participation in activities more difficult, from the following categories for different types of project:

• Cultural differences
• Geographical obstacles
• Social obstacles