7Arte was established on May 03, 2006 by a group of local artists in Mitrovica, Kosovo. With 10 years of experience, 7Arte plays the role of a cultural alternative center by organising multidisciplinary cultural activities such as: audio-visual workshops, music festivals, outdoor screening, street art, poetry nights, crafts fair, exchange programs and education programs, peace building and environmental actions.  
        
7Arte involves and encourages women to be active in many initiatives and programs; it is also an organisation with an environmental component and strives to revitalise abandoned buildings as well as change local cultural politics.

Vision:
To inspire citizens and promote creativity for sustainable development

Mission:
To support young Kosovar artists; develop and promote a common European culture.

Our recent activities (2011-2016):  

"Creative Corner" - a hub with café library integrated with the purpose of gathering youngsters, initiating and developing creative ideas. Supported by Mitrovica Municipality, Innovation LAB-UNICEF and French Embassy, Blackbirds book, and Liburnia.

"Shala la-la-la" was a workshop for young people living on rural areas. The project had several workshops for kids such as: photography, crafts, and social media with the aim to empower youth on rural areas and inspire them for rural sustainable development. It was supported by French Embassy in Pristina and Mitrovica Municipality.

"GREEN Open Air Cinema" is a traditional event organised by 7Arte since 2008. Inventing and promoting new public spaces was one of the objectives of this festival, on the other hand it was promoting young Kosovar filmmakers, and tackling environmental issues.

"Green Music Festival" is being organised since 2011. The main goal of the "Green Music Festival" is to raise the public awareness on environmental protection and conservation, calm down the tense situation in Mitrovica and improve the interethnic-cultural life in the northern part of Kosovo. It is supported by EU program "Culture for all", Luxembourg Embassy, The Netherlands Embassy, Ministry Youth and Culture, Mitrovica Municipality and local businesses.

"What is (my) Culture?" is a project implemented by 7Arte and the organisation HopeBox from Amsterdam, Netherlands. The aim of the project is to debate about culture, policies, and potential urban art interventions. It promoted dialogue and cultural diversity among participants from different ethnic groups with a special focus on environmental issues. Supported by the Netherlands Embassy and Museum of Mitrovica.

"Diaspora Greens the Homeland" is a project with the main purpose of strengthening diaspora’s role in improving the environment and economic development through bringing their knowledge and investments. Supported by the Ministry of Diaspora.

Contest "The best garden in Mitrovica" is a traditional activity that promotes gardening. This contest gives three awards for the best garden to institutions and three awards to individual/family gardens, for the most beautiful and creative gardening.

"Green Youth Clubs"- In cooperation with Youth Councils of Mitrovica Region and leaders of secondary schools, six Green Youth Clubs will be established in Mitrovica.  Every effort will be made to ensure gender balance and cultural diversity. Possible projects that will be conducted with these clubs include organising a trash clean up at their schools, information campaigns, or planting trees. This will give youth their most hands-on experience in project development and identification of community/environment needs. Six Green Youth Clubs will be encouraged and supported to find funding from local donors to implement their projects. The most effective and feasible ideas will be financially awarded - that can be used to enhance local youth groups’ capacity to continue their environmental activities post project. "7arte" and "YCM" will provide continuous advice throughout the project implementation cycle. Moreover these clubs will be given the chance to expose and promote their initiatives into the Green & Crafts Fair 2016 - 1st edition, which will be a great opportunity to increase their funding/revenues by selling their recycled products, crafts or anything that they might come up with as suitable to be sold.

 
"Green & Crafts Fair" - This action is newly added to the package of the 6th edition of the Green Fest, with the aim to complement the Green Fest while expanding on activities regarding culture, environment etc. The Green & Crafts Fair will be held on the same time as Green Music Festival and it will be kind of an entrance to the music festival, this action will enable approximately 12 agriculture SMEs (Women Entrepreneurs) and Entrepreneurs from the Creative Industry (women that work with crafts) and environmental NGOs to expose, promote, and in the meantime sell their products. However, the main advantage of this fair will be the chance to increase awareness on consumption of domestic products and handmade crafts, which will help these businesses managed by women to expand their market performance. Since, according to some observations, the main problems for these SMEs are the lack of promotion, customer awareness and most of all finding place in the market. Therefore, this fair will be a bridge between these businesses and the general public, in this way each part will get to know and help the other. 

"Recycling art competition" - For the second time, 7Arte with local and national partners will launch the national call "Recycling art competition" with the aim of supporting and promoting innovative ideas which respectively are related to recycling art and crafts. There are men and women in Kosovo wide, who made art pieces/work by recycling, or did any other innovative action that is eco-friendly. A combined and professional jury will design the criteria of the competition and will launch the call in national level. Finally, the jury will decide for three winners of the financial awards and all the process will be promoted in national level. Therefore, this competition will increase awareness on recycling and its benefits, and in the meantime will stimulate and support artists/creative industry that are passionate in this area.   

7Arte team