With the fiddlers’ music in the background and several tens of Roma gathered on Tuesday, the 25th of November, in a tent placed on muddy land, the foundations of the National Roma Culture Center (CNCR) were laid, with several coins from a necklace. The contract to start the construction work was signed on the same day.
The headquarters of CNCR shall rise on the location of a former movie theater from the district 5 in Bucharest, consisting of two plots of land with an area of 520 sqm and 450 sqm, granted by the General Council of the Bucharest Municipality. The earmarked budget amounted to 7 billion old lei. The amount planned for 2009 was announced to reach approximately EUR 4.5 million.
The center shall include a performance hall, to be used also as a conference room, exhibition space for paintings, photographic art, Romani language or computer literacy courses, as well as recording space. The organizers plan to offer authentic Roma music, adapted Roma dancing, Roma playwriting, novels and poetry, painting, sculpture, religion, courses that combine education with culture.
The launch of the Center is part of a series of events conducted between November 25th and 27th in the same location, under the motto “Forget about yesterday… celebrate today! We bring culture back to life!”.
For three days, the visitors who dared step in the muddy land where the tent was placed, could watch several cinematographic projections and had the chance to buy traditional Roma products – cast-iron pots, spoons, flowery skirts, silver jewelry etc – and to listen to the fiddlers’ music. (Mihaela Dumitrascu, DIVERS – www.divers.ro )