CENTRUL CULTURAL ROMANESC (CCR)

CCR ca retea de informatii

Centrul Cultural Romanesc este o reala retea de informatii. Anunturile noastre publice iau forma trimiterilor de scrisori, e-mailuri si comunicate de presa.
Anunturile prin e-mail sunt trimise unei baze de date de 3.000 de persoane. Centrul trimite informatii culturale in mod regulat si prin scrisori, destinate celor 1.000 de membri ai CCR. Toate informatiile sunt publicate, de asemenea, pe web site: www.romanianculturalcentre.org.uk 

Sursa de finantare

Taxe de membru, burse, donatii, sponsorizari, venituri din vanzari (publicatii, bilete, etc).

Activitati

Membri CCR

Daca doriti sa deveniti membri ai CCR, va rugam sa trimiteti pe adresa noastra postala detaliile dumneavoastra de contact impreuna cu un cec pentru ‘The Romanian Cultural Centre’. Taxa este de £10 anual pentru membru individual si £15 anual pentru familie.

Dupa inscrierea in CCR si trimiterea taxei aferente veti primi o legitimatie de membru care va permite sa beneficiati de intrari gratuite sau bilete cu pret redus la evenimentele noastre culturale. Numele si adresa dumneavoastra vor fi inregistrate in baza noastra de date si va vom informa prin posta despre noile evenimente culturale. Daca sunteti interesati, va putem trimite prin e-mail buletinele informative lunare ale Centrului Cultural Romanesc din Londra.

Contact:
Nicolae Ratiu
Ramona Mitrica
8th floor, 54 - 62 Regent Street, London W1B 5RE
Tel. + 44 (0) 20 7439 4052, Fax. +44 (0) 20 7437 5908
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Web site: www.romanianculturalcentre.org.uk

Romania in the third millennium

Asa cum este definit in actul de constituire, scopul asociatiei noastre este crearea de programe in folosul cetatenilor romani, pentru ajutorarea acestora in domeniile educatiei, religiei si combaterii saraciei.
Mai concret, iata obiectivele noastre structurate pe cele trei domenii de activitate, care se adreseaza cetatenilor romani din interiorul si exteriorul granitelor Romaniei:

Educatie
- respectarea dreptului la educatie;
- asigurarea accesului la educatie la toate nivelurile;
- cresterea nivelului de educare;
- crearea, acolo unde acestea lipsesc, de forme de educare adecvate.

Religie
- respectarea dreptului la credinta religioasa;
- asigurarea conditiilor adecvate practicarii credintei si accesului la servicii religioase;
- crearea, acolo unde acestea lipsesc, de conditii pentru practicarea credintei.

Combaterea saraciei
- respectarea dreptului la munca si protectie sociala, a dreptului la greva si a celorlalte aspecte legale ale raporturilor de munca;
- combaterea somajului;
- cresterea gradului de profesionalizare a fortei de munca;
- incurajarea spiritului antreprenorial si sprijinirea intreprinzatorilor.

Structura de conducere a asociatiei noastre este urmatoarea:
Costel Petre - director
Prof. Dr. Ing. Gheorghe Zgura - director
Dr. Elena Munteanu - secretary

Contact:

http://www.romania3millennium.org.uk
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Telefon: 0800 731 26 80

Societatea Medicala Romana in UK

Obiectivele Societatii Medicale Romane din Marea Britanie sunt:

1. Crearea unui network medical românesc care să contribuie la facilitarea contactului dintre medicii români din Marea Britanie.

2. Diseminarea informaţiilor relevante pentru promovarea şi realizarea profesionala în sistemul medical din Marea Britanie.

3. Reprezentarea intereselor medicilor români în structurile medicale din UK (General Medical Coucil, Deptartment of Health, British Medical Association, British Council si diferite organizatii de asigurari medicale).

4. Dezvoltarea unor proiecte de colaborare în Marea Britanie sau România, pentru îmbunătăţirea asistenţei medicale a românilor.

Contact:

http://www.romedics.org.uk
Homerton Row, London, E9 6SR
London
UK

Telefon fix: 020 8510 5555

Parohia ortodoxa Sf. Macarie cel Mare - Yorkshire

Parohia Ortodoxa "Sfantul Macarie cel Mare", Yorkshire, Marea Britanie, se afla sub jurisdictia Patriarhiei Romane, Mitropolia Ortodoxa Romana a Europei Occidentale si Meridionale, cu sediul la Paris.

Aceasta parohie ii cuprinde pe romanii din nordul Angliei si este gazduita de Comuntatea anglicana "Invierea Domnului", din orasul Mirfield, care a pus la dispozitia parohiei romanesti unul dintre locasurile de cult ale comunitatii. In aceasta biserica se savarseste Dumnezeiasca Liturghie in Duminici si sarbatori.

Trebuie sa mentionam faptul ca aceasta comunitate anglicana, inca de la intemeierea ei, in 1892, a avut stranse legaturi de prietenie si colaborare cu Biserica Ortodoxa. Fondatorii acestui asezamant, episcopii Charles Gore si Walter Howard Frere, au vizitat de nenumarate ori Bisericile Ortodoxe din Rasarit, inclusiv Biserica Ortodoxa Romana. Incepand cu perioada interbelica au existat schimburi de experienta intre preotii si studentii Institutului Teologic Anglican din incinta Comunitatii din Mirfield si cei ai Institutului Teologic Ortodox din Sibiu, colaborare care a fost reluata dupa 1989 cu actuala Facultate de Teologie Ortooxa "Andrei Saguna" din Sibiu.

Prima Liturghie Ortodoxa in biserica Comunitatii din Mirfield a fost savarsita la 28 Octombrie 1917, de catre preotii sarbi dimpreuna cu studentii lor, refugiati in Anglia la sfarsitul Primului Razboi Mondial si gazduiti la Mirfield prin recomandarile Sfantului Nicolae Velimirovich. Se crede ca insusi Sfantul ar fi slujit in aceasta biserica, la Altarul Sfintei Cruci, special amenajat pentru a permite oficierea slujbelor ortodoxe. In prestolul acestui altar s-a asezat mai tarziu o particica din lemnul Sfintei Cruci, relicva daruita de Patriarhul Damian al Ierusalimului, in 1929.

La sfarsitul lunii Februarie 2004, Parintele Ieromonah Macarie Dragoi, slujitor la Catedrala Arhiepiscopala din Alba Iulia, a primit o bursa de studiu pentru a-si continua cercetarea pentru teza de doctorat, in cadrul Comunitatii si Colegiului Invierii din Mirfield. Ajuns in Anglia, a reusit sa intre in contact cu romanii din regiunea Yorkshire, apoi a cerut blagoslovenia Inalt Preasfintitului Parinte Mitroppolit Iosif Pop pentru a sluji Dumnezeiasca Liturghie in biserica Comunitatii din Mirfield. Prin Gramata mitropolitana nr 166/ 1 Mai 2004, Parintele Mitropolit Iosif a acordat binecuvantarea ca Ieromonahul Macarie sa oficieze toate slujbele necesare pentru romanii din aceasta parte a Angliei. Pe langa Sfanta Liturghie s-au facut mai multe slujbe ale Sfantului Botez si alte servicii religioase, de care credinciosii aveau atata nevoie. Intre 5 si 6 Iunie 2004, s-a organizat de catre comunitatea romaneasca un pelerinaj la Manastirea "Sfantul Ioan Botezatorul" de la Maldon (Essex), intemeiata de Arhimandritul Sofronie (1896-1938), ucenicul Sfantului Siluan de la Athos.

Avand in vedere nevoile pastoral-misionare ale credinciosilor ortodocsi romani din nordul Angliei, Parintele Ieromonah Macarie Dragoi a convocat, in Duminica din 20 Iunie 2004, Adunarea de constituire a viitoarei Parohii Ortodoxe Romane, in cadrul careia s-au facut toate demersurile necesare catre Mitropolia Ortodoxa Romana a Europei Occidentale si Meridionale pentru infiintarea acestei parohii.

Procesul verbal al Adunarii Parohiale constitutive a fost aprobat, iar prin Gramata nr 265/ 18 August 2004, Inalt Preasfintitul Parinte Mitropolit Iosif a acordat arhiereasca binecuvantare de infiintare a Parohiei Ortodoxe Romane "Sfantul Macarie cel Mare" (sarbatorit la 19 Ianuarie), din regiunea Yorkshire si imprejurimi, Marea Britanie.

Contact:

Romanian Orthodox Parish of St. Macarios the Great
http://www.sfmacarie.org.uk
House of the Resurrection
Stocksbank Road
Mirfield
West Yorkshire
WF14 0BN

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Prodan Romanian Cultural Foundation

The Prodan Romanian Cultural Foundation is a recently-formed charitable body endowed by the Estates of the late Mia Prodan de Kisbunn of Romania and her daughter the late Maria Bjornson, the well-known British theatre and opera designer best known to the public as the costume and set designer for Phantom of the Opera. The trustees of the Foundation are Christopher Moore, Professor Robert Temple, and Olivia Temple.

The purpose of the Foundation is to promote outside Romania the high points of Romanian contributions to 20th century Western culture, mainly the activities of the Romanian diaspora who fled their country to escape the two world wars and the Nazi and communist regimes.

The primary musical emphasis of the Foundation is upon the compositions of Dinu Lipatti (who died aged 33, an exile in Geneva) and upon the Foundation's Later Fugue Project. The Foundation has created a mini-label named Brancusi Classics which is recording all fugues of major composers since the deaths of Bach and Handel, performed by Stefano Greco. The Foundation has also paid for the restoration of Romania's oldest keyboard instrument, a Clavichord of 1820 at Sighisoara, jointly with the Mihai Eminescu Trust.

The Foundation is translating the complete works of Prince Matila Ghyka from French into English, commencing with Le Nombre d'Or, books which include lengthy discussions of musical theory, with a later volume in the series entitled Essai sur le Rythme. The Ghyka Project, which elucidates the Golden Section in the history of world art and architecture, is connected with the forthcoming study by Stefano Greco of Bach's fugues, through his elucidation of the Golden Section in Bach's fugue composition technique.

The Foundation is also translating or plans to translate into English works by a variety of Romanian authors, including Professor Serge Moscovici, Professor Mircea Eliade, Isidore Isou, Benjamin Fondane, Lucian Blaga, and Tristan Tzara. We are also accumulating works by Gherasim Luca, Jacques Hérold, Brassai (a 'Hungarian Romanian' best known as a photographer), Mikhail Sebastian, Victor Brauner, Countess Anna de Noailles, Helène Vacaresco, Carmen Sylva, Queen Marie of Romania, Princess Marthe Bibesco, Dolfi Trost, Gellu Naum, Ion Vinea and others. In addition, the Foundation is collecting archive material relating to the numerous theatrical and film personalities who came from Romania: Edward G. Robinson, Bela Lugosi (a 'Hungarian Romanian'), John Houseman, Gabriel Pascal, Leonard Spigelgass, Nadia Gray, Johnny Weissmuller, Lupu Pick, Jean Negulesco, and others.

The Foundation is also promoting and collecting material relating to Romanian artists of the past, from the Romanian Impressionists through to the Dadaists and Surrealists and other modernists: these include Constantin Brancusi, Victor Brauner, Arthur Segal, and Jules Pascin (a 'Bulgarian Romanian').

For the purposes of the Foundation, the various ethnic differences of the creative personalities concerned are ignored, and the criterion adopted is 'born or grew up in Romania or territory which was or is Romanian, or of Romanian descent with a strong Romanian family tradition (such as Maria Bjornson)'.

Contact:

Prodan Romanian Cultural Foundation
http://www.romanianculture.org
16 Red Lion Square London WC1R 4QT
+44 (0) 20 7831 9905
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The Romanian Business Club (RBC-uk)

The Romanian Business Club (RBC-uk)

Is a non-profit and apolitical organization based in London

Members are London/ UK-based professionals and business people of Romanian origin, with an active interest for various areas of the economic, social, cultural and educational life in Romania

RBC-uk aims to

Support the creation, consolidation and gradual enlargement of a Romanian business community in the UK

Promote the image of Romania in UK’s business, political and media environment and attempt to stimulate the general level of interest for Romania

Stimulate and support contacts between Romanian business people and UK institutions or businesses with established or developing interest for Central and Eastern Europe

Provide a platform for a rich and diversified social agenda for the members of the club

Contact:

Romanian Business Club UK
http://www.rbcuk.info
PO Box 46112
London EC1V 0WU
United Kingdom

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The Romanian Society at LSE

Founded in 2002, the Romanian Society aims to promote Romanian culture and contemporary issues through parties, debates and other cultural events (like food days and academic panels). It welcomes Romanians and non-Romanians alike and through a variety of social events, it transcends borders to introduce the culture and create new friendships.

Contact:

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The Mihai Eminescu Trust

ROYAL PATRON
HRH The Prince of Wales

PATRONS
Sherban Cantacuzino
James Cellan Jones
Lord Dacre
Timothy Garton Ash
Zac Goldsmith
Anthony Hobson
Patrick Leigh Fermor
Sir Yehudi Menuhin
Lord Norwich
Professor Sir Dimitri Obolensky
Sir Steven Runciman
John Villiers
George Walden
Kim Wilkie

TRUSTEES
Jessica Douglas-Home (Chairman)
Noel Malcolm
Mary Walsh

ADVISERS
Jeremy Amos
Tom Blinkhorn
Ion Caramitru
Caroline Fernolend
Rodney Leach

PROJECT CO-ORDINATORS LONDON & ROMANIA

Luminicedillaa Holban
Caroline Fernolend

Background
During Ceausescu’s dictatorship, the Mihai Eminescu Trust gave dissidents a lifeline to civilisation. And by alerting the West to his plan to bulldoze Romania’s rural architecture it helped save hundreds of towns and villages from destruction. Since then, the Trust has played a prominent role in the country’s academic and cultural revival.

In the post-Communist era, much of Romania’s countryside has come under new threat from agricultural collapse, the abandonment of houses and a lack of awareness of the value of this endangered heritage.

The Trust concentrates on the Saxon villages of Transylvania, a special case because of the age and richness of their culture and the emergency caused by the mass emigration of the Saxon inhabitants to Germany in 1990. These villages – farmers’ houses and barns built around fortified churches, substantially unchanged since the Middle Ages – lie in spectacularly beautiful surroundings. The hills and valleys are rich in wild flowers. Wolves, bears and lynx roam the mountains and the forests of beech and oak.

The Trust also works on a smaller scale in another colourful and threatened part of Romania – the Maramures, where the buildings are made of wood and decorated with elaborate carvings.

Romania’s Saxon farming and housing settlements have survived for almost a millennium.

The following is an extract from an article written in 2002 for Open Democracy by Jessica Douglas-Home, founder of the Mihai Eminescu Trust.

I first heard of the Siebenburgen (seven towns) district of Romania from a Bucharest dissident, editor of a German-language newspaper. He spoke sadly of the fate of the Saxon farmers who had settled in the twelfth century around Brasov, Sibiu and Sighisoara, intermarrying and keeping their culture, language and religion alive against every form of brigandage and persecution, and whose beautiful houses and fortified Lutheran churches were now threatened with destruction.

Nikolai Ceausescu, Romania’s vainglorious Conducator, had not only decided to bulldoze the villages, along with thirteen thousand others, as part of his plans for systematisation; he was also getting rid of the Saxons themselves, selling those with exportable skills at a few thousand Deutschmarks a piece to the West German Government. When, after the fall of communism, the German Foreign Minister invited anyone of German origin to return to the fatherland, some two hundred thousand Saxons stampeded out of Transylvania, leaving a scattered and predominantly elderly population to look after this most precious of European landscapes.

Because of the difficulties of travelling in communist Romania it was some time before I was finally able to visit the Siebenburgen. I had expected to find an enclave of German culture: in fact I discovered an image of Europe as it must once have been everywhere – a landscape still disputed between wildlife and people, villages still fortified against marauders, a deep intimacy between farmers and domestic animals, and a religious tranquillity radiating from churches adorned by centuries of pious workmanship.

In the forests of oak and beech roamed wolf, bear, lynx and wild boar; in the skies were eagles, owls and storks. The meadows were decked with wild flowers, alive with butterflies and crickets, and encircled by lark-song. Streams ran fresh from the hillsides and gathered into swift, clear rivers in the valleys.

The houses melded with the landscape as though they had grown from it. Built to a format, they stand end-on to the street, and are painted like wildflowers in ochres, greens and blues, with stucco-patterned facades and hipped roofs. Each possesses a cobbled courtyard, a winter and summer kitchen, a vegetable patch and a colossal timber-framed barn enclosing the rear end of the courtyard.

Behind the barns lie larger vegetable plots and orchards, with a row of walnuts at the far end to act as a wind- and fire-break and to provide insect-free shade in summer time. Further off the pasture rises towards the woodland, which in most places still crowns the high ground, the haunt of animals who have disputed this territory with the farmers since Roman times. As in much of medieval Europe, the egalitarian Saxon communities divided their arable land into strips.

The endurance of faith and beauty

Animals are as integral to the household as people: cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks and goats are stabled a few feet from the back door, and when the huge gates are opened in the morning the cows and horses amble on to the central track through the village, there to join other cattle and their herdsman, who take them into the meadows to graze with the sheep.

An atmosphere of settlement hangs over the landscape, and yet everywhere are the little signs that the work of settlement can at any moment be undone. The wild forest above seems to be waiting to reclaim the valleys, and in the heart of each village, next to the Tanzplatz or dancing circle, stands the fortified church, vivid reminder of the Turkish and Tartar invasions that spread havoc through these lands.

Within the church walls, sometimes two or even three deep, are the sleeping areas allotted to each village family. Here they would come, bringing livestock and food, to protect themselves until the storm had passed, thereafter to return to their burned and pillaged homesteads and begin again the daily work of settlement.

These reminders of terror and hardship contrast with the gaiety and naturalness of the church decorations. The pews are painted in delicate flowered patterns; pulpits are capped with crowns and encircled by two-dimensional painted angels. In the sacristy or at the back of the church stands a magnificent organ, and the doors which lead to the priest’s quarters are inlaid in many-coloured woods, with finely wrought locks, keys and hinges.

The beauty of the Saxon villages is not simply a matter of their evocative architecture and magnificent churches; nor is it reducible to the unique harmony between man and nature, or the quaint old ways of farming, or the extraordinary eco-system which still survives here – although all of those are important.

The beauty of this – as perhaps of all landscapes – is that it is the outcome of successful settlement. The Siebenburgen is the visible record of a routine maintained over centuries, in which men and women have found happiness and sorrow in equal measure, but have gone on reproducing nevertheless, and shaped the earth to themselves and themselves to the earth in mutual harmony.

Now that those who made this landscape have fled, what is to become of it, and what attitude should we take towards its future? Should it be placed in an ecological museum, to become the property of some equivalent of the National Trust. Should it be allowed to decay into wilderness? Or should it be rationalised by global agribusiness (little better, to many people’s way of thinking, than being systematised by Ceausescu)?

These questions troubled me greatly, and for two reasons. First, because I had discovered, for the first and perhaps the last time in my life, an intact visual record of the agricultural way of life – by which I mean the way of life which produces food as a culture rather than a business. Encapsulated in these villages and their real but fragile economy is a memory that is precious to all of us, since it is the folk memory of Europe. I did not want that memory to vanish.

Secondly, I recognised that what I felt about the Saxon villages of Romania was merely a heightened and dramatic form of what so many of us feel about the man-made landscapes that provide our visions of rural peace. We all of us remain attached, in some part of ourselves, to a real or imaginary Eden; and, as Hugh Brody points out in his book, The Other Side of Eden, Edens are not merely man-made but made by farming. In other words, they belong to an endangered way of life, and the troubling question arises: what happens to the landscape, when the way of life that made it comes to an end? This is the question that confronted me in the Saxon villages.

Through the Mihai Eminescu Trust, I and a few friends began a campaign to save the Saxon villages. We hoped to revive as best we could the local economy. Working at first to save houses and churches from the accelerating dilapidation that had overtaken them since the flight of so many inhabitants, we soon turned our attention to the revival of agriculture. The State farms and the village cooperatives were bankrupt; the government promised restitution of the land but constantly delayed its implementation; vast tracts lay fallow, and the farm buildings were rapidly decaying.

At first that might have seemed like the end for a farming community. For us, however, it was the beginning. For it was the best possible starting point for organic farming. The farmers could not afford artificial fertiliser or pesticide, and besides the best hope for marketing their product was to take advantage of the new desire for organic products.

While introducing the techniques required by the farmers, we began a scheme to train villagers – most of them now Romanians or gypsies – in the use of traditional building materials, and in the art of conservation. We began to restore the old drinking wells, the cobbled streets, and the wattling that shores up the banks of the streams through the villages. We have encouraged inns and guest houses that might cater for discerning tourists and have built stables for horse-trekking.

All this might seem like so much lacquer on the face of a corpse. But, to our delight, it is encouraging people to stay in the villages, to re-work the land, and to take the same kind of interest in their surroundings as we take, seeing them as the precious imprint of a valid way of life, and a unique interface between man and animal.

The rhythm established by the Saxon villagers has revived, with the daily ritual of milking the cows, followed by their morning drink at the well, their exodus up into the hills and the evening return. Hay-making, crop gathering and storage for the winter once again mark out the seasons. And young people are staying, either to take part in the revived economy, or to add some new enterprise of their own.

Contact:

63 Hillgate Place, Londra W8 7SS
Marea Britanie
Tel. + 44 20 7229 7618, Fax: + 44 20 7792 9998
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The Constantin Silvestri International Foundation

The Foundation was established in 1997 with the aim of keeping alive the memory of CONSTANTIN SILVESTRI - conductor, composer, pianist - who has been compared to Karajan and Barbirolli and about whose superb recordings The Gramophone commented recently: "After listening to conducting like this, you might ask why the Romanian Silvestri didn't occupy a more elevated position in the musical hierarchy and public consciousness. This is without question one of the greatest ever recordings ... something of a minor miracle ... The Silvestri phenomenon . . ."

It all started with the London Schubert Players travelling 1,300 miles to bring gifts, entertain and make friends with 2,000 Romanian disabled children and teenagers. The pianist Anda Anastasescu, the orchestra's founder, coached the group to perform a short work by Constantin Silvestri Three Pieces for Strings which they found riveting. They played it to enthusiastic public concert audiences as well as to the children. Their concert in the Athenaeum Hall in Bucharest was recorded live and the idea of reviving Silvestri's memory in Britain and Romania was born.

Contact:

Foundation Romania

Bdul 1 Decembrie Nr. 15112, 4300 Targu Mures, Romania.
Tel/Fax: 00 40 65 161523
Personalitate Juridica - Autorizatie SC 2269-1997. Cod Fiscal 10058859.
Aviz MC 12589124.11.1997. MEN 2855/24.11.1997.

London Branch

72, Warwick Gardens, London W14 8PP. UK.
Tel/Fax: 00 44 0207 603 1396
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DACIA - The Anglo-Romanian Arts Foundation

Who are we?

We will start the presentation of our Foundation by paraphrasing "Miorita", a beautiful pastoral epic in the Romanian folklore:
"Near a low foothill
At Heartlands doorsill,
Where the trail's descending
To the plain and ending ..."
here DACIA was founded in June 1998 at the initiative of Daniella M. Boca and a group of Romanian and British enthusiasts, aiming to promote friendship and understanding between the two nations and love for our countries. Our organisation was then officially launched on the 21st November 1998 in Birmingham, and has now established as a community organisation, the only one of this kind in the West Midlands.

What are our aims and objectives?

Our Foundation is a voluntary organisation, non-governmental non-religious and non-profit making. It has the following objectives:
Objective 1: To portray and promote in the UK Romania and the Romanians in a non-religious, non-sectarian and non-political manner.
Objective 2: To organise Anglo-Romanian cultural and social events, to promote and celebrate the culture, traditions and customs of the two countries, as well as to initiate fund-raising events.
Objective 3: To work in association with THE ROMANIAN FORGET-US-NOT TRUST (ROFUNT), which is a Registered Charity, (Reg. No: 1084320) and assist them in raising funds for the help of the elderly in need in Romania.

One area within the second objective is called ENGLISH FOR ALL and aims at promoting and supporting the learning of the English language in Romania. The first project was prompted by a letter from an 'English Club' in Oradea, Romania requesting our help, and we are pleased to have already been able to provide them with adequate learning materials for the study of english at all levels, reading books, videos and tapes etc. We hope to be able to do the same for other clubs or educational establishments in Romania.

What does the DACIA Committee do?

The committee meets monthly in order to discuss and analyse all the problems concerning the activity of the organisation, we look at the interim suggestions and ideas and decide what to do in the future. Our monthly gathering give an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas and find solutions, and they end in an atmosphere of cheerfulness and friendship. All the members of our Committee are involved in organising the cultural activities, which are meant to entertain, increase membership and raise funds. If you would like to attend the meetings please contact the Chair for details of the date and venue. Your proposals and suggestions will always be welcome and they will be discussed in our meetings. If you would like to organise activities in your local area in order to help the Foundation, please contact us. We will be happy to assist.

DACIA Management Committee

Founder Chairman: Miss Daniella M. Boca
Deputy Chairman: Mr Walter W. Milner; Vice-Chairman: Mrs Adina Popescu
Secretary: Levi Nagy; Treasurer and webmaster: Mr Dinel Orasan
Main Consultants: Mrs Sue Rogers, Mr Eugen Popescu, Mrs Sinziana Dragos
Other Advisers: Mr Paul Kendrick, Mrs Sue J Thomas, Mr Roger Price

Who can become a member?

Membership is opened to all who are in sympathy with and supportive of our aims and objectives. If you would like to join us please fill in the Membership Application Form.

Contact:

By mail:
DACIA Arts Foundation - c/o Daniella Boca (DB)
Joseph Chamberlain College
Highgate
Birmingham, B12 9DS
United Kingdom

Phone:
+44 (0) 121 440 4288 (ask for Daniella Boca)
+44 (0) 7961 362 279 (mobile)

Fax:
+44 (0) 121 440 0798

Email:
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FUNDATIA RATIU din Marea Britanie

FUNDATIA RATIU din Marea Britanie a fost infiintata la Londra in 1979 de catre Ion si Elisabeth Ratiu. Obiectivul principal al Fundatiei este de a promova si sustine invatamantul si cercetarea in domeniul culturii si istoriei tarii si poporului roman. Sunt incurajate cu precadere proiecte care se desfasoara in Romania, pe teme legate de patrimoniu, societate civila, democratie, civilizatie si protectia mediului. Bursele acordate sunt variabile. Membrii consiliului de conducere sunt Elisabeth Ratiu, Indrei Ratiu, Ioana Ratiu, Nicolae Ratiu si Ileana Troiano-Tilea.
Ion Ratiu (6 iunie 1917– 17 ianuarie 2000), distins diplomat, om de afaceri, editor, scriitor si umanist, a fost un constant si acerb opozant al regimului comunist din Romania in perioada 1947–1989. Si-a dedicat intreaga viata luptei pentru instaurarea democratiei in Romania si pentru integrarea tarii in structurile euro-atlantice.

Burse

Bursele Ratiu sunt acordate studentilor romani pentru a-si continua studiile in Marea Britanie, in variate domenii. Aceste burse ofera sansa unor tineri romani talentati sa se familiarizeze cu sistemul britanic, sa castige experienta si cunostinte pe care apoi sa le poata adapta si aplica in Romania. Fundatia Ratiu acorda 25 de noi burse anual pentru masteranzi si doctoranzi care doresc sa isi continue studiile sau sa faca cercetare in institutii britanice de invatamant superior. De asemenea, se acorda burse pentru studii de scurta durata, cursuri de vara, proiecte de cercetare academica. Pana in prezent Fundatia Ratiu a sustinut studenti romani pentru a obtine calificari superioare in variate domenii de studiu: arhitectura, muzica, teatru, afaceri, economie, teologie, filosofie, urbanism, studii politice, drept, arta, design, moda, arheologie si etnomuzicologie.
De asemenea, se acorda anual burse de calatorie pentru a incuraja studenti si cercetatori din SUA sa ia parte in proiecte si scoli de vara in Romania.
Aplicatiile se fac in scris si se trimit pe adresa Fundatiei, in atentia domnului Nicolae Ratiu, presedinte. Formularele de aplicatie pot fi gasite pe internet la adresa http://www.ratiufamilyfoundation.com

Proiecte

Fundatia sustine proiecte diverse incluzand: productii si turnee teatrale si muzicale, traduceri din si in limba romana, publicare de carti, CDuri si CD ROMuri, premii (Premiul pentru Traducere din Poezia Europeana; Competitia Anuala de Caricaturi Politice de la Ploiesti, expozitii de caricaturi (Marea Provocare), expozitii de fotografie si pictura, ghiduri despre Romania si altele.

Premiul „Corneliu M Popescu” pentru Traducere din Poezia Europeana (decernat o data la doi ani) este organizat de Poetry Society (Societatea Britanica de Poezie) si este sponsorizat de Fundatia Ratiu. Premiul este de 1.500 lire sterline, iar competitia este deschisa volumelor de poezie traduse dintr-o limba europeana in limba engleza.
Data limita a primirii aplicatiilor este 31 mai 2005 iar festivitatea de decernare a premiului are loc pe 8 septembrie 2005, la Londra. Acest premiu pentru traducere este numit dupa Corneliu M Popescu, traducator din opera unuia dintre cei mai mari poeti romani, Mihai Eminescu, in limba engleza. Competitia din acest an a fost lansata pe 17 ianuarie, la comemorarea a cinci ani de la disparitia lui Ion Ratiu, cel care a initiat acest premiu in anii ’80. Detalii la http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/comp/popesc05.htm
In 1990 Fundatia Ratiu a facut o donatie importanta Universitatii Georgetown din Washington, infiintand Catedra de Studii Romanesti „Ion Ratiu”, prima de acest fel din lume. Fundatia a infiintat, de asemenea, Biblioteca „Ion Ratiu”, o importanta resursa documentara privind Romania si Estul Europei, in domeniile istoriei, politicii si culturii (detalii la http://ceres.georgetown.edu/library).
In ultimii ani, Fundatia Ratiu din Marea Britanie a contribuit in mod substantial la promovarea si incurajarea mai multor proiecte in domeniul teatrului si filmului romanesc:
- Festivalul International de Teatru de la Sibiu, un festival care prezinta spectacole puse in scena de companii romanesti si straine si, de asemenea, organizeaza conferinte si ateliere pentru artisti, manageri culturali si pentru tineri. Fundatia Ratiu a sponsorizat un program pentru educarea prin teatru a copiilor.
- In cadrul programului „Sibiu 2007 – capitala culturala europeana”, in parteneriat cu Festivalul International de Teatru de la Sibiu, Fundatia va sustine mai multe proiecte.

- Programul DramAcum a fost initiat in Bucuresti de Andreea Valean alaturi de un grup de tineri dramaturgi si regizori de teatru. Programul incurajeaza tinerii autori romani sa scrie si sa-si puna in practica ideile, in parteneriat cu Teatrul Bulandra si Teatrul Act din Bucuresti. De asemenea, programul incurajeaza traducerea de teatru strain in limba romana si de piese romanesti in limbi straine. Fundatia Ratiu acorda sprijin financiar acestui program.

- Fundatia Ratiu sustine programul „Artistii pentru Artisti” al UNITER. Acesta este un proiect de solidaritate cu artistii in varsta sau pensionati care au probleme de existenta. Toate castigurile in urma spectacolelor organizate in cadrul acestui program sunt donate Fondului Solidaritatii Teatrale.
- Opera lui Matei Visniec a fost promovata la Londra, prin piesa „Trupul femeii ca un camp de lupta” pusa in scena la teatrul Young Vic din Londra, in noiembrie 2000. Piesa a primit recenzii entuziaste in ziare si reviste britanice, cum ar fi cotidianul The Guardian. Fundatia Ratiu a finantat si a sprijinit punerea in scena a operei lui Visniec.
- Fundatia Ratiu sustine, de asemenea, prezentarea piesei „Povestea ursilor Panda spusa de un saxofonist care avea o iubita la Frankfurt” de Matei Visniec in cadrul Festivalului de la Edinburgh (august 2005). Montarea apartine Teatrului Rouge28 din Londra.
- Montarea piesei „Omul cu valizele” de Eugen Ionescu in regia lui Alexandru Dabija, la Teatrul Municipal din Turda (premiera 6 mai 2005), este sustinuta de Fundatia Ratiu.
- Fundatia Ratiu a sprijinit trei tinere autoare si regizoare de teatru din Romania, Andreea Valean, Theodora Herghelegiu si Gianina Carbunariu sa beneficieze de programul pentru tineri dramaturgi de la Royal Court Theatre din Londra, finantat in parteneriat cu Consiliul Britanic din Bucuresti.
- Fundatia Ratiu a sprijinit organizarea unui spectacol din poezia lui Mihai Eminescu, sustinut de Ion Caramitru, Ovidiu Iuliu Moldovan, Valeria Seciu si Aurelian Octav Popa la Arts Theatre, Londra, in decembrie 2000.
- Antologia de dramaturgie contemporana „Balkan Plots” a fost publicata la Londra cu sprijinul Fundatiei Ratiu. Volumul contine piese de teatru din Europa centrala si de est, printre care si doua piese de teatru de autori romani: „Trupul femeii ca un camp de lupta” de Matei Visniec si „Eu cand vreau sa fluier, fluier” de Andreea Valean.
- In cadrul Clubului de Film si al Festivalului de Film Romanesc de la Londra, creat de Centrul Cultural Romanesc, Fundatia Ratiu a sprijinit organizarea, in 2003 si 2004, a mai multor intalniri ale publicului londonez cu personalitati artistice romanesti: Victor Rebengiuc, Ion Caramitru, Lucian Pintilie. Printre invitati s-au numarat, de asemenea, regizorul Cristian Mungiu, criticii Alex Leo Serban si Mihai Chirilov, precum si Alina Salcudeanu, reprezentanta CNC. Fundatia Ratiu a sprijinit organizarea Retrospectivei „Lucian Pintilie” care s-a desfasurat la Londra in octombrie 2004. Programul a fost realizat in parteneriat cu Centrul Cultural Romanesc din Londra si Centrul National al Cinematografiei din Bucuresti.
- Fundatia Ratiu a sprijinit realizarea documentarului „The Heart of the Tornado”. Este un film documentar despre Paul Neagu (1938 – 2004), cunoscutul sculptor roman stabilit in Marea Britanie in anii ’70. Filmului realizat de Laurentiu si Agnieszka Garofeanu prezinta un personaj spectaculos, unul dintre cei mai importanti si, cateodata, controversati creatori din arta romaneasca si internationala.
- Tineri specialisti in domeniul teatrului studiaza in Marea Britanie in fiecare an in programe de masterat sau doctorat in cadrul unor institutii precum Goldsmith College Londra si Universitatea din Hull.

Ion Ratiu este bine cunoscut ca politician, ca om de afaceri de succes, filantrop, campion al democratiei si sustinator al artelor. Mai putin cunoscut este faptul ca Ion Ratiu a scris si teatru. Sub pseudonimul Anthony Lock, in anul 1958, Ion Ratiu a scris piesa politica „Clive si Anna”, care a fost prezentata cu succes in 1959 la Arts Theatre Club in Londra, cu titlul „Templeton”. La cativa ani dupa revolutia din Romania, in 1992, „Clive si Anna” a fost adaptata pentru Televiziunea Romana de catre regizorul Horia Popescu.
Alte proiecte:
- Sustinerea organizatiei internationale Pro Patrimonio (detalii la http://www.propatrimonio.org);
- Sustinerea Centrului Cultural Romanesc din Londra (detalii la http://www.romanianculturalcentre.org.uk);
- Sprijinirea Fundatiei Romane pentru Mestesuguri din Romania;
- Finantarea proiectului de renovare a Gradinitei Dr Ioan Ratiu din Turda;
- Acordarea de donatii la diverse lacasuri de cult din Romania;
- Sustinerea conservarii bisericilor de lemn din Maramures;
- Sustinerea Relief Fund for Romania (detalii la http://www.relieffundforromania.co.uk);
- Sustinerea proiectului Bibliotecii Facultatii de Jurnalism a Universitatii „Lucian Blaga” din Sibiu (achizitionarea ultimelor aparitii editoriale in domeniu, la nivel international);
- Organizarea vizitei in Romania a unui grup de curatori si jurnalisti britanici interesati de arta plastica romaneasca contemporana. Acest proiect, realizat in parteneriat cu Visiting Arts din Londra, se va desfasura in octombrie 2005.

FUNDATIA RATIU DIN MAREA BRITANIE sustine si colaboreaza cu FUNDATIA RATIU ROMANIA din Bucuresti, precum si cu CENTRUL RATIU PENTRU DEMOCRATIE din Turda (http://www.ratiucenter.org).

Contact:

Nicolae Ratiu, Presedinte
Ramona Mitrica, Director
RATIU FOUNDATION UK
8th floor, 54 - 62 Regent Street, London W1B 5RE, UK
Tel: + 44 (0)20 7439 4052;
Fax: + 44 (0)20 7437 5908
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Web site: http://www.ratiufamilyfoundation.com

Romanian Women Society in the UK

Established in August 2005, Romanian Women Society UK “ROMÅNCA” aims to relieve sickness, hardship and distress by providing assistance, advice, representation and services amongst Romanian women. We want to be able to advance our own education and provide or assist in the provision of facilities for recreation or other leisure time occupation for Romanian women or those persons who have need of such facilities by reason of their youth, age, infirmity or disablement, poverty or social and economic circumstances in the interest of social welfare with a view to improving their conditions of life. We aim to advance education of the public in Romanian culture, art and heritage.

We aim for:

* Social integration
* Community support
* Emotional support
* Networking
* Youth projects
* Romanian information accessibility and using the Romanian community as a resource

To join, please email the completed Membership Form to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Contact:
Web: http://www.romanca.co.uk/
E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Societatea Romanilor din Scotia (Scottish Romanian Society)

The Scottish Romanian Society aims to enhance the community and cultural links between Romania and Scotland by:

- Providing and promoting the information and support for people of Romanian origin in Scotland.
- Promoting the integration of people of Romanian origin in the civil life of Scotland.
- Promoting a positive image of Romania in Scotland.
- Promoting opportunities for people in Scotland to be exposed to the arts and culture of Romania.
- Encouraging partnership between the Romanian community in Scotland, Scottish and Romanian authorities, and further cultural, economic and social organisations.

www.scotro.org.uk
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Contact: Dr Liliana Hiris__________________________
Lecturer in Economics
Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics
Aberdeen Business School
The Robert Gordon University
Garthdee Rd.
Aberdeen AB10 7QG

Tel: 0044-1224-263418
Fax: 0044-1224-263333