Only Tbilisi is Not enough - Interview with Nana Bagalishvili, the Founder of Tsnori Knowledge Café Article link: https://at.ge/2020/05/22/tsnori/ Author: Nika Nadirashvili Tbilisi… city, where creating new is a challenge… new that develops the awareness of the society; accordingly, we, the authors of cultural projects, have thought number of times, maybe with exaggerated scepticism that “Tbilisi is not enough“ (addressing the motto of Tbilisi Architecture Biennial of 2018 – „Buildings are not enough“). Is it possible somehow to implement our activities on the regional level and how can we share successful experience of „Knowledge Café“ in Tsnori, which reminds us Lasse Hallström film Chocolat (2000). With its personages, such as Vianne Roche and Comte de Reynaud..?!
First, I’ve heard the story of Tsnori from Nana Bagalishvili, who is the founder of Knowledge Café. She describes the city of Tsnori as the synthesis of European and American culture: „She has a very stubborn and little venturous character; Striking is that after 90-ies this city has survived and is still rapidly developing. Tsnori is the small city with contrasts: Asian as well as: uncombed, ungroomed and American in character, as it was saved by business and business is helping it to develop further still now. If there are some important changes, it’s thanks to business. This is why, I think, one day, Tsnori will be as good as Chicago“. Noteworthy is Tsnori street art, which similarly to other cities of Georgia is self-initiated by artists and is not affected by vandalism from radicals. Today “Knowledge Café” includes multifunctional reading hall, bookshop, café and educational centre’s 8 projects and 517 activities, with 5205 guests and 1419 builders. Nana’s team managed to handle three types of critical challenges: first, created successful example of social entrepreneurship, and this is in such conditions when there’s no relevant legal framework on national level in terms of social entrepreneurship and as a result, these types of organizations are substantially restricted from entrepreneurial activities and enjoy a number of benefits; Second, developed the fundraising and particularly effective campaign of public funding (crowdfunding) and here too, two types of public funding - joint-stock and loan-based crowdfunding – stay as non-legitimate practices in Georgia; and third, created the socially attractive new centre in east Georgia by developing the creative space for the entrepreneurs’ camps, creative workshops, literature and film club, online agro school programme, citizenship, ecology, literature, public discussions on business social responsibility and reports; also, the elderly interest clubs, young and elderly population of nearby settlement have the opportunity to acquire relevant practical skills and to increase the knowledge about the findings of the modern world in general.
As I mentioned, the bravery of Nana’s team is expressed in finding the subsistence expenses for the creative space. They were dedicated from the beginning not to be associated with one concrete business or foundation and still keep this policy. Since they faced the need to broaden the space and programs, they’ve started the campaign “Lay your brick”. In the framework of this project the name of the donor is written on the brick, which will be used for building the stronger Knowledge Café on the land bought by the team of initiators. In the framework of the campaign 39380.00 GEL has been collected to buy the land and another 158692.00 Gel is needed to build the black frame. In the conditions when the assistance from the local municipality appeared ineffective, partly due to “the local government’s fear of an independent youth group”, the process of brick to brick contribution continues involving international donor organizations, as well as businesses and general public and local beneficiaries too. As an example, with the participation of Knowledge Café club for elderly, which aims to re-socialize elderly, the locals of Tbilisi had an opportunity to taste Kizikuri cuisine at café “Ezo”; The income was still used for building the social enterprise. Keeping in mind that since 2000, never minding the years of request from the civil society, Georgian Government didn’t apply the mechanisms that would enhance the philanthropy, therefore, in addition to support from the grant programs of donor organizations, crowdfunding remains the only instrument. I asked Nana to advise those who live in big cities of Georgia and think about the development of regional initiatives. Do you think there’s a chance for someone living in Tbilisi to establish a social enterprise, creative-educational space in the region? -
It is important to have an honest wish and thoughtful mission on why the region. Plus, this person must move to the region, in order to listen to local residents, learn about their past experiences and initiatives, consequently to feel local/regional challenges of education field… This person has to become "native" and no longer "foreign", which is perceived as a "temporary phenomenon" by the locals. If the person cannot move to live in the region, but her heart and brain is occupied by thinking of current cultural-educational environment in the region, in this case, it’s better if she finds someone in the village or region, who will lead the social enterprise and will create a team. Another person, resident of Tbilisi will assist the initiative from the centre with his mental, financial or other resources.
What are the main skills necessary for the development of regional initiatives and to maintain its liveliness? -
Stubborn, able to overcome all the obstacles; ability to work consistently, to make programs/projects continuous and natives must have the feeling of being a part of something stable and permanent; ability to discover skills of natives, in order to involve more people in the initiative with variety of skills/abilities/experiences; constant efforts to distance oneself from the government and maintain objectivity; constantly searching for and connecting with similar initiatives in other countries of the world; planning international programmes, where locals will participate and will
see themselves as part of the global process; keeping the principles of equality with everyone – children, youth, elderly, supporters, partners; one of the main components to keep the initiative alive and successful is to permanently answer all the existing challenges of the initiative in this geographical area. Which are the possible (international) donor organizations and private businesses that can support similar type of initiatives in parallel with crowdfunding? -
According to existing experience, most timely support towards new-born initiatives in Georgia is provided by – Open Society Georgia Foundation and USAID programme ACCESS. These two foundations manage to meet diverse needs of society and these specifics are what makes them most attractive and powerful. According to our experience, the representatives of businesses, who manage more frequently to support different initiatives, are the following – micro financial organization – Crystal, Georgian Bank; Bakur Sulakauri Publishing; restaurant – Black Lion; Caucasus University; Sarajishvili; Frego; Bio Oil; restaurant Ezo; Tserti.
What type of support shouldn’t be accepted by the manager of regional social enterprise/creative-educational space? 1. Cooperation with business organizations, who ruin human well-being by their activities/involvement – for example, gambling business, tobacco business and so on. Also, cooperation with those business companies which don’t have clear aims or are determined to promote their company. 2. Cooperation with international or local organizations, whose finances are not transparent or have Russian background, they are dangerous for any initiative/organization. Also, if international or local foundations/organizations don’t follow the equality principles, it’s better to stop communication with them. 3. Receiving financial support from the local Government is a very civil form for nongovernmental organization/initiative, in order to achieve public goals, though cooperation and financial support from the local Government or central Government, shouldn’t contain direct or indirect agreement/indication, that the regional organization should be governmental or conductor of party interests. Can you name the regions/settlements, who wish to develop similar initiative as Knowledge Café? And what are their conditions at the moment? -
It’s very satisfying, that Knowledge Café was visited by different unofficial groups or NGOs from almost all the regions of Georgia, who are willing to open similar spaces. We are happy to know that in Kakheti, in the municipality of Dedophlistskaro, Knowledge Room has opened, in Khevsureti a space for youth has been created, and its sustainability is under question, however the initiative arose and they’ve received the financial support. At the moment, young generation from Svaneti is trying to establish something similar to our Knowledge Café and we try to support them. At the end of the year, we will have some guidelines, which can be used by the organizations who want to open Knowledge Café in their regions.
If you look back at the process of building Knowledge Café, what was the biggest distractive factor? Are there any mistakes made by your team?
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Many – which one should I start with?! Crowdfunding in culture has recently developed – accountability with 14 hundred citizens and feedbacking with more than 5 business groups about the state of the building process requires huge energy and time, this is why the company must have a full time team, no less than 3 members, as our team in parallel with crowdfunding is occupied with searching the relevant resources to cover the rent of existing/temporary space of Knowledge Café, the communal expenses and salaries of staff and also to manage a very diverse educational programme of Knowledge Café.
Consequently, not knowing the exact dates of purchasing the land and then starting to build the Knowledge Café caused the prolongation of the process. In reality, we have collected almost 83 000.00 Gel in 3 years by crowdfunding, which we could have done in shorter period, if we had clearer schedule announced publicly for the existing and potential donors. Though, we try to stay calm against any obstacles/difficulties during this crowdfunding campaign, as besides building Knowledge Café, we are building effective civil society and we create good basis for crowdfunding culture in Georgia, in which as pioneers, we make mistakes and meet challenges, but we all, the whole team are connected and stuck to main objective - to create sustainable educational and culture oasis in the region, such as Knowledge Café. Noteworthy is the series of social initiative by Nana’s team about Covid-19. In the framework of this initiative 557 citizens collected 16 520.00 Gel in one month, in order to save 152 elderly people from starvation. Before sending the article to the editor, Nana gave me new information, that in this pandemic situation they’ve managed to buy phones for 57 elderly, TV’s for 11 people and 21 tablets for school children, for them to be able to get the online lessons. The article has been prepared in the framework of EU/UNESCO supported project Designing a Creative Cluster Ecosystem. Throughout the project, we will submit the analytical articles about the theme, which will define creative cluster development-support in Georgia and generally, existing challenges in the sector.