"The Path is Yours" is a three-part initiative of the Off the Beaten Path Foundation in Bulgaria, which draws inspiration from the architecture, diverse community, and natural beauty of Southwestern Bulgaria and includes the renovation and upkeep of the community center "Svetlina" in the village of Kovachevitsa as well as the Educational and Community projects "Singing Hearts" for a diverse group of local children and "Plant a Tree," an initiative for the restoration of deforested areas.
Regional
Bulgaria
Garmen
Gotse Delchev
Mainly rural
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
Yes
MusicAire Grant, 2023
No
Yes
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Off the Beaten Path Foundation Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Lora Last name of representative: Tchekoratova Gender: Female Nationality: Bulgaria If relevant, please select your other nationality: United States Function: Chair Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: 15 Han Presian Street Town: Sofia Postal code: 1612 Country: Bulgaria Direct Tel:+359 88 864 8542 E-mail:lorabt@mac.com Website:https://neo-path.com/en/classical-chamber-music-festival-in-kovachevitsa
"The Path is Yours" is a three-part initiative of the Off the Beaten Path Foundation in Bulgaria, which draws inspiration from the architecture, diverse community, and natural beauty of Southwestern Bulgaria, the Rhodope and Pirin mountains, the town of Gotse Delchev, and the many villages in the area.
Part 1. "Charitable Society Svetlina" -- Established in 2022 to raise awareness, collect funds, and organize the renovation and preservation of the Community Center "Svetlina" in the remote village of Kovachevitsa in the Rhodope Mountains, a magnificent building with an acoustically appropriate concert hall, which serves as the home of the Off the Beaten Path chamber music festival. Our goal is to bring attention to the importance of preserving community centers where people can gather and access books, art, music, and culture and learn new skills and hobbies.
2. "Singing Hearts" -- A summer music camp for young people from Southwestern Bulgarian villages, established in 2018. The camp brings young people together through music. It teaches tolerance and the importance of charitable giving, community, volunteering time, advocating for important causes, and connecting with those in need. By bringing together young people from diverse backgrounds -- Roma, Turkish, Muslim, and Christian, we show the importance of music and art to bring people together. At the end of each camp session, the young people perform concerts in nursing homes and in the local park and raise funds for charitable causes in their communities.
3. "Plant a Tree" -- A collaboration with the nonprofit organization gorata.bg. Each summer, our foundation donates a portion of the ticket sales for the Off the Beaten Path summer festival for planting new trees in the Rhodope mountains and forests throughout Bulgaria. Our goal is to bring attention to the problem of deforestation in Bulgaria and how our community can help by donating funds and volunteering to plant trees each fall.
Music
Architecture
Nature
Community
Diversity
In the summer of 2017, a group of classical musicians led by pianist Lora Tchekoratova came upon the abandoned building of the community center "Svetlina" in the village of Kovachevitsa. Located in a picturesque village, surrounded by the magnificent Rhodope mountains, the community center was established in 1856 by teachers and local intellectuals. It contains a performance space, which accommodates over 200 audience members, a magnificent terrace with views of the mountains, and library space. Unfortunately, while the library room was open and functional, the rest of the building needed urgent repair.
After speaking to government representatives, the musicians learned that government funding for the building was unavailable. Nevertheless, the artists opened the concert space in 2018 and launched a chamber music festival, an instant success with locals and visitors alike. With media attention, the Off the Beaten Path Foundation established a Charitable Society to create a permanent fund for the preservation and sustainable restoration of the building.
After the heavy rains and floods in the Fall of 2021, the roof leaked and flooded the building. In record time, the newly established Society raised the funding for a complete roof repair in the Spring of 2022. The organization's current efforts continue in partnership with two engineering firms volunteering their services. They are working on a plan for a sustainable and complete renovation of the entire building. In addition, each summer, a portion of the ticket sales from the festival are donated to the organization gorata.bg for planting new trees, thus bringing light to the problem of deforestation in Bulgaria's mountains.
This initiative is already exemplary — there are almost 4,000 community centers in Bulgaria, many in similar condition, abandoned due to population reduction and lack of government support. The artists' "adoption" of this community center exemplifies how citizens can create change.
Music, architecture, community, and nature are the main inspirations of this initiative. The village of Kovachevitsa and the surrounding areas are among the most architecturally unique parts of Bulgaria. Since 2018, the Off the Beaten Path Foundation has been bringing people to the village for a musical experience at its chamber music festival. Over the past six years, the events have drawn attention to the need for access to classical music in smaller places. Our festival champions rarely performed music works by contemporary composers as well as traditional repertoire as well as the musical connections between traditional folk music and classical music. It is international in scope, and over the years, we have featured music by renowned composers and performers. The positive emotions from the audience's musical experience have inspired the creation of community spirit around the festival.
In recent years, this festival has been beneficial to the local economy. The musical events regularly attract audiences from all over Bulgaria, Europe, and the world, helping the local echo tourism, bed and breakfasts, and small businesses — galleries, retreats, and small restaurants, serving simple dishes with locally produced ingredients. This return to nature, but also exposure to high-quality classical music concerts and contemporary music programs, has been beneficial to young people as well — they attend the events with their parents and actively participate in our summer program as well as participate in the festival as volunteers by helping with cleaning, decorating the performance space (with locally designed rugs and tapestries), and volunteering as ushers and stagehands.
This initiative has been exemplary in Bulgaria, where cultural experiences are centralized in the big cities. However, there is a general need for access to the arts and education in small towns and villages. The Off the Beaten Path Foundation is paving the way and uniting people.
Southwestern Bulgaria is one of the country's most diverse and culturally rich areas. The main town, Gotse Delchev, is surrounded by small villages in the Rhodope and Pirin mountains. Each village carries its tradition -- Muslim, Roma, Christian, etc. as well as unique architecture, food, and ritual. Unfortunately, while folk music is very popular in these areas, people rarely have opportunities to hear and learn about classical music.
"The Path is Yours" program of the Off the Beaten Path Foundation consists of a strong educational component, which brings young people of various backgrounds together in several activities:
1. "Singing Hearts" -- The foundation organizes a week-long, free-of-charge vocal camp, bringing kids of various cultural and socio-economic groups to learn songs about charity, goodness, togetherness, and nature. At the end of the session, the children perform community outreach concerts at Gotse Delchev Park, in nursing homes, and for people with disabilities. In addition, the kids fundraise and bring clothes and money to those in need.
2. Community and Children's Concerts by the Off the Beaten Path Festival musicians -- each summer since 2018, the artists of the chamber music festival present special programs for children and the local community, free of charge. The programs often focus on the connections between Western European and Eastern European traditions and the inspiration that folk music brings to classical and contemporary composers, especially the traditions of the Roma and Muslim minorities.
3. Volunteers and Partners -- The foundation aims to involve all volunteers representing all cultural groups in our festival. Our decorations come from the Roma villages (rugs and tapestries), food and other items are provided by the Pomak villages (Bulgarian Muslims), and all help at and attend the events free of charge.
This initiative is exemplary because it shows how music can bring together and celebrate people and traditions.
The presence of a high-quality music festival in an old, remote village is an unusual occurrence for Bulgaria. Since day one, our foundation's goal has been to provide unique experiences to the area's visitors and make the Off the Beaten Festival a beneficial event for all the local citizens.
The attention which the concerts bring to this part of the country has been beneficial in many ways:
1. The abandoned Community Center "Svetlina" in Kovachevitsa is now in the process of being renovated. We have been advocating and showing people how community involvement and activism can change our environment. The building is now safe and can be used year-around by professional or amateur artists alike.
2. The local villages receive many new visitors from around the world during the festival and throughout the year. The area also attracts many artists, architects, and writers who learn about it after visiting the festival. During the past few years, video and audio recordings and documentary films from the festival have been broadcast over TV and radio stations in the country, making the region a popular destination. Since the start of the festival, the Off the Beaten Path Foundation has been involved and helped promote the work of local artisans from the Roma and Muslim villages, who not only decorate the community center but also offer the sale of rare traditional hand-made items, rugs, spices, honey, and locally produced cheeses, fruits, vegetables, and jam. As a result, the visitors benefit from access to organic, local food. In addition, the locals have the opportunity for fair trading with the locals.
3. Young people are learning to preserve their villages and develop entrepreneurial skills to make a living in their native towns and villages rather than seeking work in big cities and abroad. They also benefit from spending time with their peers from neighboring villages and finding connections by sharing and appreciating their various cultural identities.
The Path is Yours initiative engages many stakeholders from the local, regional, national and European communities.
1. Charitable Society "Svetlina" has engaged to date 74 members who have donated for its restoration -- 34 of them are people with local roots, 30 of them are Bulgarian nationals from other parts of the country, and 10 of them are European nationals. In addition, the initiative has attracted the efforts of two engineering firms from Sofia to create a sustainability project for the center's further restoration. This initiative has also attracted many volunteers from the region (representatives of the Roma, Pomak, and Christian villages) and a number of musicians (including the composer Dobrinka Tabakova) who organize the festival and the campaign for the community center.
2. The summer vocal program "Singing hearts" has engaged many young participants from various minorities in the chorus and music camp each summer. In addition, many young children attend the festival's educational and community outreach concerts. At their own initiative, the young participants in the "Singing hearts" program have raised close to 5,000 BGN to support charitable causes at the local nursing home and continue volunteering their time and energy to help those in need in their community. We have seen many new friendships form between children from various cultural backgrounds who share their love of music and community and appreciate each other's backgrounds.
3. The initiative "Donate a Tree" has raised funds for planting over 3000 new trees in Bulgaria and provides awareness of the problems with deforestation in the Bulgarian mountains. In addition, many volunteers from the festival's audience participate in planting the trees in various parts of Bulgaria, including the region where the festival occurs -- Southwestern Rhodope Mountains.
In short -- while our festival is small and the majority of our work is done on a volunteer basis, we have empowered many.
The following knowledge fields establish the design of our initiative -- music, education, fundraising, and architecture.
For the implementation of our initiative, we collaborated with representatives of the classical music industry -- over 30 world-renowned musicians who participated in the first four editions of the Off the Beaten Path Festival, including composer Dobrinka Tabakova, flutist Carol Wincenc, harpist Nicolas Tulliez, and many others. All have contributed and participated in the Educational and Community concerts and have been inspired by the surroundings of the area -- magnificent nature and unique architecture. The events were led by Prof. Mariana Karpatova, a mezzo-soprano, a vocal pedagogue, and an expert in music education.
For the success of many of the initiatives, the foundation developed methods that involved the development of private funding and charitable giving. These methods included crowdfunding campaigns, social media outreach, local media coverage, and community involvement.
An important focus of the initiative is the unique architecture of the village of Kovachevitsa and its community center. For example, for creating the current project for sustainable restoration of the Community Center "Svetlina," the collaborations include the participation of expert architects and engineers, whose services are sponsored by Engineer Tatyana Radevska from the Executive Director of the firm VJF, Ltd, for innovative construction solution.
The representatives of these fields work collaboratively, united by the same principles -- providing access to culture and education, sustainable repair, and community involvement in an important cause.
When it comes to creating this festival, we don't see a clear division between the various fields and partners that participate. For us, art's purpose is to improve people's lives by bringing positive emotions; thus, we are creating paths for solving problems by bringing people together.
The Off the Beaten Path initiative is innovative because we strive to protect access to culture in small villages and towns of Bulgaria by providing it for a diverse group of people who otherwise rarely hear or see art. In addition, instead of relying on the government to provide funding, we have taken the initiative into our own hands. We have advocated our causes in front of the local communities, thus creating strong community effort and support for our causes. This type of activism on the local level still needs to be mainstream in Bulgaria for the many poor regions and abandoned villages to come back to life.
Our inspiration comes from other places in Europe where the creation and establishment of festivals and community centers are an important part of the cultural politics in many countries, such as Germany, Denmark, Sweden, France, etc. However, in Bulgaria, the mainstream festivals and cultural programs occur in the big cities of Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, and Burgas, where the municipalities can provide more funding and access to culture and where more artists live and create.
By taking on this initiative, we have shown that we are not only able to put on a successful festival, but we can use the power of music and the community it creates to make changes to the way people think, to give them the tools to protect their environment and to provide many options for involvement through volunteering, providing funding, and participating in the decision making democratically and inclusively.
Because this type of initiative is still rare, we have inspired many people and are hoping to establish a tradition of decentralizing art, culture, and community involvement throughout Bulgaria. Last but not least, we show that artists have power beyond the stage. It is important for all of us in the 21st century to get involved passionately and wholeheartedly in causes beyond our immediate professions, especially concerning the environment.
As mentioned, Bulgaria has close to 4,000 community centers (known as "chitalishta") located in almost every small town and village in the country. They contain libraries, performance spaces, and small classrooms and traditionally have been gathering places for the communities they serve. Some of these institutions trace their roots to the middle of the 19th century. Others began their work during the second half of the 20th century. Unfortunately, during the past 30 years, many of these community spaces lost funding due to the population decline in many small towns and villages in the country. As a result, some are in dreadful conditions and urgently need repair.
Leaders from around the country can replicate our methods. Instead of waiting for the government institutions to renovate the buildings -- artists, musicians, and local activities can begin reviving their interest in these buildings and advocate their importance, using social media and traditional media and advocating in front of their peers and the public in general for the significance of these places for building strong and educated communities.
During our work in Southwestern Bulgaria, we noticed that young people from various cultural backgrounds rarely have opportunities to spend time together. Our example of creating musical experiences that bring kids from multiple ethnic backgrounds and involving volunteers and partners from all cultural groups and minorities strengthens communities. It creates a greater spirit of cooperation and mutual understanding. The Roma and Muslim communities are marginalized and often treated disrespectfully. By showing the importance of their contribution to Bulgarian music and are, and creating a music festival, we are paving the way for other organizations who want to explore the richness of Bulgaria's cultural communities and bring them together. Last but not least, this brings economic incentives for local entrepreneurs and unique experiences for visitors.
We developed our initiatives using a well-defined goal and an 18-month plan. First, we made three short documentary films about the history of the community center, the children's program, and charitable giving. Then, we shared the documentaries on social media via our website and email lists. Parts of them also received coverage on television. They received between 13,000 and 30,000 views each.
Next, we developed a website with many photos, interviews, and the history of the community center, as well as a platform for becoming a member of the Charitable Society and contributing to the cause. We also created a GoFundMe page for donations from outside of Bulgaria. Finally, we engaged the local communities by reaching out to prominent and engaged members of the local villages, asking them to share the word.
Once we began collecting funds and gathering members of the Charitable Society, we kept them informed regularly and maintained a transparent account of all the donations and funds spent on the Community Center website. In addition, we measured the results of our efforts using detailed spreadsheets, which helped us stay on track. To date, we have raised BGN 24,089 and have invested BGN 22,056 toward the reconstruction of the building. Separately, we invested close to BGN 10,000 of the festival funding towards the building -- we purchased 150 chairs (made by a local carpenter), repaired and rebuilt three doors, painted the building, repaired lamps, and contacts, and contributed towards the thorough cleaning and preparations of the concert hall for the festival concerts. In addition, the local and national media covered our efforts specifically in at least nine articles and video materials.
Our children's program is also growing each year. Due to the pandemic, we needed to interrupt it in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, we gathered the children again and could visit the nursing home and perform for people who have disabilities or cannot go to live concerts.
Our initiative addresses the following global challenges: lack of access to art and culture in small, rural areas and lack of incentives for young people to return to their places of origin due to a lack of opportunities and paths to make a living.
1. Since our work in Southwestern Bulgaria (2018), we have seen many positive changes in the local communities. The Off the Beaten Path Festival and its initiatives have brought attention to this region's natural beauty, unique architecture, and history. As a result, many entrepreneurs are developing their business ideas to open small bed and breakfasts, restaurants, and galleries and to participate in creating this region as a destination for eco-tourism and cultural tourism. The restoration of the community center has brought people together and inspired them to be creative and use their community power to improve their surroundings. Many young people are encouraged to follow in the path of the musicians and organizers of the various initiatives around the festival and to help positively grow their villages.
2. Since the first educational outreach concert and music camp, we have seen lots of interest among local children to explore music, poetry, art, and design as ways to enrich their lives. In addition, the charitable initiatives have improved the general positive attitude of young people and their desire to work together and support those in need, including older adults, people with disabilities, and underprivileged communities. Last but not least, the importance of nature preservation and the tree planting initiative continues to inspire people involved in the Off the Beaten Festival to donate funds and participate in tree planting throughout the year to renovate and bring back the Bulgarian forests to life.
We hope to keep the local community involved and set an example of how a small group of people can tackle some of today's biggest global challenges and find solutions together.
Since the start of our initiative, we have made progress in the following areas:
1. Funds collected for the community center -- 24,089 BGN
2. Number of members in the charitable society Svetlina -- 74 (34 local, 30 national, ten international)
3. 3 documentary films for the initiatives -- attracted between 13,000 and 30,000 views on YouTube and social media
4. 1 new website with detailed information about the initiative, fundraising platform, and news as well as financial information
5. 150 chairs ordered and available for use at the community center (a local carpenter makes the chairs)
6. Three wooden doors are repaired as well as contacts, and other small repairs at the community center
7. We have 13 and 20 children participating in our vocal camp each summer. In addition, ten children volunteer at the festival
8. Diversity -- people from all surrounding villages contribute to the initiative's success, including people from the Roma, Muslim (Pomak), and Turkish villages.
The steps envisioned for the year following this application include the development (currently in the works) of a sustainability construction project, which our partners are preparing for approval by the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture. In addition, we continue to advocate additional support from the local municipalities and the national institutions for the importance of the preservation of the building and to provide more funding for educational and community outreach classical music projects. Finally, we plan to develop a program to provide opportunities for local children to study music year-round and to bring teachers from the big cities to the region regularly.
