At this year’s Annual Advisory Forum of the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe, held in Visegrad and Budapest, Hungary, the Women Writers Route, the only Cultural Route of the Council of Europe based in Slovenia, in which the FSK actively participates, received the Best Practice Award 2024.
The Best Practice Awards are presented by the Governing Board composed of representatives of the member countries of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe in five categories, which coincide with the priorities of the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe programme fields: Cooperation in research and development; Enhancement of memory, history and European heritage; Cultural and educational exchanges for young Europeans; Contemporary cultural and artistic practices; and Cultural tourism and sustainable development.
The Women Writers Route was awarded in the category »Enhancement of memory, history and European heritage« for the guided tour »Bold and Borderless«, dedicated to women writers who made a significant contribution to the cultural and intellectual identity of the Gorizia conurbation in the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. The tour and the accompanying booklet were conceived and prepared at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Nova Gorica under the guidance of Dr Katja Mihurko, who is also the Chair of the Scientific Council of the Women Writers Route.
On this occasion, Dr Mihurko said: ”During this tour, we discovered women writers who crossed the borders between languages in the multicultural space of the Gorizia region in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Their works reflect the diverse images of the vibrant era in which they worked, as well as the challenges they faced as women who broke out of the traditional social roles outlined for women in their time. The life stories of the female authors we met along the walk, and the message of their texts, can still inspire us and encourage us to engage in creative intercultural dialogue.”
Dr. Andreja Rihter, President of the Cultural Tourism Association of the Writers’ Route, which manages the route, and Director of the FSK, added: “We are delighted and proud to have been awarded the Council of Europe Cultural Routes Good Practice Award, which is a reaffirmation that we are doing good work and moving in the right direction. We are especially pleased that the ‘Bold and Borderless’ stroll has led to the ‘Ljubka’s Trail’ project, for which we have been supported by the ‘Interegg Italy-Slovenia’ Small Project Fund. In early November, we will start the training of tourist guides from both sides of the border. The training will also be attended by students of the lyceum and tourism courses with Slovenian as the teaching language from Gorizia.”
The ‘Bold and Borderless’ walk was held on 8 March 2023 to celebrate International Women’s Day, and the numerous participants were guided through the points marked by seven women writers, translators, journalists and publicists by tourist guide Jasmina Jerant.
