The Open Space Foundation was founded in 2006 with the aim of supporting and promoting cultural dialogue and relationships through various forms of art and communication. We seek and create bridges between traditions and modernity, between cultures, between generations. 

Since 2008, we have been developing educational and cultural programs with a special focus on children and youth. We have established ourselves as an organization that works and upholds its standards. We respect cultural diversity and encourage cultural dialogue and interaction to occur in all spaces of life. The focus of our work is children and young people. Since 2008, we have been developing a program in which, through arts and crafts, we provoke creativity and encourage the development of participants. During the summer months, we attract youth and children from Bulgaria and the world. Since 2011, we have been working on a program to support youth initiatives, in which, after training and defending a project idea, young people receive funding and supervision for the implementation of their projects.

Since 2013, we have been working in the town of Veliki Preslav, assisting archaeologists and museum workers in archaeological excavations in the old capital Preslav. We promote the town as a place for historical and cultural tourism, working with local people to develop their capacity. Since 2023, we have expanded our network and are now assisting in excavations of the Ancient City of Heraclea Sintica near Petrich town and the Misionis Fortress near Targovishte town.

Project “Inherited Culture”     

focuses on supporting the restoration of culturally significant infrastructure, but also on engaging volunteers and local communities in activities to promote cultural heritage and present it in an interesting way to a wide audience in Europe and the world at large. Volunteers from 9 European countries help with  excavations in Bulgaria, create educational games and materials to present the historical heritage of Bulgaria.

The ambition of our project is to encourage people, especially young people, to get to know the rich cultural diversity of Europe, as well as to pay attention to the place that this cultural heritage occupies in our everyday lives. By focusing on this, we want to enable young people to become defenders of cultural heritage in the future.

For young people, this is a particularly important period, when they still have aspirations and are intensively searching for a deeper meaning in things. While searching for their own identity and their place under the sky, they still tend to question the customs, traditions, habits, beliefs and attitudes that were passed down to them during childhood. This is also a stage of development in which the individual value system is formed. Familiarity with facts and interpretation of real events in the past can reveal new perspectives that will help participants to examine concepts more deeply and to approach critically the interconnectedness of values ​​and belief systems. It can also help to gain a clearer idea of ​​what a person does not want to become.

 

The project is three years old. In total, we welcome 132 young people during the summer months in Bulgaria, thanks to financial support of program “European Solidarity Corps” of EU.

Partners:

3

locations in Bulgaria

130+

volunteers

+18,000

working hours contribution