Italiuri kulturis instituti

Istituto cultura italiana (NGO) is a non-profit organization operating in the linguistic and literary field, active in Tbilisi (Georgia). It has two complementary aims, that is promotion of Italian and European cultures and languages in Georgia, with an inclusive and democratic orientation, and of Georgian culture at abroad, and specifically in Italy and other European countries. From the beginning of its activities the organization has also combined its cultural offer with an information processing work, with a strong emphasis on media literacy and the conscious use of new technologies. Our main activities range from the offer of language lessons in various European languages (not only Italian, we have been teaching English and French as well), the organization of cultural encounters (either "cafè-philo" encounters, workshops and lectures at other institutions, exhibitions, and more), the implementation of EVS/ESC projects themselves, translation of Georgian authors into European languages, and an IT work conceived as a precious tool to "learn to learn", and to meaningfulness enrich the cultural offer of our organization. Our social commitments and goals of our daily work are “social inclusion”, by which we aim to value and to enrich the local community around us (either artists, professionals, people with fewer opportunities, local institutions, etc.), “intercultural exchange”, where the European culture is not simply disseminated in a one-way approach during our activities, but rather proposed in a dialogic manner, in order to obtain mutual benefits, “social innovation”, meant as a way to produce a positive impact on the surrounding society primarily in the fields of civil society, environment, democracy, civil rights (still in a dialogic perspective, registering pro and cons of respective cultures) and finally “media-literacy”, inasmuch as we think that new technologies have not merely an instrumental value but they do influence our behavior and therefore they naturally fall within the cultural commitment of our organization. We also plan to extend our activities in the fields of social-care and a stronger emphasis on the inclusion of people and young people with fewer opportunities. Finally, our organization is distinguished by an healthy work place (currently located in a "campus" of a state body, in a central area of the city) with a dedicated space for volunteers.