Kotor Art, which is held for more than a month during the high season in Kotor's Old Town, takes place through four program segments: Festival of Klapa Perast, Festival of Theater for Children, Don Branko's Music Days, and Philosophers' Square.
The festival has become a significant and essential part of the Kotor and Montenegrin cultural identity, and throughout the many years of its existence, it has become nationally and internationally branded as a first-class art event, bringing the world's musical elite to Montenegro. Kotor Art gathers over 1000 artists from more than 20 countries for 250 diverse, artistic and scientific programs that attract around 50.000 visitors each year!
@Kotor Art
The festival is beneficial for the development of cultural tourism in Kotor, the promotion of the town abroad, and is a significant contribution to the international image of Kotor as an inevitable destination with a rich cultural offering. Some of the features of Kotor Art include cooperation with the public, private and NGO sector at the local and national level, and links to the international artistic community through the collaboration with many organizations, creative agencies, and associations from all over the world.
Kotor Art continuously and consistently cultivates the idea of creativity, and as part of the Don Branko's Music Days, buskers from all over are invited to Kotor for the event.
Busking is a term used around the world for various kinds of street performances, and implies different disciplines which attract the attention of the public – from street musicians to miming, puppet shows, circus acrobats, comedians, magicians, street theater and dance.
For the successful applicants, the festival will provide permits to perform inside of the Old Town according to an agreed schedule with symbolic performance fees, technical support, practice rooms and the possibility to attend other festival programs.
For everyone interested in performing in Kotor between July 14 - August 13, fill in the application (www.kotorart.me/busking) by May 15, 2018.
This particular event was created as a highlight of the concert season which began in September 2001 at the Music School in Kotor by Don Branko Sbutega and Ratimir Martinović. Don Branko Sbutega, an intellectual and visionary, immediately realized the importance and far-reaching effects of the idea, which he readily supported as one of the festival founders and honorary president.
Don Branko Sbutega (1952 – 2006) was an extremely knowledgeable and committed intellectual who was known as such even outside the borders of Boka and Montenegro, where he was born. He is the author of many articles on the history and culture of Boka, the co-author of Old Literature of Boka (1994), Kurosawa’s turmoil of the world and a collection of poems titled Sebedarje, which was published posthumously. He was also the spiritual leader of the Knights of Malta for Serbia and Montenegro.
Don Branko Sbutega was born in Kotor where he finished high school and studied medicine and theology in Zagreb, Vienna and Rome. Don Branko was ordained to the priesthood in 1979 when he assumed responsibility for rebuilding churches and preserving and restoring the great art treasures of the Diocese of Kotor, which were damaged in the earthquake. He was a benefactor and an inspiration for the paintings by famous artists, such as Vasko Lipovac, Vojo Stanić, Edo Murtić, Kosta Angeli Radovani and others. In the 1980s, when the Yugoslav crisis was evident, he was a big part of the intellectual life in public forums and television shows in Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro. At the same time, he was responsible for the collection and distribution of humanitarian aid, the leadership of Caritas Diocese of Kotor and founding the Center for Refugee Assistance in Padua (1996).
Don Branko was the first honorary president of Kotor Art, who participated in many scientific meetings, conferences, round tables in the Balkans and Europe and was acquainted with many artists, diplomats, politicians and journalists.
