CULTURAL ASSOCIATIONS OF THE ROMANIANS IN VOJVODINA

Abstract

Members of the Romanian minority in present-day Vojvodina expressed a variety of cultural activities through various associations, which were first founded in the second half of the 19th century. The aim of this paper is to give historical overview of the establishment and development of the Romanian cultural associations in Vojvodina, from the second half of the 19th century to present. Cultural associations have played an important role in the institutionalization and development of the Romanian national minority after World War II. The most dynamic development of Romanian cultural associations is related to the interwar period, when they organized a number of events, primarily amateur theater productions, performances of brass bands and dance companies.

Period from 1945 to 1952 is referred to as the time of “Agitprop” culture when a large shift in the content-related, ideological, but also organizational issues of the development of cultural amateurism of the Romanians in Vojvodina occurred. Prominent increase in quality of cultural and amateur work continued in the following decades, when the institutionalization of cultural activities of Romanians advanced through the establishment of associations and organizations responsible for certain areas of culture, such as the Society for the Romanian Language, the Romanian Society for Ethnography and Folklore and so on.