07/01/2025

The Ekatarina Pavlovic Library in Serbia serves as an inspiring model that promotes culture, education, and social services. It employs feminist pedagogy to foster critical thinking, creativity, and civic awareness in an underprivileged region. By treating spatial resources, books, and knowledge as common goods, the library continues to support the community’s well-being and cultural needs through specialized activities, such as bibliotherapy sessions and Children’s Club workshops.

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The Ekatarina Pavlovic Library in Serbia by Ivan Manojlović

Initially set up in an old wine cellar on a private property in the village of Markovac, the library quickly attracted individuals who recognized the value of contributing to this initiative. Thanks to donations from publishing houses, organizations, and individuals, the library’s collection now exceeds 4,500 books and serves over 400 members across multiple locations.

The Ekatarina Pavlovic Library is part of the Rural Cultural Center Markovac (RCCM), which was established in 2020 by the artist group Hop.la! with the primary goal of revitalizing cultural and social life in the villages surrounding Velika Plana, a town in eastern Serbia. This region is one of the most underfunded in the cultural sector. In response to this challenge, RCCM aims to provide culture, education, and social services to all social groups, regardless of gender, ethnicity, residency, or economic status. Through the efforts of local volunteers running the library and art professionals who visit Markovac to lead activities, the Center plays a significant role in advancing the decentralization of culture—a key challenge and priority in Serbian cultural policy.

The Rural Cultural Center Markovac is a non-profit civil society organization. Artists and educators collaborate to implement multidisciplinary approaches. Through the library’s activities, they promote critical reading of literature that challenges nationalism, colonialism, xenophobia, and other forms of discrimination. Membership is voluntary and free of charge. In addition to the main book collection, there are shelves for sharing books and textbooks, which citizens can access on a self-service basis.

The management is divided between the director, Aleksandra Milosavljevic, a psychotherapist, and the vice director, Andjelka Nikolic, a theater director who leads the artist group Hop.la!. The library employs seven local women, aged 14 to 65, as librarians. External collaborators, including website editors, library catalogue editors, designers, and others, are also involved. Depending on the responsibilities and scope of work, these positions are either honorary or voluntary.

In addition to book and spatial donations, as well as voluntary work, the sustainability of the Center is supported through project funding and contributions from various sources. Over the past three years, public funding has been provided by the Serbian Ministry of Culture, surrounding municipalities, and the National Coalition for Decentralization. Several significant domestic foundations supporting society and culture have also recognized the importance of financially backing the Center, including the Reconstruction Women’s Fund, Trag Foundation, and Jelena Santić Foundation.

The activities at the Ekatarina Pavlovic Library are grounded in the principles of feminist pedagogy, which emphasize freedom of thought and speech, critical thinking, and equality in learning and development. Creativity, civic awareness, and environmental activism are central to the pedagogical approach of RCCM.

The Center strives to collaborate with similar initiatives and contribute to the public campaign for cultural decentralization, which has been widely recognized. As a result, RCCM has received several prestigious awards, including the Belgrade Open School Recognition Award for cultural decentralization and the fight for equal rights, BeFem’s Recognition Award for cultural mobility, and the Jelena Šantić Award for outstanding contributions to community development through art.

RCCM also supports the performing and visual arts, with a special focus on community art, eco-friendly art, and the preservation of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

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