'Dream Come True' as Romano Lav to Open Scotland's First Roma Cultural Centre
The Roma community in and around Govanhill are celebrating the announcement of plans to establish a Roma cultural centre on Nithsdale Road. The centre will be run by Romano Lav, regular contributors to Greater Govanhill magazine.
By Romano Lav | Photos by Merary Diner
Yesterday, Romano Lav announced they will be opening a Roma Cultural Centre in the heart of Scotland’s largest Roma community. The community organisation, will curate a vibrant programme of permanent and temporary exhibitions at the centre, showcasing the very best of Roma art and culture.
Their artist-in-residency programme will bring emerging Romani artists to Govanhill each year. The centre will also house a community archive, featuring collections produced by and for the community.
Project co-coordinator for Romano Lav, Rahela Cirpaci, said:
Our dream is finally coming true! Opening a Roma cultural centre has been our dream for the community but also for all Roma. It will be such a wonderful and significant space for the young people to call their own and feel empowered - as well as the whole community. As a Roma woman, I feel so proud to be a part of this project and this community, as well as to encourage youth activism. I feel like so many things will be possible in the new centre!”
Fellow co-coordinator, Toni Bruce, said:
We’re absolutely delighted to be able to provide a hub for the community alongside much-needed cultural space. There are so many incredible Romani artists out there, and it’s really exciting that a dedicated space to showcase Romani art and culture will be here in Glasgow. What is even more exciting is the potential that we are seeing in the young people locally, both in the arts and in their activism, and the space will first and foremost be for them to flourish in and to take ownership of.”
As well as celebrating culture, it will be a centre for Roma activism and rights, with a particular emphasis on youth activism and empowerment. It will be home to Romano Lav’s flagship programme, Community Catalysts, which is a grassroots equality and human rights programme (funded by the Scottish Government’s Equality and Human Rights Fund). This innovative programme trains a new cohort of local Roma youth each year to become activists in their community and beyond, with each cohort of Roma youth co-teaching the next.
Read more: History and Culture of Roma People
“I really think it’s a great opportunity to have a space for Roma people locally!” said Sorina Milosiu, a member of the youth activist team, “We will have so much to do and so much to experience. I feel so great being a part of the Roma culture, I feel like there’s so much to learn from each other and do together.”
Some of Romano Lav youth activists from the Community Catalyst programme.
The centre will also function as a community hub, creating much-needed recreational and social space. It will offer a range of community activities to bring people together, combining events open to all – such as an annual programme of cultural events and a regular community social – with targeted activities for specific groups, such as the Roma Sisters Together wellbeing programme and our mother-baby playcare group.
Ashli Mullen is the creative director of the project, and said:
“We’re thrilled to bring Scotland’s very first Roma cultural centre to Scotland’s most diverse neighbourhood which the vast majority of its Romani people call home! It is almost impossible to overstate the importance of establishing this space. It has been such a longstanding ambition for our organisation and for our young people, in particular. Now, all of their genuinely transformative work has a home of its own, from which it can grow even further still. Creating this space is about harnessing and building community power.”
The organisation have been inundated with requests to establish a Roma space or a community centre for almost as long as they have been in existence. It is the one thing that never fails to come up when Romano Lav ask what people would like to see in the community. Now, with a greater number of staff and increased capacity, they are ready to pursue this long-term goal. “This is a historic moment for the Roma communities in Scotland, a unique place for them to preserve and celebrate their culture and identity and share it with the wider Scottish community” said trustee, Fatima Uygun.
The centre has been made possible by new investment from the Co-op Foundation’s Future Communities Fund and the People’s Postcode Trust, alongside Romano Lav’s existing core funding from the Scottish Government’s Equality and Human Rights Fund.
It will open in Autumn 2023 following significant renovations - in time for Romano Lav’s 10th anniversary!