The Venues of the Minorities’ Music: The Case of Romani and ABCMMS in Slovenia

Abstract

While researching ethnic minorities’ musics in Slovenia, I have often come across the issue of the venue (as a space for performing music) that has proven itself relevant in assessing the social and political realities of the country’s minorities. Venues are an important, yet often ignored factor in establishing the overall communications between minority musicians (as presenters of a minority’s culture) and society at large. The importance of the shared public place increases when a minority culture is underrepresented. Using the position of the governmental bodies and their cultural policies as a position of power as a starting point, I will examine the use of the venues for various musical situations involving the minority musicians in Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana. I will analyze the correlation between i) the economic status of minority musicians, ii) the financial capacities of minorities’ cultural associations (that support most of the minority musical practices), iii) the governmental system of funding minorities’ music events, and iv) the venues used for these performances. Depending on these venues, I will make a comparison of the successes of communicating knowledge about minority music to the (majority) audience, pointing thus to the importance of the topology of minorities' musical events in the city. I will argue that, due to the lack of long-term vision in the state’s cultural policies and the insufficient funding of minorities’ music projects, the latter are often pushed to the less significant venues and become less visible in the eyes of the public and society at large.