Visit Tunisia and its partner, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, are working closely with six heritage-focused event and festival organizers to improve their management and increase the impact and income of events through an intensive capacity-building program.

The program – the Visit Tunisia Smithsonian Folklife Incubator -- will provide these organizers with custom technical assistance and one-on-one mentoring with industry experts to improve their programming, community engagement, design, and marketing. The program will kick off with an in-person learning exchange visit to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, DC in June 2022, sponsored in partnership with the United States Department of State.

The festival, an exposition of living cultural heritage attended by more than 1.5 million worldwide guests, will provide Tunisian organizers with critical insight into event/festival organization and best practices in cultural heritage representation. Participants will be involved in festival preparations/build out, may volunteer during the event, and will be invited to meetings with Smithsonian staff and festival team members. Participants will also visit select Smithsonian museums and experience the culture of Washington, DC. Smithsonian will coordinate and facilitate non-Folklife Festival visits/experiences for participants, along with their direct participation in the festival.

Visit Tunisia selected the six participants based on criteria such as their demonstrated commitment to community engagement and cultural heritage representation, potential economic impact, and geographic representation. Applications were open to all Tunisian event/festival organizers who took part in Smithsonian’s training workshops throughout Tunisia in March.

After the Smithsonian Folklife festival, Visit Tunisia and Smithsonian’s teams will work with the Tunisian organizers to co-create a plan with targeted areas of improvement and impact. We expect this capacity-building program to help Tunisian event/festival organizers improve the standards of their events, including through good management techniques and visitor engagement, positively impacting tourism development and visitors’ experience in Tunisia.

The program is a fruit of Visit Tunisia's partnership with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, one of the world’s premier cultural heritage centers. Drawing on its previous tourism support in Armenia and Bosnia, Smithsonian will provide participatory workshops, mentorship programs, and exchange opportunities for Tunisian tourism stakeholders throughout the five-year activity, while working with in-country partners to create cultural heritage tourism experiences that benefit both visitors and communities.

“Tunisia’s living culture is as diverse as its natural landscapes” said Halle Butvin, director of special projects at the center. “We are so excited to support communities in sharing their stories with the world—through local festivals, tourism, and Smithsonian platforms.”

Tunisian event and festival organizers should stay tuned for additional partnership and support opportunities, including an upcoming Festival and Events Management Online Course. Complete this brief survey to be included in the 2022 Calendar of Tunisian Events and Festivals, and to receive information about upcoming training, workshops, and grant opportunities.