Art Music and Mass Audience Conference

Organized by the Institute of Musicology of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, a national conference with international participation titled Art Music and Mass Audience. On the Forms of Promoting Serbian and Yugoslav Musical Creativity After World War II was held from October 2 to 4, 2024.

Taking place in the Hall of the SASA Audiovisual Archive and Center for Digitization, the conference brought together musicologists, music theorists, and researchers from fields such as history, sociology, political science, anthropology, ethnology, theater studies, art theory, and media studies. Numerous questions were raised regarding aesthetic education and the popularization of art in socialist Yugoslavia, as well as the roles of music festivals, radio, television, publishing companies, and cultural institutions in broadening interest in art music among wider segments of society. The role of aesthetic education as part of children’s general education was also discussed, focusing on the popularization of art among children and youth. Attention was also given to the consideration of popular music as part of legitimate Yugoslav culture, as well as approaches to cultural policy in the post-socialist period.

On the second and third days of the conference, roundtable discussions were held on topics such as „The Representation of Art Music in the Media Sphere of Socialist Yugoslavia: Experiences of Contemporary Witnesses” and „In the Whirlwind of Post-Socialist Transition and the Digital Age: Strategies for Promoting Art Music in Serbia After the 1980s”. As part of the conference, an exhibition of publications from the Institute of Musicology SASA was also held.

*The Conference has been supported by the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation of the Republic of Serbia and the SOKOJ – Organisation of Music Authors of Serbia.