Students` Culture House

Similar to any other "students` culture house" in the country, the Students` Culture House in Craiova provides to the students in the university centre of Oltenia an alternative to spending their free time in a productive way through various actions that complement the curricula and the professional training.

Short history

The Students` Culture House was founded exactly half a century ago, in 1964, overtaking the establishment of the University of Craiova by a year. First, the SCH in Craiova was located in the "Nicolae Titulescu" Palace, under the supervision of the Ministry of Education. In 1979, the need to expand the activities led to the relocation of the Students` Culture House from Eugeniu Carada street and the construction of new buildings, including a big event hall.
After 9 years of hard work, the construction has come to an end, so that on May 2, 1988, the Great Hall of Events was put into use. Soon, the students became aware of this event hall thanks to the first student festival "Jazz, Folk, Rock". Due to the great impact of this big event, all Students` Culture Houses in the country took up the idea and the event was presented in the famous Billboard magazine.
Over the years, the Students` Culture House has organized cultural, artistic, educational events, but also fun tourism, sports and leisure activities, dedicated mostly to students.
The Students` Culture House in Craiova has always been and remains an open institution to all volunteer students, one of the most active institutions of its kind. This is the place where great Romanian artists sterted their career: Gabriel Cotabita, Aurelian Temisan, Vacanta Mare or Janina Matei.
From its very beginning, the Students` Culture House has been an expression environement for young and free spirits, an elevated alternative to leisure. This institution represents an environment in which the young students' artistic and moral skills develop, a space for cultural experiments, as well as for promoting young talents.

Conclusions and perspectives

50 years since its establishment, the Students` Culture House has remained the cultural edifice that shelters, develops and promotes the talents of students attending training sessions, classes, clubs and various other activities organized by SCH under the guidance of specialists.
However, despite the fact that the modernization works did not lack, the SCH`s activity is limited by the permanent budget constraints in the cultural and educational field.
The loss of a substantial part of the area in which it used to function (the legal heirs recovered the old building), as well as successive staff restructuring resolutions, affected the activity of the Students` Culture House.
The hope of the Students` Culture House is that, along with the long-awaited Decentralization Law, it will be subordinated to the City Hall of Craiova, its work will gain even more brilliance and efficiency, and the students will struggle to transform Craiova into a true cultural capital.