Dear Friends,

Friday 20 March 2009 was, by all standards, a memorable evening: we celebrated in style the 2009 edition of the Ratiu Foundation Annual Reception, the Bow-Tie Party v2.0.

The reception’s ‘surname’ reflects both Ion Ratiu’s preference for bow-ties, and the fact that we live in the computer age. We brought new and improved features to the last year’s edition, so it came naturally to name the event the Bow-Tie Party version 2.0.

A photo gallery and a short film of the event will be available soon, on www.romanianculturalcentre.org.uk/photos and www.romanianculturalcentre.org.uk/videos

We would like to say a big thank you to all who attended the Ratiu Foundation Annual Reception: your fine conversation, good humour, and brilliant exchange of ideas made for a beautiful and very open evening.

For some good years now, the Ratiu Foundation Annual Reception brings together a good number of Ratiu Scholars, Alumni, and Project Partners, who can make acquaintance, re-connect, or get to know each other better. It is also the time for the yearly meeting with the Board of Trustees – the group of people whose decisions have influenced many careers and lives.

The Annual Reception is also the time to celebrate the life and achievements of Ion Ratiu, the well-known democracy campaigner, lawyer, journalist, writer, politician, businessman and philanthropist, and to raise a glass of wine in his memory. Since for a great part of the Romanians Ion Ratiu was lovingly known as ‘Mr Bow-Tie’, we thought our Annual Reception should have a fitting title, so we called it the Bow-Tie Party. It is an event where all the guests must wear a bow-tie.

To underline the openness and spirit of inclusiveness so characteristic to the late Mr Ratiu, we underlined that the bow-tie stands for a state of mind, not for formality. As such, we were happy to see that the vast majority of our guests arrived on the evening of 20 March 2009 sporting a variety of bow-ties: formal, self-tied, plastic ones, ready-made, ribbon-made, bunny-shaped, butterfly brooches, and even some made out of paper.

The evening started on a slightly more official tone, when on a background formed by young artist Daniel Ratiu’s series of paintings, ‘Digging Deeper’, Nicolae Ratiu, Chairman of the Ratiu Foundation, welcomed everybody in the Reception Hall of the Foundation’s building in Manchester Square.

Nicolae Ratiu said: “It gives me great pleasure to declare, in front of members of the family, of the Board of Trustees of the Ratiu Foundation, as well as of you, our honoured guests, that the Ratiu Building is now officially open. This fine evening marks almost to the day the establishment of the Foundation by my parents, Ion and Elisabeth Ratiu, thirty years ago. I am proud to say that this house, and this Foundation, will always be open to new and innovative projects. We shall continue to support Romanian excellence in all fields of study and activity, and I invite all our Scholars and Alumni to come forward with proposals for the Culture Power series of presentations and seminars, as a step towards their public life, or to publicise their findings and studies”. Nicolae also added that he is looking forward to welcoming everybody at ‘All Change!’, the sixth edition of the Romanian Film Festival in London. The Festival in organised by the Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre in London together with the National Centre of Cinematography in Bucharest (CNC) and Curzon Cinemas and it will take place from 1 to 4 May 2009 at the Curzon Mayfair cinema.

Nicolae then gave the floor to Indrei Ratiu, Trustee of the Foundation and Vice-President of the Ratiu Democracy Center of Turda, in Transylvania, Romania. With this occasion, Indrei extended an invitation to all Ratiu Scholars and Alumni to come to Turda and make use of the Center’s facilities in order to advance their studies, but also civil society in Romania. Indrei also introduced the members of the Board to the audience, and thanked everyone for their presence, but also for their achievements in their field of studies or work. For more information on the Ratiu Democracy Center’s work, please visit their website, www.ratiudemocracycenter.org

Shortly after this intervention, the audience was treated to a short film – the Annual Review, March 2008-March 2009 – illustrating in a concise and lively manner the Foundation’s work in the past year. This was followed by two other short films detailing two particular events of 2008 that demonstrate once again the Ratiu Foundation’s high level of commitment for the promotion of Romanian culture both in the UK and in Romania: ‘Home & Away’, the Romanian Film Festival in London, and the 15th edition of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival.

After this, Ramona Mitrica, Director of the Ratiu Foundation, addressed the audience briefly. Ramona expressed her interest to hear of many successes from the Scholars and Alumni, and her wish to see everybody again at the next events of the Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre in London.

Ramona added that she was happy to see so many people, from fields of study and activity as varied as art, music, history, architecture, political sciences, and economics, and representatives of various organisations with which the Foundation is working, coming together in order to meet each other. She also mentioned that, with this particular occasion, the young talents who have arrived from Romania last autumn can be introduced properly in the Ratiu Network. Ramona reminded all that they are welcome to make the most of the advantages offered by the Ratiu network, and finished by inviting everyone to enjoy the rest of the evening.

An informal reception followed until late in the evening, with which occasion the Scholars, Alumni, and Project Partners had the opportunity to meet and discuss with the Trustees of the Ratiu Foundation: Elisabeth Ratiu, Nicolae Ratiu, Indrei Ratiu, Ioana Ratiu, Kitty Willis. We also had the pleasure to have with us Pamela Ratiu, Director of the Apply department of the Ratiu Democracy Center in Turda, as well as Madalina Mocan, Project coordinator and Director of the Learn department of the same Center. Rares Craiut, our new Executive Director at the Ratiu Foundation in Bucharest, was also present.

Thank you very much to all of you who took part in Ratiu Foundation Annual Reception 2009: the Bow-Tie Party v 2.0. We are looking forward to seeing you all again at the next Reception, but also at all our cultural and educational events.

In the meantime, for updates and news about our work, as well as for information on Romanian cultural events happening in the UK, you are invited to visit our websites www.ratiufamilyfoundation.com and www.romanianculturalcentre.org.uk.