Anca Ungureanu: "Everything we built alongside FITS always had the Sibiu community and theater lovers at heart"

Long-term investments in culture have the effect of educating a community, and FITS is the best example in Sibiu, with a tradition of 30 years. An important structure of the festival are its partners and sponsors, who have chosen to invest in culture, in people, in education. UniCredit Bank is PartOfTheMiracle, every year. I spoke to Anca Ungureanu, Identity and Communication Director of UniCredit Bank.

UniCredit Bank is one of the FITS partners with the longest tradition in supporting the festival.

Anca Ungureanu: Indeed, in 2023 we celebrate not only the 30th edition of FITS, but also 20 years of UniCredit partnership with this unique event, dear to all of us. This long collaboration between us proves exactly what we want from a partnership: for it to be long-term and for us to evolve together from year to year, with responsibility and with the certainty of the best outcome for all those involved.

It is our vision both in terms of clients and the partnerships we have in the area of ​​sustainability, entrepreneurship, education, culture – to name only the major areas where we are involved for the sake of the community.

When you look back at the past twenty years since you’ve been with FITS, what are the highlights that come to mind?

Anca Ungureanu: As far as FITS is concerned, every year has brought important and special moments. Everything we built together with FITS always had the Sibiu community and theater lovers at heart. We constantly strive to offer them a richer and more enjoyable experience at the Festival.

I would like to mention just a few of the things we do at the Culture Factory, a space very dear to us, for which we fought together with the FITS team in order for it to remain open for performances and where, year after year, valuable shows are staged. The FITS mobile application, the promotion of the outdoor festival, the program-magazine with recommendations, which we distribute for free to spectators, in thousands of copies, are other examples of actions with which we have been involved in as part of the festival.

You have accustomed the public to innovative interventions during the festival, in the area of ​​visual arts. What projects are you preparing for this year and where will the public be able to see them?

Anca Ungureanu: That’s right, the events that we proposed to the public as part of this partnership and in accordance with the themes of FITS, enjoyed the appreciation and participation of the spectators. This is what happened with the Giving Tree, The Wall of Hope or the installation created last year together with Apparatus 22, A TOTEM TO FRUMIRIA.

For this year, we have also prepared something exceptional, together with the Mânadelucru team and architect Dorin Ștefan. It is an installation – Mirror Your Community – which will be located next to the Blue House and which is made of mirrors. We thought that each one of us is #PartOfTheMiracle and anyone who interacts with our installation will see himself, but he will also be able to see behind him Sibiu’s Large Square, the passers-by, the joy and emotion that surrounds us all in Sibiu during the Festival.

We are #PartOfTheMiracle, the miracle is inside us, each of us, and we want everyone who will pass through Sibiu between June 23 and July 2 to know this. This is Mirror Your Community!

How is the involvement of UniCredit Bank in various cultural and educational projects reflected in the relationship with UniCredit customers? What other large-scale cultural projects do you support in Romania?

Anca Ungureanu: We get involved in projects that stimulate the potential of people, companies and communities in such a way that they develop harmoniously and sustainably. Moreover, sustainability exists in UniCredit’s culture, at any level: from external partnerships to internal communication projects. Another direction we consider extremely important is education, and we focus on helping as much as possible, especially in the area of ​​entrepreneurial education.

Among the big projects we are involved in, I will mention the Romanian Design Week and Diploma, with whom we have been working for over 10 years, the Romanian Creative Week, in Iași, which grows very nicely from edition to edition, Brand Minds, Weekend Sessions or Techsylvania in Cluj. We are also collaborating this year with Timișoara, the European Capital of Culture, with the Triade Foundation, Attila Kim Architects and Jecza Gallery, where we have a wonderful exhibition project, “after SCULPTURE/SCULPTURE after”, but we also support two festivals with tradition in the city on the Bega: JazzTM and Plai.