Baltic Pearls and Ars Baltica

A Strand of Baltic Pearls: A History of Cities in the Region
The working meeting on a previously approved book and lecture 'A Strand of Baltic Pearls: A History of Cities in the Region' was planned to be held in Szczecin in October 2004. That meeting was postponed and it will take place on the beginning of the next year on Visby, Sweden.

The authors who will contribute to the book and the related lecture series will be invited to discuss their efforts in greater detail. There will be prof. Jan M. Piskorski, the leader of this project; prof. Nils Blomkvist from Gotlands University College, Centre for Baltic Studies; prof. Alvydas Nikzentaitis from Lithuanian Institut of History; prof. Jens E. Olesen from History Institute of the Greifswald University and prof. Edward Wlodarczyk from History Institute of the Szczecin University.

Ars Baltica Forum
The Ars Baltica Forum held on September 23-25, 2004 in Gdansk, was the venue where representatives of policy makers, cultural operators and artists discussed the conditions and challenges for the cultural cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region.

The Forum was organised by the Ars Baltica Secretariat at the Baltic Sea Culture Centre in Gdansk and the Ars Baltica Organizing Committee. The Forum's cooperation partners are the Polish Ministry of Culture and the Office of the Marshall of the Pomeranian Voivodship.

The UBC General Secretary Pawel Zaboklicki, the Chairman of the Commission on Culture Slawomir Szafranski and editor of the Mare Articum magazine Magdalena Lewoc were representatives of the UBC during this meeting.

Mrs Lewoc presented the magazine, that from 1999 holds the Ars Baltica Logo, and Mare Articum editorial board plans for the future. Mr Szafranski proposed to organise a meeting of cultural networks that are active in the Baltic Sea Region. It could be possible to organise it together with Les Rencontres association based in Paris at the beginning of 2006 in Vilnius, Lithuania.

UBC Commission on Culture vowed to take a more pro-active stance in developing the network of cultural institutions in UBC member cities. This includes more frequent correspondence with city officials and those from local institutions about ongoing and incoming cultural events and efforts to improve the frequency of information updates on the UBC web site.