Cultural
collaboration due to the networks of contacts is a perfect tool for
enlivening of mutual understanding, knowledge of history and the
cultural background of the Baltic. The promotion of the contemporary art
and artists, as well as of the historical and cultural traditions in 10
different Baltic countries could help us to break the former walls
between countries, nations, cities and ordinary people around the Baltic Sea. The Commission works according to the Action Plan
which is prepared every two years.
The
Commission work started in 1994 with Szczecin and
Visby as
leading cities, with yearly Working Session on various cultural themes
as one of the main fundaments of the Commission activities.
The
participants at the Working Session in Szczecin in
2000 elected a Board of the Commission that since then has had meetings
as follows:
2000
in Tartu
2001
in Espoo and
in Copenhagen
2002 in Bergen, in Viljandi and in Riga
2003
in Gdansk
and
in Szczecin
2004
in Tukums and in Riga
2005
in Visby
and
in St.
Petersburg
2006
in Umeå and in Vaasa
2007
in Visby
The
Board can have 5 – 7 members. Last election were made in autumn 2007.
Today the Board has the following members:
Chairman:
Ms Tarja Hautamäki, Vaasa
Members of the Board:
Ms Olga Cherkasova, Isvara, St. Petersburg
Ms Agrita Ozola, Tukums
Mr Kim Dawartz, Naestved
Mr Björn F. Holmvik, Bergen
Ms Charlotte Lundkvist, Umea
Ms Maarit Keto-Seppälä, Turku
The
Secretariat of the Commission on Culture is at present hosted by the
City of Turku, Finland, and led by
Ms
Maarit Keto-Seppälä.
The Commission on
Culture working sessions
Working
sessions
The Commission co-ordinates the international working sessions which
focus on different cultural topics and helps to establish the
international net-working groups. Until now the following sessions have
been held:
The
first CoC session, Szczecin
1995
The discussion of the possibilities of co-operation in the field of
culture took place. The UBC Catalogue of Cultural Institutions,
published on the UBC Homepage by the city of Visby,
was a result of this session.
The
second CoC session, Visby
1996
The
theme "Freedom of expression Information Library" was
presented and the UBC Library Network was established.
1997
there
was failed attempt to organise CoC Session in Kaliningrad
devoted to artistic education in the Baltic region.
1998
there
was a meeting in Szczecin
that was organised in the form of the Choir Music Forum
which accompanied the Baltic Choir Festival. The leading theme of
discussion was "Choir Music in the UBC Cities - their problems
and possibilities".
The
third CoC session, Kalmar 1999
The important matters discussed there included the possibilities for development
of on-going projects, involvement of the new CoC members in
organisation of recent and future projects, improvement on
collaboration and network between the cities. During the Session the
Committee of CoC was elected with the representatives from 5 cities: Bergen,
Helsinki,
Klajpėda, Szczecin
and
Visby
.
The role of the Committee is to develop the future structure, status and
the ways of functioning of CoC.
The
fourth CoC session, Szczecin 2000 (June, 9-11)
The
main purpose of this session was the election of a new Board of the
CoC, the election of its Chairman and vice Chairman and a discussion
about the functions of the Board, the strategy and activities of the CoC
in the forthcoming years.
(The
first meeting of the new CoC Board was organised in September 2000 in
Tartu
.
The main goal of the meeting was preparation of the CoC action plan for
the years 2000-2002 and the preparations for the next annual CoC session
in the year 2001.)
The fifth CoC session, Helsinki
& Espoo
2001 (September, 6-9)
The theme of the session was art education. The discussion during
the meeting dealt with different aspects of art education in different
countries and cities in Baltic region. Because of the big interest
concerned with this matter, the Board decided to continue the art
education subject during the next annual COC meeting in Riga
.
The sixth CoC session, Riga 2002 (April, 11-13)
The theme discussed during this meeting was: "Culture
Education in Latvia
and the Significance of International Collaboration in Music and Art
Education".
The Session was divided into three topics: Music, Folk Music and Visual
Arts. There were interesting debates on numbers of problems
connected with art education and also, were presented international
projects initiated by schools. Participants of the Session were present
on the concerts within the 15th International Music School Festival and
visited Bolderaja
Art
School
and
Riga
Art
School
which are vivid art centres for children and youth in
Riga
.
The
seventh CoC session, Szczecin 2003 (October, 2-5)
The purpose of this session was an election of a new CoC Board,
its chairman and vice chairman, and a discussion about the strategy and
activities of the CoC in the forthcoming years. Furthermore, we
discussed how contemporary art exists in social consciousness and
the role that museums, galleries and artists can play in creating better
relations with their audience. The session was timed to coincide with
the opening of the V International Contemporary Art Exhibition
"Extra Strong-Super Light", which was held in Szczecin.
Also, participants were invited for a one-day trip to ArtForum Berlin
in Berlin.
The
eightieth CoC Session, St. Petersburg 2005 (December
7 –9)
This Working Session was successfully realized by Izvara museum in
Cooperation with the city of St.
Petersburg with a focus on the theme “The Role and Value of the Museums in
the Modern World”. The Commission on Culture presented a report about
this Session in the UBC Bulletin 1/2006, a publication based on the
various speeches has been produced by St. Petersburg
in 2006. 77 registred participants could listen to no less than 26
lecturers.
The Ninth CoC Session, Vaasa 2006 (24 – 26
November)
Vaasa
hosted the 9th
Annual Working Session of the Commission on the theme “Cultural
Festivals as Strengtheners of Local Identity” that gathered 40
participants from 9 countries. Various
festivals were presented and discussed with speeches and
group work. It was concluded that a calender of festival is
needed, and that the theme of festival related as well to the Session in
St. Petersburg
about museums.
The
Board announced during the Session that the Board had decided to give
the UBC Cultural prize to the City Council of Cesis for the festival
“Cesis 800th Anniversary” with this motivation: “For
the concious use of cultural heritage to shape an image of the town and
strengthen its identity and raise the awareness of cultural values of
life”.
The
tenth CoC Session was in Visby in 2007 (4 – 5 of May)
with focus on “European means for cultural cooperation”, especially
the EU program “Culture 2007”.
Projects co-ordinated by the Commission on Culture:
Art
Magazine:
MARE
ARTICUM - Baltic contemporary art magazine
Szczecin is
an initiator and coordinator of that project. The main purpose of the
magazine is to initiate a joint discussion and to establish a
promotional tool for the under-developed artistic movement in the Baltic
region. MARE ARTICUM as the original idea appeared in the beginning of
1996. During the following years MARE ARTICUM developed the net of
associated editors which now consists of 14 persons representing the
nine Baltic countries.
In 1997 MARE ARTICUM organised two meetings in Szczecin
which resulted in the publication of the issue of the magazine in
September 1997. Since then the four numbers of the magazine appeared
presenting the Baltic art scene and the most interesting phenomena in
the contemporary art of the Baltic. In 1998- 00 MARE ARTICUM editorial
board organised public promotions of the magazine in the following
cities: Gdańsk,
St.
Petersburg, Visby, Riga, Stockholm, Szczecin.
http://marearticum.szczecin.art.pl/
All
the information is provided by Ms. Magdalena Lewoc, e-mail:
marearticum@muzeum.szczecin.pl
Exhibitions:
N.E.W.S.
/North-East-West-South/- the contemporary art exhibition
MARE ARTICUM editorial board serves also as an important factor in the
artistic exchange in the Baltic Area. The biggest international project
organised and co-ordinated by MARE ARTICUM is the Baltic contemporary
art exhibition N.E.W.S. 1999-2000 under the auspices of the Commission
on Culture of the UBC was shown in Szczecin,
Riga
and
Visby.
The exhibition presented the important phenomenon in the visual arts of
the 90-ties and was accompanied by the course of seminars discussing the
role and function of art in the end of the 20th century.
http://www.n-e-w-s.org/
Extra
Strong Super Light
3.10.-16.11.2003
National
Museum
in Szczecin,
Contemporary
Art
Gallery
EXTRA STRONG SUPER LIGHT was the fifth edition of an international
exhibition of contemporary art organised in Szczecin
since 1995 under the auspices of the Union
of
the Baltic Cities. An exhibition initiating this program, The Horizon
Line (1995), was the first attempt to overcome former regional isolation
and find a common denominator.
EXTRA STRONG SUPER LIGHT was putting the observer in the role of a
subject of observation, focusing on artistic messages that come from
direct personal experience.
More info here
Contemporary
Art and Social Communication - seminar organised with the biennial program was devoted to the
presentations of new methods of adopting to the changing social
environment implemented by the art institutions around Baltic
Sea.
Festivals:
UBC
Art & Culture Festival
The festival was the most significant culture event initiated by the UBC
and led in the years 1993-1997.
In 1993 and 1994 it has been organised by Kaliningrad
(Russia)
and devoted to the folk art, music and handcrafts.
In 1995 the city of Szczecin
(
Poland
)
organised third edition of the Festival "Horizon Line" which
was devoted to contemporary visual art from Baltic cities.
In 1996 Szczecin
organised again the Festival. This time it was jazz, rock, pop music
presented.
1997 - the last UBC Art.&Culture Festival was organised in Gdynia
(Poland
)
and was devoted to classical music.
International Choir Festival -
has been organised every two years since 1998. In 2000 the Festival was
held under the auspices of the President of the UBC and the President of
the Szczecin
City.
The main organiser of the Festival is Zamek Książąt
Pomorskich (The Castle of the Pomeranian Princes) in Szczecin.
For more information, please contact the director Mr Eugeniusz Kus,
e-mail: zamek@zamek.szczecin.pl
or CoC secretariat.
The Festival of the Baltic Cities was organized for the first time in St. Petersburg
16-18th June 2006
by the initiative of the Baltic House Theatre
Festival and the Baltic International Festival Center Foundation. The
first participants were Kaunas
(Lithuania), Tartu (Estonia), Turku (
Finland
) and St. Petersburg
(Russia). The festival will be organized every second year in St. Petersburg
and the years between in some other membercity of the UBC. In 2007 the
festival is going to be held in Kaunas. For more information, please contact the general director Mr. Sergei
Shub, e-mail: fc@baltichouse.spb.ru
Other
activities:
The
Commission on Culture awarded the UBC Cultural Prize for the best
Cultural festival of the years 2005 and 2006 to the City Council of
Cesis for the festival Cesis 800th Anniversary “for the
conscious use of cultural heritage to shape an image of the town and
strengthen its identity and raise the awareness of cultural values of
life”.
Activity Report
submitted during the IX UBC General Conference in Parnu, 27-28 September
2007.
Activity Report
submitted at the 47th UBC Execitive Board meeting, Gdynia, 19-20 October
2006
Activity Report submitted during the VIII
UBC General Conference in Turku, 29 September - 2 October 2005
Activity Report
submitted at the Executive Board meeting in Riga, 15-17 October 2004
Activity Report submitted during the
VII UBC General Conference in Klaipėda, 18 October 2003
Activity Report submitted at the Executive Board meeting in
Umeå, 28-29 March 2003.
Activity Report submitted at the Executive Board meeting in Viljandi, 7-8 June 2002.
