Cultural cooperation as a space for rapprochement : from presenting best practices to jointly shaping futures

Photo: Alexander Matveev

Danish-Russian cultural cooperation in the Kaliningrad region

- Nordic Film Festival since 2008

- Cooperation of municipal libraries

- Contemporary arts and creative industries

- Unformalised cooperation, since early mid 1990 s (e.g. Graphic Art Bieannial, Alatyr)

- Public participation, public spaces and urban development

Cooperation of municipal libraries Kaliningrad Centralized library system in cooperation with NCM Information office in Kaliningrad and

Honorary Consul of Denmark Mr. Arne Grove

Start 2005 - 2006

2008 – 2013

Project “Development of municipal libraries” (supported by NCM)

2013Laboratory for young labrarians & Cycling for Libraries (Copenhagen to Berlin)

2014Modernization of libraries in Kaliningrad, workshop on user oriented library design + new design

for the library developed by Christian Pagh (Urgent agency)

Contemporary atrs (sound art)Kaliningrad branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts with support from Noridc Culture

Fund and Nordic Culture Point

Start 2007-2009,Kaliningrad Sound Art Camp and Sound Art Festival

Sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard: 2007-2019

“Shell” by Jacob Kirkegaard for the new exposition of the World Ocean Museum(“How I became a marine painter” project by Baltic Branch of the National Centre for Contemporary

Arts with the support from Potanin Foundation”2019 - 2020

“Shell” by Jacob Kirkegaard for the new exposition of the World Ocean Museum in Kaliningrad(“How I became a marine painter” project by Baltic Branch of the National Centre for

Contemporary Arts with the support from Potanin Foundation”2019-2020

Public participation, public spaces and urban development:Capacity building program for cultural managers by NGO Tranzit + European Cultural Foundation

Capacity building for Kaliningrad cultural manager – study tour to Copenhagen (2009) + visit to Metropolis lab/ festival in Cph (2010)

Notes from the meeting with Trevor Davies from the Copenhagen International Theater (2009) >>>>

Public participation, public spaces and urban development:Public participation project supported by Nordic Council of Ministers

Study tour to Nordic countries, incl. Copenhagen and Odense (Red Box) (2016)

14 partners from the Baltic Sea region Denmark, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden

Danish Culture Institute – Lead Partner

Project objectives:

Advance the Baltic Sea Region performance in citizen-citizen and citizen-city authorities cooperation

Increase urban social innovation, inclusion, and sustainable development of small and medium-sized communities (neighborhoods, towns)

Strengthen capacity of cultural planning actors (public authorities, intermediaries)

Location for UrbCulturalPlanningDemonstrator project in Kaliningrad

“Kronprinz” barracks Baltic Branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts

Factors for success

- Сapacity building for cultural professionals

- Focus rather on co-producing and co-development, than on presenting best practices

- Support to long-term processes and continuity

- Adequate supporting instruments in place

- Priority to face-to-face cooperation

- Perceiving differences as a resource and potential, not as a barrier

Thank you very much for your attention!

Look forward to seeing you in Kaliningrad!

Yulia Bardun

Vice-Director Baltic Branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts

(Kaliningrad, Russia)

ybardoun@yahoo.com