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Overview of the EEA Grants online Match-making event

For the second round of the open call “Support for the Creation of Professional Art and Cultural Products for Children and Youth” of the European Economic Area (EEA) Grant Programme “Local Development, Poverty Reduction and Cultural Cooperation”, launched by the Ministry of Culture, Latvian organisations that work in culture or the creative industry and had attracted at least one partner from one of the EEA donor countries – Norway, Iceland and/or Lichtenstein were elligible to apply for funding.

For Latvian organisations who needed assistance in establishing cooperation with a donor country partner, the Ministry of Culture on 19th January 2022 with a financial support of the EEA Fund for Bilateral relations organised an EEA Grants online match-making event. Prior to this, potential project applicants – organisations from Latvia – had to prepare a project idea, which was presented to various potentially interested cultural organisations from Norway with the help of the Norwegian Arts Council. Interested organisations from Latvia and Norway met online at the match-making event.

7 organisations (11 persons) from Latvia and 10 organisations (10 persons) from Norway participated in the online match-making event. The online match-making event was an opportunity for all interested organisations from Latvia and Norway to meet, to get to know each other, discuss in thematic groups and as well discuss possible cooperation in individual conversations. The fields and interests of the organisations represented were diverse: short films, theatre, music, dance, visual storytelling, performance and architecture. Most of the participants of the online match-making event found the event valuable.

Donor country partner and bilateral cooperation plays an important role in the EEA grants projects and are assessed in the project selection process. The guidebook “Creating high-quality arts and cultural events for youth and children” states: “Take enough time to get to know each other and develop a common strategy for your bilateral cooperation, which should lead to reciprocal exchange of experience and know-how. Keep in mind that the project development plan should be appealing to both the project applicant and the partner.”

Now when the second round has closed and 33 project applications have been received (31 by the deadline), it can be seen that one project application has been submitted with a partnership established through the online match-making event, while 7 project applications have been submitted where a partnership has been networked through the online match-making event.

The event was also attended by representatives from the Latvian School Bag Programme and the Norwegian School Bag Programme “Kulturtanken”. Their presentations:

1. Providing Cultural Experiences for Children and Youth through „Latvian School Bag”: Best Practices and Challenges by Aija Tuna, Latvian School Bag Programme

2. “What’s up in arts and culture for children and youth?” by Solveig Korum, Kulturtanken