In April 2022, with the financial support of the European Economic Area (hereinafter – EEA) Fund for Bilateral relations, representatives of the Ministry of Culture and the Latvian School Bag programme (hereinafter – Latvian School Bag) went on an study visit to Oslo, Norway, to strengthen bilateral relations between Latvia and Norway. During the visit, a meeting was held with representatives of the Norwegian Arts Council, the Norwegian Schoolbag Programme “Kulturtanken”, the Norwegian Ministry of Culture and the VEGA Culture Centre.
The Norwegian Arts Council is an important cooperation partner of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia in the implementation of the EEA Financial Mechanism Programme 2014-2020 “Local Development, Poverty Reduction and Cultural Cooperation” open call for proposals “Support for the Creation of Professional Art and Cultural Products for Children and Youth”. The Norwegian Arts Council also has significant experience in the potential of culture and cultural diversity for social cohesion and well-being, which is valuable to identify and take forward in the future programming and implementation of EU and EEA programmes.
The Cultural Schoolbag programme has been operating in Norway in various forms for more than twenty years, including since 2016 under the leadership of the state agency “Kulturtanken”. Inspired by the Norwegian experience, the Latvian Schoolbag became fully operational in autumn 2018 and has already achieved similar results in several aspects. In both countries, the programme aims to provide regular publicly funded cultural experiences for all children and young people, and the principles of implementation are similar, including equality of access, provision of high-quality cultural experiences, discovery of cultural diversity, etc.
During the visit, representatives of “Kulturtanken” shared their experience on good practices in the development of high quality cultural events and activities for children and youth, on the programme’s approach to the development of new events, the selection of events and their inclusion in the programme. Another important aspect of the exchange is the cooperation with the education sector and the measurement of the impact of the programme in order to demonstrate its contribution to the cultural development of the country and the development of the audience of children and youth – thus justifying its need in the long term. An equally important aspect of the exchange is to learn about the process of administering the programme in Norway, for example by learning about the role and involvement of municipalities and the process of pricing cultural events.
The opportunity to meet the players involved in the implementation of cultural events – representatives of the “Kulturtanken” programme office in Oslo and the municipality of Viken – contributed to establishing valuable contacts for the further development of the Latvian School Bag, confirming that the establishment and the activities of the Latvian School Bag programme have been very successful so far, at the same time providing valuable insights for the further development of the programme to continue to ensure its visibility and place on the political agenda, as well as to continue to work on broadening the understanding of the concept of cultural education and clarifying the different roles of culture.
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