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Looking back to the EEA Culture project mid-term evaluation event

In order to provide an opportunity for the project promoters of the two open calls “Support for the Creation of Professional Art and Cultural Products for Children and Youth” of the European Economic Area Grant Programme “Local Development, Poverty Reduction and Cultural Cooperation” (hereinafter – EEA Culture projects) to share their project implementation experience, thus contributing to the achievement of project results, sustainability and strengthening of cooperation with donor countries, the Ministry of Culture in cooperation with the Arts and Culture Norway (previously known as Arts Council Norway) on 14 – 15 June 2023 at the National Library of Latvia organized a EEA Culture mid-term evaluation event. The event was supported by the European Economic Area Fund for Bilateral relations.

The event was attended both in person and remotely by all 15 project promoters and/or project partners from Latvia and/or project partners from the donor countries, as well as representatives from the institutions involved in the implementation of EEA Grants – the Financial Mechanism Office, the Arts and Culture Norway, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Latvia and the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Latvia, as well as from the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Riga and the Latvian School Bag programme in Latvian National Centre of Culture.

During the event, project promoters and partners shared their experiences on lessons learned, challenges and good practices and presented 15 project stories on new professional contemporary art and culture products in circus, music, dance, film, visual arts, literature, theatre, new media arts, interdisciplinary and other arts and culture fields.

These stories gave an insight into those project activities, which allowed children and young people not only to get acquainted with different forms of contemporary art, but also to get involved in the creation of a cultural product, providing a personal inclusive experience, discovering their creative resources and developing socio-emotional cooperation skills. It should be mentioned that it was the implementation of interdisciplinary cooperation projects that allowed to better respond to the specific needs of the target audience and to reach them more precisely.

The event discussed cultural heritage as a resource from which to develop a story of values told in modern language, cultural experiences that make learning more inclusive, the possibility of integrating themes of global challenges into cultural expressions and communicating them to children and youth in an interesting and comprehensible way.

The project promoters and project donor partners acknowledged that the networking established within the projects has given the teams involved in the cultural projects a broader and more international perspective.

As the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Norway to Latvia, Ine Måreng, emphasised: “It is important that high quality culture is accessible to everyone, especially in the regions” and “Art gives us wings, it lifts us above the everyday life and gives us new perspectives. And we need that in these hard times.”