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FIRST CALL - Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme
BALTIC SEA REGION CULTURAL PEARLS / ARTS ON PRESCRIPTION / BSG-Go! / Baltic Museum Resilience
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BALTIC SEA REGION CULTURAL PEARLS
Stands for: Baltic Sea Region Cultural Pearls for more resilient Cities and Regions
Description: BSR Cultural Pearls makes smaller cities and regions increase their social resilience with local assets in an innovative way. The project tackles challenges from authorities (responsible departments e.g. for social services, economy, tourism, culture) in places which are more vulnerable, non-central and prone to decreasing quality of life. While their role should be to halt a downward spiral, they often lack the capacity, innovative solutions and instruments to do so. These tools would be used e.g. to increase engagement of civil society and build social cohesion through connectedness and shared values, to spur creative processes with different actors of the local ecosystem, or to link them to national and international channels for inspiration and visibility.
To overcome these barriers, the partnership develops a Cultural and social resilience uptake programme with three key elements: 1st, to make authorities develop a “culture and resilience action plan”. 2nd, to support authorities in the implementation of these action plans with a “peer-mentoring /co-learning programme”. 3rd, to showcase selected cities and regions as “BSR Cultural Pearls” with BSR-wide communication activities.
This leads to places in which citizens and stakeholders have a stronger sense of belonging to society, feel engaged and act for the common good. This way, the community is more attractive and stronger prepared to respond to external disturbances. Such a city or region can be defined as more resilient.
Status: Interreg BSR Core Project, funding granted, getting started!
Partners: Council of the Baltic Sea States Secretariat (SE) [LP], Regional Council of Ostrobothnia (FI), Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture Secretariat (LV), Danish Cultural Institute (DK), Vidzeme Planning Region (LV), Baltic Sea Cultural Centre (PL), Heinrich Böll Foundation Schleswig-Holstein (DE), Creative Estonia (EE), Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Areas, European Affairs and Consumer Protection of Land Schleswig-Holstein (DE), ARS BALTICA / Nordkolleg (DE), Varde Municipality (DK), Alytus city municipality administration (LT)
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ARTS ON PRESCRIPTION
Stands for: Arts on Prescription in the Baltic Sea Region
Description: Arts on prescription is a concept to improve the mental well-being of citizens. The idea is that people with a diagnosed mental condition such as depression, stress or anxiety, or people at risk of developing such a condition (e.g. due to loneliness) get a prescription not for medicine or therapy, but for taking part in regular arts activities in group settings. This has been proven to have positive health effects.
The challenge that public authorities face when planning and implementing such a programme lies in the underdeveloped cooperation between the culture and health sector, the lack of knowledge on how to set up, organise and evaluate a programme and the lack of long-term financing.
The partners of the project “Arts on Prescription in the Baltic Sea Region” will jointly develop a model programme that is based on state-of-the-art evidence and experience, but adaptable to different local conditions and public health systems. The programme will be piloted by local and regional public authorities in cooperation with cultural institutions and evaluated for its health effects, organisational set-up and economic benefits.
The arts on prescription model is then transferred to other cities and regions that are supported with an online practitioner’s guide and a rent-an-expert programme. Moreover, the project will initiate a dialogue with national authorities and health insurance funds in order to improve the structural support and financing options for arts on prescription.
Status: Interreg BSR Core Project, funding granted, getting started!
Partners: Odense Municipality (DK) [LP], Ministry for health, women and consumer Protection of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (DE), Bremer Volkshochschule - adult education centre, Ministry for Culture (DE), University of Southern Denmark (DK), Cesis Municipality (LV), Saldus district municipality (LV), Westpomeranian Region (PL), Media Dizajn (PL), Secretariat of the Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being (NDPHS) (SE), Sunderby folk high school (SE), Norrbotten Region (SE), Turku University of Applied Sciences (FI), Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LT)
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BSG-Go!
Stands for: BSG-Go! Scaling-up Baltic Sea Game support for a resilient game industry
Description: The renewed discussion on resilience refers to the complexity and inherent weaknesses of socioeconomic structures, the adverse effects of which were amplified during the recent pandemic. Not surprisingly, resilience is now about transformation rather than about “returning to normal after a crisis”. It is a long-term ambition and opportunity for pro-active learning, the ability to self-correct and innovate”. Building resilience means both to understand and learn from problems faced in the past but also to reinforce those parts that have proved resilient. The game industry is a perfect model for which one can provide resilience both ways: it has proven to be resilient in the face of a crisis where mobility was limited, with increased revenues, but its “weakness” has to be strengthened, with the need of young creative talents which are fragile when communication and mobility are obstructed. Solutions for the game industry as piloted in BSG-Go! will work as well for other industries, in particular CCI. Communication is key: how can communication practices be improved to ensure a positive impact in business activities and relations? Anticipatory learning is key: how can young talents understand the strength and opportunities of their creative and technological competences to e.g. take on responsibilities for SDG or engage with other industries to create new business? BSG-Go!, led by BGZ, will provide solutions to be transferred and achieve the necessary resilient transformation.
Status: Interreg BSR Core Project, funding granted, getting started!
Partners: BGZ Berlin International Cooperation Agency GmbH (DE) [LP], HTW Berlin University of Applied Sciences (DE), medianet berlinbrandenburg e. V. (DE), Dania Academy (DK), Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (FI), Science City Skelleftea AB (SE), Invest Stockholm (SE), Tartu Science Park Foundation (EE), Public Institution Lithuanian Centre (LT), Vitruvio Foundation (PL), Game Habitat (SE), Sankt Kors Fastighets AB (SE), The Royal Danish Academy (DK)
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Baltic Museum Resilience
Stands for: Resilient museums and memory institutions for resilient societies in the Baltic Sea Region
Description: The resilience of societies and institutions in the BSR was significantly tested during the COVID pandemic and will face even a greater challenge at the time and after the war in Ukraine. During the last two years it became apparent that in every country the museums, memory and cultural institutions have a much bigger role to play in ensuring resilience in the society during the crises than initially expected. In the "Baltic Museum Resilience" project we shall analyse how the cultural and memory institutions managed and overcame the latest crisis to ensure resilience from three perspectives: governance, business model and digital sustainability and economic sustainability. Based on the best practices already implemented, relevant research and peer reviews we shall develop a toolbox with solutions for the institutions: what and how to do. The toolbox will help to sustain the institutions but also provides additional resilience opportunities for the whole society during a crisis - but the principles could also be applied at any time for improving the organisation's performance and helping to achieve its goals. The toolbox will be piloted and adopted during the project and made available to all respective institutions in the BSR. Our main target groups are authorities (responsible for culture and heritage), NGOs active in the field and SMEs providing innovative services in the area, who will increase their capacities to lead the change to resilient heritage institutions.
Status: Small project, funding granted, getting started!
Partners: Estonian War Museum – General Laidoner Museum (EE) (Lead), Museum of Västervik (SE), Forum Marinum Foundation (FI), Public Institution National Regions Development Agency (LT), Balteus Foundation (PL)