On September 18th and 19th, the 4th in-person Partner Meeting within the BSR Cultural Pearls project co-funded by Interreg BSR took place in Kiel, Germany. Complementing the internal discussion regarding durability, the transnational exchange of the 2024 BSR Cultural Pearls held in Kiel in parallel made it possible for partners and Pearls to exchange as well. Furthermore, the project with the topic of social resilience through culture and especially Pearls were presented on the international stage of the coinciding BSSSC Annual Conference on September 19th and 20th.
Organised by project partner and mentor Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, the Partner Meeting took place at two cultural hubs of Kiel, the Anscharcampus and the Alte Mu, which, in their diversity added to fostering the in-depth exchange on the project's future amongst partners and Pearls of 2024 - Kiel, Jakobstad/Pietarsaari, Svendborg and Rūjiena. After the partners evaluated the status quo of the project and possible futures after the Call for 2026 (coming soon!) amongst themselves on day 1, they came together with the Pearls to speak about their barriers and successes so far as well as future plans. The workshop was lead by researcher and consultant Eva Mӕrsk who has been supporting the project through various development stages with her input and brought partners and Pearls closer together.
Following this exchange, everyone joined the BSSSC Annual Conference later that day, where ARS BALTICA moderated a workshop on the topic of ‘Sustainable resilience in cities and communities through culture’ in the framing of the project. After lead partner CBSS – Council of the Baltic Sea States' introduction, the Pearls as well as experts Eva Mӕrsk, Mikko Fritze, director of the Finnish Institute in Germany, and Taiju Kiesilä, representative of the City of Espoo Cultural Unit, Partnerships and Promoting Culture alongside the Chair of the UBC Cultural Cities Commission, had the room and platform present and exchange thoughts with the partners and conference participants. The importance of experiences, offering and filling spaces to build a community, intercultural learning and using culture as a language in the process was stressed.
A showcase of the latter was presented in the evening at Schauspielhaus Theatre of Kiel organised by Cultural Pearl 2024 Kiel. Apart from these cultural highlights of Kiel, highlighting the 2024 Pearls by bringing them on stage and interviewing them about their achievements, experiences and future plans in regard to the BSR Cultural Pearls project rounded off this celebratory evening of promoting social resilience through culture.
We thank everyone involved in organising these events for their efforts and our project partners and 2024 BSR Cultural Pearls especially for the collaboration!
Read the more detailed article on the Transnational Exchange of the 2024 Pearls and the Partner Meeting in the News-section of the BSR Cultural Pearls Website.