The Museum of Karelia took part in the Cultural Forum

Submitted by KA9021 on
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At the end of August the Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Karelia participated in the Russian-Finnish Cultural Forum, which is an effective working platform for direct communication between representatives of two cultures. Since 2000, the forum provides a great opportunity for cultural organizations of the two countries to find partners for the implementation of new projects, thereby developing international cooperation and strengthening cultural relationships between Russia and Finland. One of the main goals of the Cultural Forum is to encourage international cross-cultural projects.

This year, Russian cultural organizations brought their proposals, and Finnish representatives responded to them. The Museum of Fine Arts of Karelia held online negotiations with colleagues from the Joensuu Museums, with whom the current project "Museums in focus" (CBC Karelia) is being implemented. The project coordinators - Tatiana Saltykova and Pauliina Kaasalainen - presented the achieved results, as well as a number of planned final events - study trips, participation in the tourism exhibition "Otdyh", a final online seminar.

The partners noted that despite the COVID-19 restrictive measures, almost all the project activities were implemented on schedule. The directors of the museums on both sides of the border - Natalia Vavilova and Tarja Raninen-Siiskonen - thanked each other for the work done, and also expressed confidence in the future cooperation.

The Forum is aimed at formation of new project ideas and long-term cooperation. Next year it will be a period of preparation for a new round of the cross-border cooperation program. And it is important to use this time wisely, identifying similar target audiences and important problems and discussing the partner network. For these purposes a series of online meetings is necessary to be hold at the beginning of the year, and the colleagues are ready to include them in their plans for the next year.