Strategy for Art Festivals Development was presented at a festival pitch session

Submitted by KA9031 on
Big Music for Small Cities_pitching

How to organize a successful festival that can boost positive changes in the region? The participants of the Big Music for Small Cities project online pitch session spoke yesterday about unique images of the border areas.

Big Music for Small Cities Project manager Ekaterina Shishkova opened the session and shared the successful practices offered to the project participants in the implementation of all its areas: musical, festival, educational and creative. Speaking about the results, Ekaterina drew attention to the fact that the project started during the pandemic, and the results that we see now prove the team strategy "to be able to see in any changes not problems, but opportunities." Working sessions for orchestras and festival operators on both sides of the border, music workshops with international experts, rebranding of the Joensuu Winter Music Festival, development of the Strategy for Art Festivals Development in the Cross-Border Region, training and practical courses for creative sector specialists. The project provided a whole range of tools for cultural organizations and creative people to develop and realize their potential. Thanks to the well-equipped filming venue, which appeared in close cooperation with the creative sector, the range of services offered has been expanded. A close-knit team has created new products: a symphony program and a CD "Big Music for Small Cities", a talk show dedicated to the art of light, a film based on the music commissioned for the project. And all this is to make the cultural life of the border region brighter, the environment for people's living in these territories more attractive.

During the pitch session, representatives of Karelia art festivals from Olonets, Kostomuksha, Kondopoga and Petrozavodsk in the format of quick presentations reported about their victories and challenges. Keeping within 2 minutes is the most important skill of self-presentation, which all participants worked out perfectly.

Svetlana Kolchurina, moderator of the session, head of the team responsible for the development of the Strategy for Art Festivals Development in the Cross-Border Region, presented the document publicly for the first time. Svetlana told the participants about the study of festival activities, which was carried out on both sides of the border as part of the project.

Festival activities are an important factor in positive socio-economic changes for the territories where events are organized. To prepare the Strategy, the following research was carried out: "Festival Palette of Border Territories" and an analysis of the festival calendar, which showed the strengths and weaknesses of the festival activities. The study demonstrated a demand for qualitatively new measures to support festival activities.

The strategic goal of the development of art festivals is to create an environment and conditions for the development of festival activities in the border areas and support initiatives related to the organization and holding of festivals, as well as the promotion of existing and newly created festivals in the border areas.

At the moment, the Strategy provides four strategic directions, which contain specific tools to achieve the goals:
• Creation of basic conditions and infrastructure to support the organization and holding of art festivals;
• Increasing the number of festivals and stimulating private creative initiative in organizing and holding art festivals;
• Development of festival networking;
• Creation of a multifunctional IT platform for festival activities.

Soon in March the Strategy will be presented at the level of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Karelia.

The project "Big Music for Small Cities" is grateful to all the participants of the pitch session. Please don't forget to send us your presentations and comments on the Strategy before the end of the working week.

And next week, the marathon of the project events will be taken over by the Winter Music Festival, which is supported by the project for the second time, and will be held in Joensuu from February 22-27.

Below you can find attached the Strategy with all the annexes.

The STRATEGY.pdf
Festival map.pdf
Annex 1_Fest palette_Study result.pdf
Annex 2 (1)_Calendar_Russian Festivals_compr.pdf
Annex 2 (2)_Calendar_Finnish Festivals.pdf
Annex 3_Strategic scheme.pdf
Annex 4_Road map for Karelia.pdf
Annex 5_Matrix.pdf
Annex 6_Legislation grounds_RepKarelia.pdf