Changes in the Commission on Culture
Elections. Visby hosted the latest
Commission on Culture (CoC) Board meeting on 14-16 April
2005. The chairmanship and structure of the CoC Board were
among the main topics of this meeting. The members of the
Board chose Ms Tarja Hautamaki, Head of Culture Department
of Vaasa, Finland, to be the new Chairman and Mr Olov Gibson,
Cultural Official from the Department of Culture and Leisure
in Visby, Sweden, was chosen as the Vice-Chairman. The CoC
secretariat will continue to be run by the city of Szczecin
Culture and Cultural Heritage Department.
In
addition to election of a new chair, the board discussed
the CoC annual sessions and other activities that are planned
for this year. Representatives from Szczecin confirmed that
two international art exhibitions in the National Museum
in Szczecin - Metropolis and Baltic Biennial of Contemporary
Art-Habitat are going ahead. The events are being organized
with the Mare Articum Online project, which will see the
bi-annual magazine transferred to an Internet-based platform.
Sessions of the Commission
This year's annual CoC Session, under the working title
Roles and Value of Art Museums in the Post-Modern World,
will take place in St. Petersburg. No dates have been set,
but the meeting is planned for the end of October or second
weekend of November.
The next year's session, devoted to cultural
festivals, will take place in Vaasa (23-26 November 2006),
in conjunction with the Wild Life International Film Festival.
The working title of the 2006 annual session is 'Cultural
Festivals and Local Identity' and it is aimed both at festival
producers and municipal culture officials.
The newest invention of the CoC Board is
a UBC Cultural Prize, which will recognize extraordinary
achievement by artistic groups or associations working in
the field of cultural activity in UBC member cities. The
Board is working now on details, rules and application forms
and anticipates the first prize to be awarded in 2006.
The CoC Board Meeting in Visby was fruitful
and productive. The board has prepared a schedule of its
activity for 2005 and is working hard to accomplish its
goals for this year and beyond. Anyone interested in the
Commission on Culture and its activities is urged to contact
us!
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