The Barents Scholarship for Cultural Cooperation 2023
Barents Scholarship for Cultural Cooperation 2023
FINLAND’S SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT:
KOLI ART RESIDENCE (KOLI CULTURAL SOCIETY) The Koli Art Residence was founded 1999 and about 12 artists visit Koli each year. The residence is situated in the village of Koli next to the Koli National Park in North Karelia and it has been international from the start. In its artist selections, Koli Art Residence emphasizes communality and the involvement of the local community. Koli Art Residence is actively involved in a network of 15 residencies and art organizations in the northern regions of Norway, Sweden and Finland. The Backyard
Residencies network is creating opportunities for artists and curators in the region to live and work in another country in their own “backyard”. The residencies are places for research, collaboration and creation of new works. The aim of the network is to recreate and enhance networks and platforms for artists as well as to promote mobility in the Barents region. The Koli Residence is answering to this need by bringing North Karelia even more actively as part of the Barents Euro-Arctic art community.
SWEDEN'S SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT:
NORWAY’S SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT:
Marit Shirin Carolasdotter is a professional dancer and choreographer currently based in Brussels, Belgium & Umeå, Sápmi. She is the initiator of Dotra Art Centre, a new, artistic hub based in Umeå/Ubmeje in Västerbotten which opened in the summer of 2023. Her ambition with Barents collaboration is to broaden the range of professional, international performing arts, but also to create opportunities for particularly vulnerable artists. Especially artists who are seen as a minority in our countries. Through her focus and way of working, Marit Shirin Carolasdotter truly contributes in establishing sustainable methods and conditions for artists to work in the north. She also conveys the importance of cultural exchange and Sami performing arts in a global perspective.
Ekaterina Bespalova was born and raised in northern Russia and since 2010 she has carried out several projects with Norwegian-Russian partners through her company RuNo Theatre. Bespalova has extensive experience in collaborating across borders in the north. She has also shared her experience and expertise in Barents projects through collaboration with a number of actors as project manager, producer and interpreter. She has built herself a broad network among Northern Norwegian artists, which she engages in new collaborative projects across the border. Since the outbreak of war in 2022, she has worked on various initiatives to keep the channels open for networks and collaborations with independent artists across the Barents region.
MARIT SHIRIN CAROLASDOTTER
EKATERINA BESPALOVA
THE BARENTS SCHOLARSHIP FOR CULTURAL COOPERATION Every second year Barents scholarships are awarded to professional artists and artistic associations within the cultural field in the Barents region. The Barents Scholarship for Cultural Cooperation recognise and encourage artistic excellence and cooperation across boarders and support common arenas and meeting places for artistic and cultural development in the region.
BARENTS SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS 2021 Finland: The Artists’ Association of Lapland Norway: Stellaris Dansteater The Russian Federation: Opera House of Komi Republic* Sweden: Kenneth Mikko, photographer, editor and writer
THE WORK OF THE WORKING GROUP ON CULTURE The strategy of the WGC (2019–2023) states that its overarching mission is to advocate for and promote the role of culture and cultural policies in meeting the overall objective of the Barents Programme on social and
economic growth through a knowledge driven economy and the sustainable development of the region´s natural and human resources. The WGC brings together artists, representatives from artistic associations, regional cultural administrations and national ministries of culture as well as from the Working Group of Indigenous Peoples. The Scholarship recipients from both 2021 and 2023 have been invited to discuss current topics with the WGC and to get acquainted with local cultural actors and institutions in North Karelia. * Barents cooperation with Russia was suspended after the country’s military attack on Ukraine in February 2022. On 18 September 2023, Russia announced that it would withdraw from the Barents Euro-Arctic Council.