Evaluation of BarentsKult 2022
Abstract This report presents the result of the evaluation of BarentsKult, a funding mechanism for Norwegian-Russian cultural collaboration within arts and culture in the Barents Region. The evaluation team concludes that BarentsKult has successfully created sustainable cultural networks across the Norwegian-Russian border. BarentsKult contributes to the creation of international meeting places to a large extent by having allowed some actors to grow exponentially over time. While BarentsKult is seen to contribute to business development to some extent, the effect is difficult to measure. In some cases, Barents Kult funds have a multiplier effect for repeaters who are able to offer permanent positions as part of their activities. Projects correspond to the main focus areas of BarentsKult, and they seem to meet requirements for innovation and equal cooperation between Russian and Norwegian partners. In other words, the BK programme overall reaches its goals as defined in the programme guidlines. BarentsKult is seen as having high value for project participants. The local value lies in the cultural experiences that are made available to the public, which are seen as enhancing place attractiveness. On the regional level, we see that the projects facilitate the achievement of relevant policies and cooperation agreements. BarentsKult creates synergies with other funding mechanisms in that BarentsKult funding is seen as a quality mark that may unleash further funds from other financial sources. While BarentsKult does contribute to high quality and innovative art, the way professionalism is defined may narrow the possibilities for identifying relevant partners in Russia, particularly among indigenous people. Lack of knowledge of Russian culture, language barriers, asymmetric relations and the professionality criteria are among the hurdles pointed to as obstacles for attracting newcomers – be it from Nordland or among indigenous groups. Lack of awareness and visibility of BarentsKult is a more pressing challenge than lack of relevance per se. Russian participation is seen as equal and very useful on the technical level. The in-kind contribution of the Russian partners is highly valued by the Norwegian partners. The financial contribution, however, remains low. New funding possibilities emerging in Russia could mitigate this in the future, and it will be important for BarentsKult to ensure that Russian project partners explore and utilise national funding options as much as possible. While Covid-19 definitely has had an adverse effect on the project implementation, it has not been devastating. The pandemic has inspired creativity and contributed to a higher technological competence. Some working tools will be useful in the future, and it is also not unlikely that video conferencing, social media and streaming will serve to include new groups. However, physical meetings will remain the most important form of collaboration. The editing of this report was completed by 22 February 2022 and reflects the situation under which the case study interviews were conducted. As such, the report does not capture the on-going war in Ukraine.
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