1. Background The BarentsKult culture grant programme was initiated in the autumn of 2007 and implemented from 2008, with the aim of promoting larger border crossing culture and art projects in the Norwegian and Russian part of the Barents Region. In January 2009, the Norwegian and Russian Ministers of Culture signed an action plan for cultural cooperation in the High North, in which BarentsKult is mentioned as one of the initiatives.
The board of the Barents Secretariat has appointed an Expert Committee that assesses the applications and provides its recommendations to the Board. The Expert Committee is composed of representatives from the two (earlier three) northernmost counties. The Barents Secretariat’s Board is the final decision-maker for each individual project application.
1.2 Objectives of the evaluation
The BarentsKult funding scheme targets Norwegian and Russian artists as well as professional cultural institutions and actors. It is administered by the Barents Secretariat (Barentssekretariatet). BarentsKult enjoys strong support from Nordland, Troms and Finnmark county municipalities. Since its launch in 2008 BarentsKult has contributed to the realization of over 250 Norwegian-Russian projects involving thousands of professional artists and cultural actors. According to the guidelines and criteria for support from BarentsKult that were revised in 2018, BarentsKult targets the following groups:
An evaluation of BarentsKult was carried out in 2014. On 12th December 2020, the Barents Secretariat’s board decided to carry out a new evaluation in 2021. The main objective of this evaluation is to conduct a «general assessment of the programme’s results and goal achievement in relation to the objectives and criteria set out in the overall programme, terms and guidelines». The evaluation has explored the effect and benefit of BarentsKult on and for participants in projects, and whether the projects have had local and regional value. In other words, the purpose of the evaluation is primarily learning, and not control. The assessment comes with recommendations that can contribute to further development of BarentsKult, and has not primarily looked for errors or omissions that need to be corrected.
• Norwegian and Russian artists • Professional cultural institutions and actors BarentsKult provides grants for the following areas:
The terms of reference posed the following six main questions to be answered by this evaluation:
• international collaborative projects in art and culture
1. To what degree does BarentsKult meet the goal of stimulating cooperation between Norwegian and Russian professional artists and cultural actors in the Barents region (including St. Petersburg and Leningrad oblast)?
• arena development • cultural business development
2. In what way (if any) does BarentsKult contribute to create international meeting places and networks for development of art and culture?
BarentsKult emphasises the following criteria in the selection process:
3. In what way (if at all) does BarentsKult contribute to cultural business development?
• The projects should have a good cooperation profile and contain cooperation between Norwegian and Russian actors. Real Russian participation in the projects for which support is applied for is a prerequisite.
4. How has the goal achievement in the scheme evolved in a longer perspective compared to the findings in the previous evaluation report from 2014? What are the most important development trends in the period 2014-2020?
•The projects should contain elements of innovation. •The projects should hold high artistic and cultural quality.
5. What direct and indirect benefit has the BarentsKult programme had for the project participants, and what has been the local and regional value?
•The project should produce measurable results. •The project applicants should have the ability to implement the project successfully.
6A. To what extent does BarentsKult contribute to reaching the objectives of the Northern Norwegian 9
