The Latvian Academy of Culture convenes the International Research Conference Series “Culture Crossroads XV”, running online for a whole week
From the 1st to the 5th of November, the Latvian Academy of Culture (LAC) invites you to follow online events of the conference series “Cultural Crossroads XV”, which will showcase the research profiles of the LAC, as well as reveal topics and main results of various interdisciplinary and interinstitutional teams of culture and art researchers, including the objectives of the National Research Programme project “Cultural capital as a resource for sustainable development of Latvia” / objectives and first-year results of CARD. “Cultural Crossroads XV” will also host the closing conference of the Latvian National Centennial Programme “From the first to the next century: performance, experience and perspective” with a presentation on the results and evaluations of the programme by the cultural sector representatives on topics such as creative status, cultural policy emphases in the new Cultural Policy Guidelines and perspectives on development in the culture sector.
The events of the conference series will be streamed and available for viewing on the LAC social media platform Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/LKAkademija) and YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/LKAkademija).
On November 1st at 10:00 – 17:00, the opening event of the conference series “Culture Crossroads XV” will present the Ministry of Culture State Research Programme project “Cultural capital as a resource for sustainable development of Latvia”. The CARD partners are: LAC, Jāzeps Vitols’ Latvian Academy of Music (JVLAM), Latvian Academy of Arts (LAA), the National Library of Latvia, the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of University of Latvia. The project will provide an insight into the diverse subtopics of the programme, present the research carried out during the first year of implementation of the programme and outline future objectives. The conference will seek answers to the following questions: What is a cultural ecosystem, how to research the cultural and creative sector, why study the history of culture and art and what significant resources do memory institutions provide? Finally, students of art schools will be invited to share their experiences and the benefits of participating in research. The working language – Latvian.
A great deal of attention is paid to the synergy of art and research in the National Research Programme. Therefore within the framework of the conference on November 1st at 19:00, at the LAC National Film School (Elijas Street 17), anyone who is interested will be invited to a free screening of the opera film “Baņuta” with introductory words by playwright Evarts Melnalksnis. The authors of the opera are the Berlin Musical Theatre Ensemble “Hauen und Stechen” and Latvian artists: composer Jekabs Nimanis, musical theatre playwright Evarts Melnalksnis, Latvian actors and soloists Laura Grecka, Armands Siliņš and Sniedze Kaņepe. Entrance to the performance is possible only by presenting an interoperable certificate of vaccination or a certificate of recovery from Covid-19 and a formal identity document (ID card or passport).
On November 2nd, at 10:00 – 18:00 the conference “Research profile of the LAC: Themes, questions and answers” will present the research projects of the LAC implemented in 2021. The research team of the project “Creative industries in small cities: Potential and contributions to sustainability” will describe the profile and resources of creative industries in small cities, inviting entrepreneurs to discuss examples of good practices in creative industries in small cities and their development opportunities. A group of castle mound researchers will be sharing how new discoveries of castle mounds take place and how the significance of ‘location’ is formed in the context of newly discovered castle mounds. Researchers of the research project “Art of nationalism: Social solidarity and exclusion in contemporary Latvia” will pay attention to the topical question: What is the role of art in creating and maintaining solidarity in a democratic society? The results of the research will provide an opportunity to find out how contemporary artists understand and explain the manifestations of artistic freedom, censorship and self-censorship in contemporary Latvia.
The discussion “Living cultural heritage: Practices and challenges” with representatives of intangible culture heritage communities will find out how everyday life merges with heritage preservation and establish the experience and motivation of community members to get involved in maintaining traditions. The working language – Latvian.
On November 3rd, at 9:30 – 17:20, the Latvian National Centennial programme evaluation conference will be devoted to the theme “From the first to the next century: Achievements, experience and perspective” organised jointly with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia and the Latvian State Centennial Bureau. It will be attended by planners, implementers and researchers of the National Centennial programme, who will present the impact assessment of the programme. Toms Kikuts, Deputy Director of the Latvian National Museum of History, will analyse how the centenary has affected historical communication; Dace Kundrāte, Head of the Military Public Information Division of the Ministry of Defence, will evaluate the centenary from a defence perspective; Margarita Feizaka, Senior Rapporteur of the Foreign Ministry’s Communication Group, will talk about the implementation of Foreign Ministry’s public diplomacy programme.
Jolanta Borīte, Head of the Cultural centre “Sigulda Devons” will share her experience on the opportunities of the regions in implementing the Latvian State centennial programme, while Baiba Šmite, Head of the Riga Municipality Culture Department, will describe the involvement of Riga in the centennial programme. Lelde Kristiana Vozņesenka (Latvian State Centennial Office), the organiser of “Latvijas karoga ceļš” (The Road of the Latvian Flag) will talk about the organisation of the youth initiative; Aija Tūna, Head of the programme, will talk about the project, which, thanks to the centenary programme, has developed into a cultural education programme – “The Latvian School Bag”. The third part of the conference is devoted to the evaluations of current cultural policy processes, discussing such topics as the status of a creative person, as well as listening to the reports of cultural policymakers on the new cultural policy guidelines, along with the development perspectives of the cultural sector with the participation of Dace Vilsone, State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, and Uldis Zariņš, Deputy State Secretary for Cultural Policy. The working language – Latvian.
On November 4th, at 10:00 – 18:00, the International Scientific conference “Synergy of Art and Science in Education and Cultural Space”, in which foreign specialists, LAC, LAA, JVLAM professional doctoral students and culture sector experts will reveal their reflections on art-based research and research-based art experience and other manifestations of various interactions and synergies between art and research, together with examples of good practice in the current cultural space. This conference also takes place within the scope of the project “Cultural capital as a resource for sustainable development of Latvia” / CARD, the State Research Programme of the Ministry of Culture, as it is thematically dedicated to an important topic of the project – synergies between research and art. Playwright Evarts Melnalksnis will explain how research has influenced the creators of the opera film “Baņuta”, providing an insight into the specific scene of the opera film; film director Matīss Kaža will evaluate the role of research in the filmmaking process, also, the rector of the Latvian Academy of Science Kristaps Zariņš will reflect on painting as a reflection of personal views and reflections on the order of things.
Foreign researchers will also be presenting their research at the conference: Professor Francisco Martinez from Tallinn University, who will focus on the exhibition as a research method and ethnographic experiments with artists, and Magda Schmukalla, a researcher from the University of London, who will reflect on the role of post-communist obstacles in the crisis of modern European identity. The working language – Latvian and English.
On November 5th, starting at 10:00, the conference will take place in six parallel thematic sections all throughout the day: Cultural Heritage: current new discoveries and newly discovered current events; Cultural and creative industries, sociology of culture and art, cultural management, cultural policy; Stage art; Latvian cinema. New times; Intercultural communication and the role of language in culture; Art, literature and visuals. At the sections, more than 70 researchers and industry specialists will speak on the latest developments in the cultural sector and the results of research, followed by discussions. The working languages – Latvian and English.
The programme of the full conference series can be foundhere: 
The conference was organised and conference materials were developed by the European Regional Development Fund Project “Development of scientific activities of the Latvian Academy of Culture”, Nr.1.1.1.5 / 18 / I / 017 and the Ministry of Culture State Research Programme Project “Cultural capital as a resource for sustainable development of Latvia” (Nr. VPP-KM-LKRVA-2020 / 1-0003) with the support of the Latvian Science Council. The conference also presents a number of studies supported by the Fundamental and Applied Research (FPRP) Programme, which is funded by the Latvian Science Council.
The conference is organised by the LAC Research Centre. Conference partners: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, Latvian State Centennial Office, Latvian Academy of Culture, Jāzeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music, National Library of Latvia, Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia.
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