The Power of Art and Cultural Impact Fields in Economy, Politics, Security, Health: "Culture Crossroads" is Approaching
From November 4 to 7, the conference series "Culture Crossroads XX" will bring together researchers, students, culture industry professionals, and policymakers to highlight the contribution of culture and arts to modern society – ranging from art's unique ability to address severe social issues to the socio-economic impact of culture, the therapeutic effects of cultural experiences, and the ideological power of soft power. The focus of the anniversary conference series will be on how cultural and artistic experiences help individuals and society as a whole respond to political, economic, security, social, and new technology challenges. These issues are particularly important in the context of threats to democracy, when citizens' right to culture requires special protection. The organizers of the conference emphasize the need not only to study cultural and artistic processes, but also to explain their significance in shaping individual and collective values.
The conference series will open on November 4 at the Latvian Academy of Culture (LAC) National Film School pavilion (58a Miera Street) with the plenary session "Latvia for Culture, Culture for Latvia: Vectors of Impact." The plenary session can also be followed live on the LAC Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Sharing their experience and vision on the power of artistic language and the footprints of cultural impact will be both creative professionals and scientists: playwright, screenwriter, and director Mehis Pihla (Estonia), film director and screenwriter Karolis Kaupinis (Lithuania), playwright and screenwriter Matīss Gricmanis, film producer, screenwriter, and director Gints Grūbe, as well as LAC researchers Dr.oec. Ieva Zemīte, Dr.art. Baiba Tjarve, and PhD Lolita Ozoliņa.
Special attention in the plenary session will be paid to the role of culture and arts in wartime conditions. Associate Professor Yuliia Kovalenko from the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture and LAC Tenure Professor Maija Spuriņa will introduce the cooperation project between the Latvian Academy of Culture and the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture, "War in the Scope of New Media: Documentation Methods and Challenges in the Post-Digital Era." The presentation will examine how documenting wartime experiences in new media creates new civic journalism and cultural practices where documentation, participation, personal experience, and memory preservation intertwine.
On November 5 and 6, the conference will continue in the LAC Miera Street 58a quarter, where researchers and industry professionals will present their latest research in seven thematic sections: performing and audiovisual arts; cultural heritage; cultural and creative industry transformation and development processes; cultural contact studies and language use in culture; art, literature, and visuality; culture and art, population, communities, and society, as well as youth research.
On November 5, LAC students will have the opportunity to participate in the international workshop "From Digital Evidence to Public Story: Community Voices and Cultural Memory," led by Yuliia Kovalenko, Nataliia Korzhyk and Yuliia Litynska from the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture. The workshop will bring together students from Latvia and Ukraine online to explore in intercultural teams how photographs, videos, community records, and personal stories can be transformed into responsibly crafted, publicly accessible digital messages. In their practical work, students will focus on source evaluation, the representation of diverse community voices, and ethical issues in digital storytelling. The workshop will also serve as an opportunity to test the digital storytelling training module developed within the cooperation project of the two universities.
The conference series program will be complemented on November 6 at 7:00 PM by a public event, "Jānis Sten's (Stienis) Lectures to Stalin," taking place at the "Corner House" (61 Brīvības Street). The event will be dedicated to the Latvian philosopher Jānis Stens (Stienis, 1889–1937), who was once one of the most prominent representatives of Marxism-Leninism philosophy in the Soviet Union and taught private philosophy lessons to Stalin for several years. He was shot in 1937 during Stalin's repressions.
The event will combine a historical lecture, a performative play, and a discussion, offering an unusual perspective on the relationship between philosophy, ideology, and political power. In the first part, the lecture format will cover key biographical facts and philosophical views of Jānis Stienis. The second part will be a short performative play (director:Daiga Kažociņa) creatively reconstructing Stienis's private lectures to Stalin. The third and final part will be dedicated to a discussion with event participants and conversations with visitors. The event is implemented within the project "Conversions and Ruptures: Epistemic Strategies of Latvian Philosophy during the Soviet Period (1944–1991)" (No. lzp-2024/1-0650). The project is implemented within the framework of the Fundamental and Applied Research Projects 2024 Open Call, funded by the Latvian Science Council.
From November 5 to 7, the international dimension of the conference series will be complemented by the Baltic Drama Forum (BDF) scientific conference "Liminal Practices in Contemporary Academia: Between Artistic Research and Research in the Arts," taking place at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music and the Latvian Academy of Culture. The conference will feature panel presentations by curator and contemporary opera researcher Jelena Novak (Portugal), JVLMA Vice-Rector and pianist Diāna Zandberga, and curator and dramaturg Piersandra di Matteo (Italy), a long-term collaborator of director Romeo Castellucci. The conference will analyze changing relationships between academic research in art and artistic research, discussing how contemporary cultural contexts challenge, expand, and transform existing perceptions of research and knowledge in the performing arts. The BDF conference is organized by Latvian Theatre Union, Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music and LAC.
More information about the BDF conference program:
The interdisciplinary programme of the "Culture Crossroads" conference series annually brings together experienced and young researchers, students, as well as culture industry practitioners and professionals. The goal of the conference is to create an open environment for discussing research results and to stimulate academic discussion on the role, values, and social responsibility of culture and arts in the context of contemporary political, economic, and social changes.