Karelian Art-Residency Network and Art Tourism (KA3002)

Karelian art-residency network and art-tourism project improved the system of production of contemporary culture services and products in cross-border region through the resources of art-residency network and cross-sectoral approach.

Partners

Tourist Information Centre of the Republic of Karelia (Lead Partner)

Kostomukshsky State Nature Reserve

Social and Cultural Youth Centre in Sortavala 

Karelia Expert Matkailupalvelu Oy 

Project news

Karelian Art-Residency Network and Art Tourism

Duration: October, 2018 - September, 2020

The total project budget was 240 000 euros. Financing of the CBC Karelia was 216 000 euros, co-financing of partners was 24 000 euros.

As project result, new art-residency premises and art-residency programmes in Karelia were opened.

Petrozavodsk art-residence stays in the capital of Karelia, in the a stand-alone two-storeyed building of  the historical part of the city, right in the Petrozavodsk center (Lenin sq. 2a).

Sortavala art residence is located in the centre of the town, on the shore of Lake Ladoga. It resides in the historical building – the architecture monument and it is a subdivision of the Social and Cultural youth center.

Kostomuksha art-residence locates in Federal state-financed organisation Kostomukshsky nature reserve – the natural protected area, provides the well equipped house for work and live, that stays in the pine forest on the shore of a small lake.  

These new art-residencies are not only comfortable premises for doing arts, they are areas for variable positive changes. These changes are social, environmental and economical transformations that to our mind should gradually happen in these areas with the help of interdisciplinary and intersectoral initiatives implemented by Karelian art residence network.  

The open call for residents was held in the 2019/2020 season, 32 applications from 19 countries were selected, and in October 2019, the first creative group from Finland worked in Sortavala for one month to implement their creative project (before the restrictive measures related to the spread of coronavirus, the art residences managed to accept 6 more art residents).

Development of several cross-border routes united by the common concept "Two countries - one Karelia". Karelia, in this case, is seen as a single space, though separated by a border, with a common geological and political history, rich cultural, linguistic and gastronomic traditions, and a beautiful natural landscape. Different variants of tours have been developed, offering to combine in one trip visiting both Finnish Karelia and Russian Karelia and options for tourists to create their own creative projects with professional art curator. These routes were successfully presented to European travel companies at the international tourist exhibition "Matka" in January 2020 in Helsinki, and also received expert evaluation from European tour operators working in the German-speaking tourist market.

We consider the project successful and effective, and most importantly sustainable, because all three created art residencies will continue their work and cross-border tours will be launched in the post-project period.

Contacts about art-residence programmes:

Coordinator of Petrozavodsk art-residence Varvara Feklistova manager@museums.karelia.ru

Coordinator of Kostomuksha art-residence Nina Tarkhova nina.tarkhova@mail.ru

Coordinator of Sortavala art-residence Ekaterina Kulieva kulievakaterina@gmail.com

Contacts about cross-border tourism:

in Joensuu Anna Härkönen anna.harkonen@visitkarelia.fi

in Republic of Karelia Aleksey Tigushkin a.tigushkin@yandex.ru

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