Norwegian-Russian cultural cooperation
The emphasis on culture is a central part of the Norwegian government’s policy on the High North. This week two important agreements on cultural cooperation between Norway and Russia were signed.
On Wednesday January 28 the Norwegian Minister of Culture Trond Giske and his Russian colleague Aleksandr Avdeyev signed an cultural agreement in Oslo. Later the same day Head of Department for Culture and Sport in Finnmark County Marianne Pedersen and her colleague from Murmansk Oblast Sergey Yershov signed a regional cultural agreement in Kirkenes.
The main aims of the agreement signed by Giske and Avdeyev in the new opera building in Oslo, includes establishment of a Norwegian-Russian cultural forum and arrangement of annual culture days, the Norwegian government writes on its web site. Russia will create a Russian equivalent to the BarentsKult program, through which most of the funding of the cultural cooperation in the High North is channeled.
- It is important that the cooperation is rooted in local initiatives. But at the same time, we need cooperation between national institutions like The Norwegian Opera and the Bolshoj Theatre, Giske says.
The first item in the agreement between Finnmark County and Murmansk Oblast will be realized already February 10, when a seminar on cultural initiatives in the High North is to be held in Oslo, Finnmark County administration reports on its web site.
