The nominated cities had prepared the best cultural and social resilience action plans, which aim to strengthen their communities and bring citizens together through culture and creativity.
The most convincing action plans were selected by an international jury consisting of experts in social resilience, urban planning, art and culture. This jury also included representatives from Baltic and European-wide organizations and city associations.
BSR Cultural Pearls is a title for cities and municipalities that provide awarded candidates with a program of activity support to promote their ability to use culture in strengthening social resilience. By involving citizens, improving their quality of life, promoting a sense of belonging and building trust, local governments will have the opportunity to build their communities stronger and more resilient to various future challenges.
The international jury highly appreciated the culture and sustainability action plan prepared for Rūjiena. This draws increased attention to such problems as the outflow of young talent and the rapid decline of the population in those Latvian cities that are further from Riga. Rujien is no exception. Intergenerational cooperation, knowledge transfer and networking are not happening and rural areas are dying out. In Rūjien, this issue became relevant after 2021, when the administrative territorial reform took place – the city was merged with Valmiera and its administration. Changes also affected the field of cultural management. According to the results of the 2023 survey of residents of Valmiera district, Rūjiena was the only city that was dissatisfied with the overall cultural development. A new, successful implementation of the action plan would serve as a good incentive and push for change. The main priority of the Culture and Resilience Plan is to create the conditions for an open, democratic and civically active society and a socially resilient community. Starting with small things – from getting to know your neighbors to community activities and cross-border cooperation with Estonia. The local residents would like to create a community center in Rūjien, making it a place that gathers the community rather than an institutionalized space. The planners of the plan emphasize that they want people to have the opportunity to create themselves, not just consume. Obtained by Rujiena BSR Cultural Pearls the title will promote cross-industry and intergenerational cooperation, communication and joint events with Estonian villages, thus opening up opportunities for international networking as a secure basis for a more active Rūjien community.
Madara Seile, manager of cultural projects of the Valmiera County Culture Board and the preparer of the application, emphasizes the most important benefits: “The received title will give Rūjiena a great opportunity to create a more favorable environment for community activities, as well as to work more successfully on strengthening social resilience, for example by providing opportunities for residents to meet. It is also important that cross-sectoral cooperation has been implemented, a new network of foreign cooperation partners has been created and the existing cooperation with Estonia in the field of culture has been improved.”
Svendborg, Kiel, Jákobštát and Rújiena will now take part in the year-long event BSR Cultural Pearls in the program. It includes mentoring to support the implementation of the action plan, capacity building with expert support, networking and international exchange of experiences.
“We are positively surprised by the dedication that each city showed in the competition. Their creative and inclusive approaches to strengthening social resilience have exceeded our expectations,” says Felix Schartner Giertta (Felix Schartner Giertta), BSR Cultural Pearls the project manager, who represents the secretariat of the Council of the Baltic Sea States, which is the leading partner in the project. He emphasizes: “The basis of this initiative is culture and its ability to involve people and unite them to common ideas and goals, to promote the feeling of belonging to the city and region of the residents. It is a pleasure that the action plans developed by the candidates of the competition for strengthening social resilience envisage the active involvement of their residents in the implementation of ideas.”
2023-12-06 16:02:23
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