pARTir – Creating a Cultural Roadmap Towards Responsible International Mobility is a new collaborative project between the Finnish Cultural and Academic Institutes (SKTI) and ten Finnish cultural institutes operating abroad. The project aims to promote the sustainable and long-term internationalization of Finnish art.
Scheduled to run until 2025, the pARTir project will promote cross-cultural exchange and facilitate the international mobility of artists through the production of approximately 30 sustainably created performances, exhibitions, and other artworks. These works will be commissioned and developed in collaboration with various international art organizations. The program is designed to strengthen and establish environmentally and socially sustainable practices for international mobility, cultural export, and exchange.
« We believe that all international mobility must be not only sustainable, but also fair to the artist. The funding of the programme supports artists and takes geographical differences into account. The programme also emphasizes advising and mentoring, which in its part supports professionals in their international activities, » says the Director of The Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux Laura Boxberg.
The project operates through a network model, with the Finnish Cultural and Academic Institutes umbrella organization (SKTI) serving as the main coordinator in Helsinki. The ten Finnish cultural institutes involved will collaborate with intermediary cultural organizations in their respective host countries.
The Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture awarded a special grant of €726,000 to the pARTir project as part of the European Union’s cultural and creative industries structural support (Rescue and Recovery Facility RRF) in the fall of 2023. The RRF is one of the programs under the European Union’s Next Generation EU recovery instrument.
In the upcoming phases, the project will recruit and appoint a project manager, and collaboration will commence with translocal partners across the cultural institute network. The program’s actual production is set to begin in the spring of 2024.
Participating institutes include Finnagora – the Finnish Institute in Hungary, the Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux, the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland, the Finnish Institute in Japan, the Finnish Cultural Institute in Madrid, the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York, the Finnish-Norwegian Cultural Institute, the Finnish Institute in Germany, and the Finnish Institute in Estonia.
The project is funded by the European Union – Next Generation EU.
This article was originally published by The Finnish Cultural and Academic Institutes. You can read the original article here.