13 CULTURE NEWS HEADLINES FROM 6 COUNTRIES IN FEBRUARY
Armenia
Armenia will host Russia Days and the Week of Russian movies in 2016. In the framework of CIS 25th anniversary, Armenia will host Russia Days and the Week of Russian movies in 2016, Newsarmenia.am reported with reference to Russia’s Deputy minister of culture Alla Manilova. Newsarmenia.am
Azerbaijan
Minister: around 160 culture houses and clubs in the regions are in poor conditions. Report.az quotes Abulfas Garayev, Azerbaijan’s minister of culture and tourism, saying that around 160 culture houses and clubs in the regions are in poor conditions. Furthermore, around 900 clubs and culture houses do not have their own premises. This situation is in the focus of the ministry, he added. Report.az
Azerbaijani youth would be trained at Shchukin Theater Institute in Moscow. Azerbaijani youth will be able to participate in the topical courses of the Shchukin Theater Institute in Moscow, the Azerbaijan’s ministry of culture and tourism reported. In general 20 students from Azerbaijan will be trained for 4/5 years in the Institute. Interfax.az
Belarus
Deputy PM explained reasons behind culture year in Belarus. The ongoing culture year in Belarus relates not only to culture events as such but to wider aspects of social life, Natalia Kochanova, Belarus’ Deputy Prime Minister, said. The meaning of the culture year applies to the culture of behavior and relationship between people as well as to other sides of a life, the official noted. Interfax-Belarus
Belarus develops fundamentals of state culture policy. Irina Driga, Belarus’ first deputy minister of culture, noted that the country works on fundamentals of its culture policy. The document has to be completed during the ongoing culture year. It will supplement the governmental programme “Belarus Culture” which outlines economic foundation of the culture policy and defines state financial support for culture events to be implemented by 2020. Belta.by
Belarus hosted Armenia Culture Days. The culture events within Armenia Culture Days took place in Belarus from 8 till 11 February. Speaking on one of them, Artur Pohosyan, Armenia’s Deputy minister of culture, noted that his country has good relations with Belarus’ publishers and libraries. Both countries have mutual interests in literatures of each other, Belta.by reported. Belta.by
Georgia
Ministry of culture presented Georgian Culture Strategy. On 8 February, Georgia’s ministry of culture and monument protection held public presentation of the country’s Culture Strategy in Khobi. The document still needs to be approved by the government while consultations with different target groups across Georgia continue. The work on the Strategy was launched on 2014 with the purpose to define long-term vision of Georgian culture and creativity sector development. Apsny.ge
EU-EaP Culture and Creativity Programme facilitates discussion of Georgian Culture Strategy 2025. The EU-EaP Culture and Creativity Programme is providing capacity building assistance to the Ministry of Culture of Georgia in the facilitation of public consultations with professionals from cultural and creative sectors to discuss the draft version of the Culture Strategy 2025. To this end, the programme held respective open meetings on 11 and 12 February. Their aim was to introduce the key principles of the strategy and collect comments and recommendations from the cultural professionals. All the received feedback was collected into a report that will be used for the final amending of the Culture Strategy 2025. Culturpartnership.eu
Moldova
EU allocates EUR 155 million for projects to be implemented in Moldova by 2020. Financial resources, among others, will be spent on culture, education and healthcare projects as well as on programmes of economic and regional development. The EU and its member states are interested in the regional development of all its neighbours, Pirkka Tapiola, Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova, said, adding that the EU wants to be sure that the funds would reach their final goals. News.mail.ru
Ukraine
Rada may denounce agreement on Russian culture and information centers. Ukrainian lawmakers have tabled a bill denouncing Russia-Ukraine bilateral agreement on functioning of Russian culture and information centers in Ukraine. According to an author of the bill, Russian culture centers constitute a threat to Ukraine’s national security. Glavcom.ua
Ukrainian publishers opposed potential ban of Russian book import. A number of Ukrainian book publishers wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk opposing a legislative initiative proposing to ban Russian book import to Ukraine. The ban would make books less available to Ukrainians as the publishing houses functioning in the country would not provide sufficient amount of high-quality books from various fields: modern art, business, science etc, the letter warns. Instead of ban, they propose to check imported books aimed at hindering the appearance of propagandist books in Ukrainian market. AIF.ua
A first film on Crimea annexation was filmed in Ukraine. The premiere will take place on 14 March in Kyiv. The film will be also showed in Ukrainian big cities until 23 March. This first Ukrainian movie dedicated to Crimea annexation was produced by Babylon 13 and will screen the real stories of marines, paratroopers and other Ukrainian servicemen that continue their service in the peninsula under Ukrainian flag despite the annexation. Infoline.ua
Oscar to “Winter on Fire” would mean recognition of Ukraine, the film’s producers said. In their interview to Culturprostir.ua, Lina Klebanova and Kostyantyn Ihnatchuk, Ukrainian co-producers of Oscar-nominated documentary “Winter on Fire”, underlined that receiving of the most prestigious film award would mean recognition of Ukraine. Although the winners will be announced on 28 February, the film has already received wide global audience, they noted. Culturprostir.ua
