11 top culture news from 6 countries in march

The latest arts and culture news from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Armenia

Tokyo hosted Armenian Culture Week. Various cultural events featuring Armenian and Japanese artists took place within the Armenian Culture Week in Tokyo on 22-27 March. The event was jointly launched at Daikanyama Hillside Terrace hall by Armenian embassy and Japanese foreign ministry in cooperation with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Community Institutions, Komitas Union, etc. The Armenian Culture Week demonstrated works of Armenian designers, musicians and filmmakers. News.am

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Armenia’s accession to Eurimages gives impetus to filmmakers, deputy minister of culture. Speaking at a press conference dedicated to Armenia’s participation in Eurimages, European Cinema Support Fund of the Council of Europe, Artur Pohosyan, Armenia’s deputy minister of culture, noted that the accession creates new opportunities for the country’s filmmaking industry. Armenia joined the Fund in January 2016 after 10 years of negotiations, he noted, advising the filmmakers to develop programme in line with the Eurimages criteria. News.am

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Azerbaijan

Reforms in culture ministry wouldn’t lead to manpower cut, minister Abulfaz Garayev promised. He noted that the reform goes in line with the presidential decree launching public administration reform. In course of the current year, 64 district departments of culture and tourism will be merged into 15 regional offices. The reform also foresees creation of Baku Main City Department of Culture and Tourism. Starting from 1 January 2017 the new regional offices would have centralized financing, the minister added. News.az

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Draft law on tourism is being developed in Azerbaijan. The parliamentary committee on labour and social policy together with representatives of the culture and tourism ministry as well as other governmental agencies have considered draft law on tourism. The chair of the committee noted the importance of the document that should replace respective law on tourism of 1999. He also underlined significant development of Azeri tourism industry for the last decade. The new law aimed at developing the country’s tourism potential and using more effectively respective business opportunities, the lawmakers and governmental officials said. Interfax-Azerbaijan

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Belarus

Government approved state programme “Belarus Culture” for 2016-2020. The programme aimed at preserving historical memory of Belarus people, its national and cultural identity as well as realizing cultural potential of the people and involving Belarus citizens into the country’s cultural life. The document also sets as a goal preservation of national and cultural identity of Belarus diaspora. It includes sub-programme “Heritage”, “Art and Creativity”, “Archives of Belarus” and “Belarusians of the world.” The general budget equals almost 30 billion of Belarus rubles. Belta

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Minister: “Belarus Culture” is focused on people. Commenting on recently adopted state programme “Belarus Culture” for 2016-2020, Boris Svetlov, Belarus’ minister of culture, underlined that the new programme would foremost focus on development of peoples’ potential. The previous programme was aimed at extending material and technical basis of cultural institutions, he noted, adding that this time the state would invest into specific people: artists (in the broader sense of the word), viewers, and art consumers. Belta

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Belarus MP expects Parliament to hold second reading of Culture Code on the current session. Interfax-Belarus quotes Natalia Kuchynskaya, deputy chair of parliamentary committee on education, expressing her hope that the lower chamber of the Parliament would hold second reading of the Culture Code during the current session. Since the first reading three month ago, the document was further elaborated during numerous meetings of the working group. She also underlined that the Code would provide complex and systemic regulation of social relations in the sphere of culture. Interfax-Belarus

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Georgia

Georgia joined Europa Nostra. Radio Liberty quotes Georgia’s ministry of culture and monument protection, saying that the country became an association member of Europa Nostra, a pan-European cultural network. Our country received an opportunity to be consulted in the area of cultural heritage protection, to attend the Congress of European cultural heritage and to receive full support for popularization of Georgia’s monuments in Europe, the ministry’s statement wrote. Ekho Kavkaza

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Moldova

Museum of soviet occupation was opened in Chisinau on the initiative of Anatolie Salaru, Moldova’s minister of defense. The opening ceremony attended US ambassador James Pettit and the leader of Moldova’s liberal party Mihai Ghimpu. Speaking at the event minister Salaru noted that the time has come “to worship the victims of the criminal regime.” The museum has 20 thousand exhibits including photographs, belongings of the deported citizens of Moldova and historical documents. In addition, the museum has recreated a NKVD office of the 1940th where Moldovans were interrogated by the Soviet security service. NewsMaker

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Ukraine

EaP Culture and Creativity programme compares development of informal education in the UK, France, Estonia and Ukraine. Experts of the EaP Culture and Creativity programme published an article comparing informal (lifelong) education in the UK, France, Estonia and Ukraine. The article stressed the importance of the lifelong education for economic welfare of separate people and countries in general. Given different European experience, this educational model may complement (UK) or serve as an extension (France) to formal education. Informal education may also be a training field for educational reforms as it is the case in Estonian. All of these models, however, does not place informal education in opposition to formal one, the article underlined. The authors also noted recent rapid development of informal educational projects in Ukraine advising the state to consider the new trend as an investment tool into its citizens. Pravda Zhyttia

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125 culture projects about Ukraine will be organized in Canada during 2016. All of them would take place in Manitoba province to mark the 125th anniversary of settling first Ukrainian migrants in Canada. The culture events also aim at supporting Ukrainian attempts to restore peace, Radio Liberty reported. Radio Liberty 

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