The authors of brief are convinced that despite political and economic challenges, the consolidation processes that affect structures and contents in culture have been going ahead in all six countries. They state continued consolidation in the fields of legislation, governance, system of institutions as well as policy goals. They also claim reservation and strengthening of heritage to be an ongoing high priority in connection to nation building, nevertheless they observe increasing emphasis laid on shifting towards modernization of the infrastructure, procedures and contents.

In the second Observatory brief the experts gathered comprehensive information from the six countries that include: 

• identification of the top 10 cultural policy priorities in the region;
• comparison of these priorities between six countries;
• cases from local contexts that illustrate the priorities in each country.

Key findings from the brief:

• The team found the care about the built heritage of the nation the strongest priority of the six countries.
• The six states keep devote considerable energies to identifying, preserving, highlighting and reviving intangible national cultural heritage – compensating also for the earlier suppression of spiritual and folkloric patrimony. 
• The character of middle or long term strategies in the region tends to become more pragmatic and accountable than declarative.
• Absorbing the essences of global trends in cultural policies, adopting practices from other countries, and addressing the burden of historic legacies continue to determine the cultural policy agenda in the six countries.
• All six nations must compensate for the senseless and often ruthless neglect and oppression of the cultivation of national cultural heritage during the previous regime.
• Despite national cultural traditions rooting back many centuries, the six countries share the compelling need and desire to make their cultures better known and seen on the international arena due to the short record of independent statehood.
• The cultural industries and market receive increasing attention and the concept of the creative sector is gaining momentum. 
• New cultural institutions were raised in all six states in the past few years. 

About Observatory

The Eastern Partnership Cultural Observatory provides an overview on the EaP Region (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine), bringing together evidence-based materials and identifying priorities for research and new policy initiatives. The Observatory inherits and continues to make available the EU-Eastern Partnership Culture and Creativity Programme’s (2015-2018) research results. 

Learn more about the second brief

Learn more about the first brief

About Cultural Observatory: http://observatory.culturepartnership.eu/en/page/observatory 

Читайте про Обсерваторию на русском: http://observatory.culturepartnership.eu/page/observatory 

Photo courtesy of Olga Khalatyan