Baiba Tjarve, Deputy Head of the Institute of Culture and Arts, Leading Researcher, and Developer of International Research Projects at the Latvian Academy of Culture (LAC).
Research is often perceived as an individual activity – a scientist, their ideas, their articles, and publications. Yet in reality, behind every study stands a team: colleagues, partners, students, institutions, and international collaboration networks. It is precisely this shared experience that makes research meaningful and capable of generating impact.
That is why, in this opinion piece, I will deliberately avoid speaking only in the “I” form. In research, very little is achieved alone – and the “we” in this text refers both to our team and to the broader community that shapes and drives cultural research in Latvia and beyond. To show what the “we” approach looks like in practice, I invite you to take a glimpse into one – very specific – month that reveals the rhythm, collaborations, and achievements of research at the Latvian Academy of Culture (LAC). November has always been a special month in research – it is when new collaborations begin, new project proposals are submitted, results are presented, conferences take place, and often it is the moment when the culmination of collective work becomes most visible. It is frequently the most intense period of the year, when the efforts of many months come together within a single calendar month. That is why I chose to share the story of November – to show how dynamic and diverse one month in the collective research life of “us” can be.
Early November: Nordic cooperation in cultural policy research
As November begins, we hold an online meeting with Malin Weijmer from Kulturanalys Norden – the Nordic Centre for Cultural Policy Research. I met Malin this summer at the Nordic Cultural Policy Conference, where she invited one of the LAC researchers to contribute to a forthcoming anthology on the role of culture in times of increasing tension – exploring how culture and the arts can strengthen the resilience of individuals and societies. Malin noted that Latvia has long-term experience living under the shadow of potential conflict, and that our contribution could significantly enrich this collective work, which mainly focuses on the Nordic countries. The Nordic region is an excellent example of how to build cooperation in cultural policy research – with a vibrant community of researchers who meet at regular Nordic Cultural Policy Conferences, publish a shared academic journal, and collaborate actively in joint projects. Therefore, it seemed essential to invite both representatives from the Latvian Ministry of Culture and Malin to a joint discussion, where she introduced us to Nordic approaches to analyzing and researching cultural policy processes. We hope to strengthen cultural policy research in Latvia and begin building collaboration on a Baltic scale.
4–7 November: Annual LAC International Conference “Culture Crossroads”
For several years now, Culture Crossroads has been more than just a one-day event. There are so many topics – all highly relevant for both cultural professionals and students – that the conference has naturally grown into a nearly week-long series of events, with a strong international dimension. A particularly meaningful day for me will be November 5, dedicated to youth civic engagement (conference “Youth Civic Participation: Decorative or Authentic? Formal or Meaningful?”). This topic has been central both to the fundamental and applied research project “Towards Participatory Engagement in Museums: Exploring Museum Education Practices in Latvia” (MEET), which I lead, and to the national research program project “Conditions for Authentic Youth Participation in Formal and Non-Formal Education Environments” (UNFRAMED), where I am the principal investigator. Within the MEET project, over three years we explored how museums can work more effectively with their communities and what challenges they face – especially when engaging young people. Meanwhile, UNFRAMED focused on what authentic and meaningful participation truly means – whether existing approaches genuinely engage young people and reflect their interests, rather than only institutional perspectives. In both projects, we often arrived at the complex question of power relations: how to change them, and how difficult that truly is. For participation to be genuine, young people (or any participants) must have a say in decision-making, and feel heard and taken seriously. We experience this ourselves as researchers when using participatory methods – which mean partially relinquishing the “expert position” and transferring some power to research participants. That is not easy, especially in an environment where we are used to thinking “we know best.” At the end of the day, in cooperation with the Baltic Museology Advancement Association, we also launched the Latvian translation of Nina Simon’s book “The Participatory Museum.” It explains in clear, accessible language how to engage communities in your work and “give up some power” to visitors, participants, and community members. Moreover, these insights apply not only to museums but to the wider cultural field.
20 November: Deadline for several international research project proposals
As Deputy Director of the LAC Institute of Culture and Arts, this period is particularly active – focusing on two main directions: identifying and initiating new collaborations, and supporting colleagues in the preparation of project proposals. This summer and autumn have been especially intensive as we prepare submissions for the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program. This time, we are participating in highly diverse calls, expanding our collaborations beyond the usual culture and arts fields, developing interdisciplinary projects that connect with environmental research, health, and artistic practices – and working together with colleagues from LAC’s theatre and audiovisual arts departments. Given the high level of competition in Horizon Europe projects, we view the benefits not only in terms of the final outcome but also in the proposal development process itself. This process brings new partnerships, experience in consortium leadership, insights into current research priorities, and helps us grow – both as researchers and as an institution.
25 November: Policy dialogue on the future of crafts in Europe
On this day, several Horizon Europe projects will jointly host a discussion with representatives of the European Commission and other policymakers. We will present jointly developed policy recommendations for the future of the crafts sector in Europe. LAC is a partner in the project “Tracks4Crafts” (Transforming Crafts Knowledge for Sustainable, Inclusive, and Economically Viable Cultural Heritage in Europe). As part of the project, we carried out an extensive mapping of European countries’ policies and legal frameworks related to the crafts sector. The research revealed just how complex and ambiguous this field is. Craft can be a strong economic sector (as in Germany, where it covers more than 130 professions – from construction to food production) or a form of traditional cultural heritage, where key issues concern artisans’ status, skills preservation, transmission, and intellectual property protection. In some countries, traditional crafts are closely intertwined with contemporary art and design; in others, they are safeguarded as values to be passed on to future generations. And here lies the challenge: if a sector cannot be clearly defined, it becomes difficult to design appropriate policies and support instruments. What approaches are best? When should the priority be preservation, and when development and innovation? We are still exploring these questions, also preparing academic publications on the topic. A particularly valuable experience has been the CRAFTOUR initiative, which brings together five Horizon Europe projects (Craeft, Tracks4Crafts, Colour4Crafts, Hephaestus, Culturality). It has already become a strong platform for collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. Within this initiative, joint policy recommendations are being developed, discussions are organized, and both an international conference and a collective volume with a prestigious publisher are being planned. This experience raises an important question: could a similar collaborative model be developed also within the projects funded by the Latvian Council of Science, especially when they address related or overlapping themes?
A glimpse into a researcher’s November at LAC shows that research is not a solitary endeavor, but rather a process of shared conversations and collaborations – ones that often require stepping outside your comfort zone, embracing new challenges, and seeing your research interests through very different contexts.
