Georgia/ 3.4 International cultural co-operation  

3.4.4 Direct professional co-operation

In Georgia, transnational cooperation involving institutes of fine arts and cultural heritage and local authorities for culture and trade unions are frequent. Most of the interesting and successful projects are initiated by individuals and NGOs or through the bilateral relations of various public and private organisations which have been initiated by personal contacts rather than as a matter of state policy.

One example: The Georgian Arts & Culture Centre (GACC) actively co-operates with the Concervazione Beni Culturali (Rome, Italy) in cultural heritage projects (European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards, 2007). This cooperation includes consultancies, seminars, training in the international practice of conservation, modern conservation materials, microbiological and other related issues. The symposium "Georgian Culture: Past and Present" (24.04.2007) was organised by the Georgian Arts and Culture Center and supported by the Harriman Institute at Columbia University, Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, and the Fulbright Scholar Programme.

In addition to the work carried out by the Georgian Arts & Culture Centre, there are a number of interesting projects carried out by NGOs include: Georgian Crafts Development Project; New Art Union Project "providing assistance to the development of contemporary art and to the formation of an art market in South Caucasus"; the Arts Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory AIRL project; the "Tbilisi Urban Development and Heritage Protection Public Monitoring Council" and the interdisciplinary newspaper "Iliazd" etc.

"Tbilisi-Basel-Freiburg" is a non-government international artist exchange programme which provides funds to Georgian contemporary artists to work and travel in Europe for 6 months. It started in 1998 and is supported by foreign partners: the Christoph Merian Stiftung IAAB programme (Artists' International Exchange Programme), Basel; Department of Culture of Freiburg municipality and the Arts Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory (AIRL).

Other significant examples of cultural transnational cooperation:

• Georgian International Festival of Arts in honour of Michael Tumanishvili – "Gift" (http://www.giftfestival.ge);
• Tbilisi International Film Festival (http://www.tbilisifilmfestival.ge);
• ART CAUCASUS (held in 2004 and 2005, 2006, 2007) is the first specialised international visual art fair in the sphere of South Caucasus which aims to build its strategy according to the formed international practice (http://www.artcaucasus.org);
• Tbilisi International Jazz Festival and Black Sea Jazz in Batumi (http://www.easternpromotion.com);
• International Folk Festival "Chveneburebi" (http://www.chveneburi.net); and
• The International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony. With the support of UNESCO and the participants of the Symposium, the International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony was established at the premises of Tbilisi State Conservatoire (2002) (http://www.polyphony.ge).

Your Comments on this Chapter?