Baltic Dimensions

The partners of the Baltic Network have in collaboration investigated similarities and differ-ences between their respective cities and institutions. The network has also identified possibilities and challenges in the cities in the region focusing on urban development from a democratic and cultural perspective. By linking experiences the network formulated its common grounds. The findings made by the Baltic Network are summarized in Attitudes, Urban Processes and Resilience.

Challenge 1: Attitudes among artists

The Baltic Network agrees that the skeptical attitudes among certain groups is a crucial challenge for the cross sectoral dialogue. Among these important groups are artists that many times have a weak connection to the communities in which they reside. Artists often see public space as their own exhibition space rather than something owned by and there for the public. Moreover, their education often lacks political awareness.

Among cultural institutions

There sometimes tend to be competitiveness between the local cultural institutions in the region, and such attitude makes the cultural sector weaker. Here it is important to find common goals and work on joint projects. Cultural institutions in the different countries tend to have different strengths and weaknesses. This indicates that a cross national team would be resilient.

Among officials and politicians

Regarding the attitude of officials and politicians they do not always see the benefit of collab-orating with artists, cultural institutions and citizens. Which could have the effect, among oth-er things, that they dare less and do not see vacant or common spaces as publicly owned but rather urban territories to be privately developed.

Among citizens

The attitude among the citizens is another challenge, as they do not always feel ownership towards public space and buildings. Moreover they often lack faith in the dialogues offered. A positive similarity to be found in the region is that there are strong grassroots and neighbor-hood movements that pinpoint political and social issues and fuel a bottom-up process. The urban dwellers have been a powerful force demanding change in many of the Baltic cities.

Among private stakeholders

The main challenge in the attitudes of private stakeholders is that they do not always see the potentials of collaborating with cultural organizations. There are also examples of them claiming to take social responsibility but in fact not engaging in the urban problems in their immediate surroundings.

Challenge 2: Urban Planning Collective Memory and Common History

The urban areas in the Baltic Sea Region have a common cultural history including collective memories and common political, economic, juridical systems. If we look at architecture and planning specifically, there are great similarities where one can find one nation’s heritage in another because of borders that have been changing over time. The Baltic Network concluded that a common urban structure and planning system could be a key to a common language and understanding of the challenges faced.

Master Planning

One difficulty is that there sometimes are no master plans for the cities. This is a problem as the planning processes might become more ad-hoc and less transparent, which in turn ob-structs community participation while damaging the search for a comprehensive and accurate perspective. Another challenge is that many of the Baltic cities undergo rapid change. In this rush dialogues and collaborations tend to loose their status as the initiatives of private actors and a centralized decision-making gain strength.

Vacant, Underused or Misused Buildings

A common challenge with great possibilities is the region’s many industrial structures, lots and former public buildings that are vacant, underused or misused and therefore often faced with demolition or transformation. These spaces could be used for different local needs, whether saving small businesses, creating new cultural meeting places or fueling the economy by letting private developers investment in them. Important questions attached to these spaces have to do with preservation of architectural heritage, keeping collective memories alive and securing public access.

Center and Periphery

The Baltic Network concludes that cultural projects that visualize and discuss integration, segregation and the presently rising xenophobic hysteria in Europe have a great potential to challenge this unacceptable growth. The disconnection between center and periphery is repre-sented through over looked poor suburbs that are blamed for causing segregation and tensions. Affluent centers and suburbs are excluded from this description. Not all challenges in the Baltic cities are alike. In some cases the centers are lacking cultural initiatives, in other instances it is the suburbs that need cultural actions. Some cities are shrinking and some are growing. In some cities the architectural community engages in social sustainable practices and in others not.

Challenge 3: Resilience Temporary Projects

A challenge common to all in the region is that projects, interventions and dialogues are often short-lived. Artists tend to work only briefly on urban projects, politicians and officials tend to look only at the nearest future, as they might soon have to leave their positions, and dia-logues between the municipality and the citizens tend not to be followed up but instead are one-offs, that is singular and brief. This affects the artists understanding of the citizens’ needs as well as resulting in the potential lack of trust between all stakeholders involved. The temporary projects can also complicate the cultural institutions attempts to create resilient powerful projects.