The Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art (LCCA) is a non-governmental organization promoting the development of contemporary art processes in Latvia and abroad since 2000, with a focus on a critical and creative appraisal of events in modern society.
LCCA organizes art events and exhibitions, as well as projects in research and education in addition to creating publications addressing the most up-to-date processes in art and society and examining the histories thereof. The center s chief area of focus lies in the contexts of Latvia, the Baltics, Eastern Europe and the broader post-socialist region, with matters concerning gender and minorities, the layers of individual and cultural memory, as well as environmental and ecological perspectives likewise in the fore.
LCCA is likewise developing different programs and projects promoting both the values of an inclusive society and an engagement with different audiences. This includes an art mediation program, the promotion of accessibility of culture events for special-needs people, an integration program for foreigners, as well as art therapy lessons for young people suffering from depression and seniors afflicted with dementia and memory impairments.
The National Gallery of Art is a subdivision of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art opened for the public in 2009. NGA is a contemporaneous, multifunctional centre for art and culture seeking a dialogue with society. The institution collects, presents and researches Lithuanian visual art of the 20th and 21st Century. Its programmes are focused at revealing the links between Lithuanian art and art in other countries, encouraging new art historical and curatorial interpretations, and bringing visual arts closer to the society. This is a space for active communication where the audience can see the permanent exposition of Lithuanian modern and contemporary art, visit temporary exhibitions as well as participate in cultural events, lectures and educational programmes.
NGA’s Education Centre through its art mediation programmes, integrated art lessons, practical workshops, guided tours, summer camps and other activities seeks to activate the museum as a space for creative engagement, knowledge exchange and learning. The centre organizes various educational activities for children, young people, school groups, families, adults and people with disabilities.
NGA is also a home for the unique archive of the 20th-21st Century Lithuanian artists known as the Information Centre (IC). Established in 1993, the IC includes an open library and a reading room of art and culture of the 20th-21st centuries, specialized videoteque, personal files of contemporary Lithuanian artists' and archive of the activities of NGA.
OFF-Biennale Budapest is the largest contemporary art event in Hungary. It started in 2014 as a grassroots initiative, a “garage” biennale set up by a small group of art professionals in order to create a platform for exchange between art practitioners and other members of society. Since 2014, OFF has become an internationally acclaimed event. OFF’s mission to strengthen the local independent art scene, and initiate public discourse about urgent yet neglected social, political, and environmental issues. OFF is a constant experiment that realizes the vision of a sustainable and democratic institution in the civil sphere.
OFF-Biennale does not apply for Hungarian state funding, nor does it partner up with state-run art institutions. (With the exception of occasional mutual partnerships aimed at initiating dialogue about the duties of public institutions and the possibilities of collaboration between civil initiatives and public institutions). This is a political statement as much as a practical solution to protect freedom of artistic expression and professional integrity.
Since 2014, the OFF-Biennale has presented three editions, and in 2022, at the invitation of ruangrouppa, it will participate in documenta fifteen and join thirteen other organisations in the core team of the so-called “lumbung international”.
Founded in 1841, Malmö Konstmuseum is one of the leading art museums in Scandinavia. The museum houses several important collections, including major holdings of Nordic modern and contemporary art. The museum is in the midst of a major transformation and is working toward opening to a wider and larger audience and to ensuring that a new museum building can be built and opened in the near future.
Malmö Art Museum is creating new perspectives on the significance of history and aims to reach out to today’s society and think about future generations. It is a place for learning, experiences, and social activity. Art mediation is at the forefront of the museum as a knowledge-building and inclusive process when asking how can a museum relate to both history and objects, but also be in tune with present times and its audience? How can we work with an art historical heritage from a contemporary democratic perspective?
The mission of the Muzeum Sztuki consists in providing an appropriate environment for contemporary audiences to interact with the heritage of past and present generations of artists, which can inspire them to develop the ability to independently see, understand, and experience the world around them. The museum pursues its mission by collecting, preserving, and studying works of art, by organizing artistic events, by supporting and advancing research and education, and through the promotion of art at all levels. With an awareness of the close link between the history of the museum and the history of the avant-garde, the museum focuses its activities on the promotion of progressive artistic practices and collaboration with their authors.
The main education focus is the dialogue between art and the audience. The education perspective is still a wide horizon of cooperation and empathy for the audiences’ needs. We try not to teach art, but to organize an open situation for being together in the neighbourhood of art and culture.
The aim of the Kumu Art Museum, opened in 2006, is to preserve and interpret Estonian art from the 18th century to the present day.
Kumu views its role as being an initiator of a social and cultural debate in connection with both expositions of art history and events in the Gallery of Contemporary Art, which has become an incubator for new ideas for domestic and foreign artists. Besides preservation, important tasks of the museum include displaying the works of art in its collections to initiate debates on their meaning and to shape various interpretative environments. In the fifteen years before Kumu was opened, people did not have constant access to the classics of Estonian art and the permanent display of Soviet art only became possible once Kumu opened. Our expositions need to speak to different audiences: to the well-versed and the relatively unknowing, the old and the young, local and foreign visitors, schoolchildren and to their teachers, art lovers and art experts.