Nordic Culture Point is an official pan-Nordic cultural institute based in Helsinki. We promote, strengthen, and communicate Nordic cultural co-operation with the aim of enabling everyone to participate in society and the cultural sector on equal terms.
Nordic Culture Point administers the Nordic Council of Ministers’ funding programmes for cultural co-operation: the Culture and Arts Programme, the Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Culture, and Volt. Each year, nearly EUR 5 million is distributed through the funding programmes in accordance with decisions by independent Nordic and Baltic groups of experts. The Culture and Arts Programme supports Nordic co-operation in the broad field of arts and culture. The Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme is aimed solely at professional stakeholders in the culture sector, and consists of three forms of funding: mobility funding, network funding, and funding for artist residencies. Volt is a language and culture programme for children and young people up to the age of 25.
The purpose of each funding scheme is outlined in the respective programme handbook as adopted by the Committee of Senior Officials for Culture, ÄK-K, which consists of senior officials from the Nordic ministries of culture. The programme handbooks also outline the success indicators for the funding programmes.
Nordic Culture Point intends to conduct an experience-based qualitative evaluation of the funding programmes’ performance and impact based on the success indicators in the handbooks and by analysing performance through specially selected completed projects (case studies). The evaluation must also, as far as possible, take into account the Nordic Council of Ministers’ strategic objectives: primarily the new co-operation programme of the Nordic ministers for culture which runs from 2021 to 2024 and the new vision for Nordic co-operation, which is for the Nordic Region to be the most sustainable and integrated region in the world by 2030.
The evaluation will include three completed projects from the Arts and Culture Programme, six from the Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme (two from each form of funding), and two from Volt. The success indicators are qualitative and quantitative, with existing statistics from previous years serving as a reference framework for the individual projects. However, the primary purpose of the analysis is not to focus on statistical data. The evaluation will analyse the extent to which the selected projects adhere to the handbooks’ success indicators, and the extent to which these results contribute to the overall objectives of the funding programmes in accordance with the culture ministers’ objectives for Nordic co-operation.
This assignment is to be undertaken independently but under the supervision of Nordic Culture Point. Nordic Culture Point will make available all statistics, project reports, and other information as needed to carry out the analysis, as well as participate in the selection of the projects to be studied in more detail.
The analysis will be presented in the form of a report, in English, of around 50 to 60 pages in Word. The aim is to publish the report in the Nordic Council of Ministers’ digital publication portal NordPub in early 2022.
If you are interested in conducting this study, please submit your quote including a concise research plan of a maximum of two pages along with your CV by 24 June 2021 to <ola.kellgren@nordiskkulturkontakt.org>.
The analysis will be conducted between August and November 2021, with delivery to us by the end of the year.
If you have any questions, please contact director Ola Kellgren by phone on +358 50 3028 150 or by e-mail at ola.kellgren@nordiskkulturkontakt.org.
