http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sør-Varanger Kirkenes, Sør-Varanger Municipality (circa 9,500 inhabitants) in Finnmark County (circa 70,000 inhabitants) in the extreme northeast of Norway, close to the Russian-Norwegian border.

Kirkenes is a small town that probably “survives” for the same reason as it existed as a Norwegian mining town - because of its geographical position. A new policy has been signed for the Northern areas, by the EU, Norway, Iceland and Russia, and Kirkenes has gained a renewed geopolitical significance. For the sake of the local communities, we hope that the exploitation of natural resources will also benefit the North, and not only the big companies far away.

The history of border areas is interesting. If you want to learn about border history, to try and understand how different border regimes have affected people’s lives in different periods, you should learn about the local histories of Kirkenes in Finnmark County in Norway, or Pechenga/Kola Peninsula in Russia, or Inari/Lapland in Finland and the Skolt Sàmi in Finnish, Russian and Norwegian territories.

In 1993, the Barents Euro Arctic Region was formalised as a collaboration between the northernmost parts of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Northwest Russia. This collaboration is based upon the idea of strengthening ties and peaceful contact between people across the borders, particularly with Russia after the end of the Cold War. The core idea is “people-to-people collaboration”.

In our work as art and cultural producers in the organisation “Pikene på Broen” (Girls on the Bridge) in Kirkenes, we have been interested in exploring the Barents Region through art and culture projects. The history of Kirkenes and the surrounding areas has been a source of inspiration. Border crossings exist on all levels, with all the positive and negative sides this entails. Kirkenes also guards the outer border of Europe – the “Schengen border”. It is populated by people of 50 different nationalities and ethnic groups and has a growing Russian population, as well as Sàmi indigenous cultures.

We have been facilitating artistic collaboration across these borders within the region, as well as internationally - working with all kinds of organisations and individuals in different sectors of society and in different locations. The border crossing experiences, the multiculturalism, as well as learning from art and art strategies, have all been valuable at a local level. It feels important to contribute to the “Barents” idea and to be part of defining it through artistic activities, especially now that what seem to be the dominant foci and aspirations of the Northern areas are supplying oil and gas to the western world, military defense, undefined territories in the sea, or super tourism in Lapland.

An important goal of Pikene på Broen from the start was to work towards the establishment of a Barents arts institution in Kirkenes. And it is still essential to strengthen the fragile art initiatives that work towards collaboration within the region and internationally. In spite of the cross-border focus within the Barents Region and within Sàpmi – the vast area stretching from central Norway and Sweden across northernmost Finland to the eastern end of the Kola Peninsula – the art institutions are connected to a “national agenda”. Cross-border cooperation becomes the last priority, if it is a priority at all. Within the local Sàmi art organisations and the museum, the “national Sàmi” is the main focus. Arts cooperation across borders is very dependent on enthusiasm. The information flow across the borders is weak. There is therefore a rich potential for cross-national art structures to work more permanently in the North, for the Nordic Region, EU and Russia.

The national cultural sites map of EU is cutting edges.		The government of Norway has declared the Northern areas to be the most important issue in foreign policy.