Jury
Cultural Pearls are selected by an international jury, a distinguished panel comprised of experts in social resilience, urban planning, along with representatives from pan-Baltic and European organizations.
Our jury members bring a wealth of experience and knowledge, ensuring a comprehensive evaluation of candidate’s action plans. The diversity of perspectives and experience in the jury enables a holistic assessment that reflects the multifaceted nature of the challenges and opportunities faced by communities in the region. This diversity enhances the credibility and fairness of our evaluation process, fostering innovation and inclusivity in the towns and cities we champion.
Jonas Büchel
Consultant in strategic urban & regional development and social & cultural planning. Co-founder and board member of the non-profit urbaninstitute.lv
Since the entire concept of resilience is entirely human and socially based, logically the community is the center of the universe to strengthen the ability cooperatively to meet our nowadays challenges. Experiences of many earlier projects have proven that culture is the best and most efficient community-based incubator for cooperative learning processes. Culture stimulates, boosts and ignites, sparkles creativity. The development towards this current project is a serious success story and the continuity with which we have been working on cultural planning instruments for at least five years, especially for small and medium-sized cities in the Baltic Sea region, is outstanding.
Ann Irene Saeternes
Head of European Affairs in Eastern Norway County Network. Representing the Baltic Sea States Subregional Co-operation (BSSSC)
Culture has the power to integrate; culture builds bridges across borders and across social and political differences. Cultural interventions can offer new attention to old problems. In the BSSSC we stress that culture and creative industries can help respond to various challenges and crises and to deliver important social and economic benefits both within and outside the EU. Culture opens a vivid access to the youth, forming the basis and future of Baltic Sea Region cooperation.
Oleg Koefoed
Head of Center for Vitality and Regenerative Transformation Teaches and supervises at the Copenhagen Business School and Copenhagen University
After spending 20 odd years working with cultural approaches to issues of sustainability and regeneration, I am happy to see that the global understanding of the importance of culture to tackle the crises we face. Culture is about life as it gets by, survives, and transforms itself, in between all the high-brow or deceptive claims of political top-down plans and commercial seduction. Culture, at the end of the day, is about life showing itself as it is. So, since culture is thus the most open and real place for human interaction, it is also the most innovative and inventive human space. Culture is where we re-invent ourselves.
Aldo Vargas Tetmajer
The Polish National URBACT point
Aldo is an Architect and Urban Planner by profession, working at the Association of Polish Cities. For many years he has worked at the Institute of Urban Development of Krakow, where he participated in many European projects (Framework programs, Interreg) dedicated to Urban issues. His passion is exploring the evolution of urban systems and the history of world civilizations. In this field, he is a lecturer at the Department of Comparative Study of Civilizations at the Jagiellonian University of Krakow. He is also a passionate traveler and has visited almost all the continents. In addition to traveling, is also active in the field of culture.
Antoni Wyligała
Leader of the Working Group on Culture within the Committee of Youth Representatives (CBSS)
The role of culture is extremely important, because it educates, develops and integrates people in a certain way, which, if well organized, will result in building a stronger, more resilient and aware society.
Külli Hansen
Director of Tartu Centre for Creative Industries
