The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies is pleased to announce that Laine Kristberga has been awarded the 2024-2025 Research Grant for Emerging Scholars.
The research grants of up to $6,000 support early-career scholars in any field of the Baltic studies. Proposals are evaluated according to the scholarly potential of the applicant and the quality and scholarly importance of the proposed work, especially to the development of Baltic Studies. Funds may be used for travel, duplication, materials, equipment, or other needs as specified.
The 2024 applications were evaluated by the AABS 2023-2024 Grants and Awards Committee consisting of AABS VP for Professional Development Dr. Kaarel Piirimäe, AABS President Dr. Dovilė Budrytė, and AABS Director-at-Large Dr. Daunis Auers. Learn about the other 2024-2025 recipients here.
Laine Kristberga is an art historian and curator from Riga, Latvia. She holds a PhD from the Art Academy of Latvia. Kristberga is the Head of the Arts Department at the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia. Her scholarly interests cover art, culture, and politics during the Cold War period. Kristberga is particularly interested in the genealogy and historical development of performance art in the Baltic region. As a curator, she directs, produces and curates the international Riga Performance Art Festival STARPTELPA, and also runs the Latvian Centre for Performance Art.
The Unwritten History of Performance Art in Latvia (1960s-1990s)
Project Overview
Kristberga aims to look at the history of performance art (or event-based art) through the perspective of ecosystem, which allows identification of (1) both individual artists and social clusters, including the group dynamics in these clusters, (2) developments within new disciplines and media at the time such as photography and pantomime, eventually leading to happenings/performances, (3) socio-political factors in the respective decades: the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, (4) cultural policy, ideology and infrastructure, (5) the dichotomies of space: public/private, institutionalised/informal.
The AABS Emerging Scholars Grant will help Kristberga accomplish two tasks: (1) to finalise a book on the history of performance art in Latvia (1960s-1990s) and (2) to curate an exhibition at the Latvian National Museum of Art dedicated to the generation of artists born in the 1940s.