Fine arts, music, literature are good means of communicating without words, across borders and language barriers. Soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, politicians and artists realised that art could bring together what was separated during the Cold War and enhance dialogue within the Baltic Sea Region and beyond. This led to the foundation of the art network Ars Baltica as early as 1991. It was the German federal state Schleswig-Holstein which took the initiative to unite projects from around the Baltic Sea, in order to strengthen a shared regional cultural identity. Since 1995 the network has built up close links with the Council of the Baltic Sea States. This is a result of Ars Baltica’s objectives to promote a common Baltic Sea cultural policy and to represent Baltic Sea cultural life outside the region. The network serves as a parent organisation for projects that are realized by at least three partners originating from the Baltic Sea Region. The sponsored projects range from contemporary Jazz festivals, workshops in fine arts to exchange programmes for authors. Special focus is thereby directed at young, innovative and experimental art.

Another celebration of culture is seen in the Latvian song festivals. For foreigners it might be hard to grasp the continuing importance of these festivals for the Latvian population. Taking a closer look at the countryäs history in the 19th century, one might find a plausible explanation: after extensive social and political changes, Latvia witnessed the rise of a National Awakening, promoting the rediscovery of a Latvian identity. But what could be considered genuinely Latvian? In this context, an obvious choice was the rich and centuries-old folk song tradition, with its over 1.2 million songs, picking out love, the world order or death as central themes. Because of the popularity of this oral material, it was not really a surprise when the first Song Festival that took place in Riga in 1873 was a huge success: 45 choirs and 1019 participants turned this event into an impressive demonstration of what one might call Latvian spirit. Even today the Song Festivals have not lost their special fascination: in 2003, over 30,000 participants - including not only choirs but also pop bands and chamber orchestras - took part in the singing celebrations. Together with its Estonian and Lithuanian counterparts, the Latvian song festivals have been added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The renowned animated films created by Estonian directors are a further kind of mass phenomenon that thrill both young and older Estonians, as well as other enthusiasts around the world. Ever since the first attempts were made to produce an Estonian animated cartoon in the 1930s, different schools and generations of animators have sought to advance this genre. Best known to an international audience is probably Priit Pärn. The prejudice that animated films are rather naive childrenäs movies simply cannot be applied to his films. On the contrary: involving a wide range of emotions, from the painfully hilarious to the deeply serious, his films never fail to present either breath-taking metamorphoses, or surreal and absurd twists and turns. Younger Estonian film makers have certainly been influenced by Pärnäs style, especially by his attempt to illustrate the sometimes funny, sometimes sad paradoxes of human life. They may have become less symbolist and gloomy than the old masters, but they certainly continue the Estonian animated tradition by working hard on its more technical aspects.