July 6, 2026
At the invitation of Austurbrú, the Ministry of Culture, Innovation and Higher Education and the Fjarðabyggð Cultural Centre, East of Moon was invited to present and take part in "Skapandi Austurland" ("Creative East") - a conference on the status, opportunities and future of art and culture in rural areas on June 11, 2026.
The packed day's programme commenced with a presentation of the new cultural policy for East Iceland and went on to include a wide variety of talks, workshops and discussions.
East of Moon's Arnar Sigurðsson delivered an address entitled "Menning, vertíð og verðmætasköpun." ("culture, cash-grabs and value creation"). During the talk he raised questions about the relationship between art, culture and the economy and the risks of reducing the impact of cultural endevours to purely finacial outputs. You can read an interview (in Icelandic) with Arnar about the focus of his talk here.
After visiting a variety of local cultural centres and exhibits, the evening concluded with a performance from Kvæðakorinn (including East of Moon's own Josie Anne Gaitens) on the pier of Fáskrúðsförður.
Supporting rural communities to develop innovation and creative initiatives is a fundamental component of East of Moon's values and objectives, and the organisation has played an integral role in a number of projects to this end. These have included the Austanátt innovation programme, designed and delivered by East of Moon which took place across East Iceland in 2024.
