A Virtual Memorial Riga 2012
was hosted by Culture and Arts Project NOASS Riga & Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum
and part of 1st International Conference of Holocaust Museums 4-5 June 2012 at Academy of Sciences Riga
and realised in collaboration with artvideoKOELN international, directed by Wilfried Agricola de Cologne
in the context of “The A-Team – Artists for Change” and Agricola de Cologne’s residency @ NOASS
see special project documentation –> https://ateamartistsforchange.wordpress.com/category/latvian-category/
A Virtual Memorial Riga 2014
was organised by Culture & Arts Porject NOASS, directed by Dzintarz Zilgalvis – and
Wilfried Agricola de Cologne, media artist and director of artvideoKOELN international
NOASS
“Culture and Arts Project NOASS” is a creative intelligence association that is in the fourteenth year of its operating existence and is one of the oldest non-governmental arts and culture organizations in Latvia. NOASS’ goal is to participate in the formation of the Latvian and European cultural environment.
In the main, we support the realization of contemporary arts projects in an urban environment, making art part of the daily lives of residents of Riga and visitors to the city. Furthermore, for several years now we have participated in the planning and programming of the contemporary arts forum, “White Night”, the annual “Riga City Festival” and the “International Museums Night”, as well as realizing a range of individual projects.
In recent years, the Culture and Arts Project NOASS actively are involved in international projects, one of our main tasks is Latvian contemporary cultural promotion at the European level. NOASS is one of the most active Trans Europe Halles – TEH (European Network of Independent Cultural Centres) members, also we are active in ENCC – European Network of Cultural Centres. Actively involved in the volunteer work, regularly sending candidates from Latvia to gain experience in other countries.
NOASS first activities in Andrejsala were launched in 2006, when Naive Art Museum of Latvia was created. Museum’s main objective is to collect information about naive artists and naive art works, their conservation, research and promotion. The museums mission is to save Latvia’s naive art’s inheritance of cultural history for next generations and use it for educational work.
artvideoKOELN international
the international curatorial initiative “art & moving images”
Founded in 2010 by Agricola de Cologne as the operations platform for his curatorial activitiesw in the field of “art & moving images”, artvideoKOELN is running the film and video art activities like 
CologneOFF – Cologne International Videoart Festival and the associated platforms like VideoCHANNEL, VIP – VideoCHANNEL Interview Project, VAD – Video Art Database and Draft Title: Shoah 
SHAMIR &
International conference “Holocaust museums and memorial places in post-communist countries – challenges and opportunities”
International conference “Holocaust museums and memorial places in post-communist countries challenges and opportunities” takes place on June 04-05, 2012 in Riga. The conference emphasizes importance of the Holocaust remembrance in small European countries with overlapping memories. It will also focus on hidden resources for Holocaust remembrance and research in these countries, on the peculiarities of the Holocaust education and unknown pages of Resistance movement and heroism in ghettos and concentration camps. Session on informal Jewish education as a part of museums’ activities held by Melamedia International center is also included to the program.
Professor Elie Wiesel (USA) is invited to be an honorary guest of the event. We also are pleased to inform that specialists of Yad Vashem Center, Tel-Aviv University, Moscow Holocaust Center, The Latrun memorial for the fallen soldiers of the Armored Corps, European Holocaust museums, as well as Latvian and European scholars and public figures have proved their participation in the conference.
Riga Ghetto & Latvian Holocaust Museum
Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum exposition has been launched on September 21st, 2010.
More than 70 000 local Jews and nearly 20 000 Jews deported from Western Europe were executed in Latvia in the World War II.
Riga Ghetto Museum is located in the historical part of the city near the borders of former ghetto. Riga ghetto territory itself is almost unique in Europe in terms of the absence of any significant architectural changes within past 60 years.
The opening of the first line of exposition should be considered as the first indeed significant step to the further development of Riga Ghetto Museum. There are stands with the names of more than 70 000 Latvian Jews who faced the Holocaust exposed at the museum area, covered by the stones from the streets of Riga Ghetto. The museum has also opened the photo exhibition, dedicated to anti-Semitism propaganda, Holocaust in Latvia, the Resistance and the Righteous Among the Nations.
This is impossible to commemorate the Holocaust without the consideration of the history of Latvian Jewry that counts 450 years. Therefore, a part of the overall exposition is dedicated to the past that was lost by Latvia and worldwide after the Catastrophe.
Riga Ghetto Museum is not just a museum. I do hope that it will become the significant memento of the dreadful events that occurred in the history of Latvia and should never ever be repeated again. The Museum is becoming a center of culture and education, a source of tolerance and mutual respect. I do truly believe that anyone who is aware of and close to these themes will make one’s own contribution to the development of Riga Ghetto Museum.
Sincerely, Rabbi Menachem Barkahan