Culture in motion 2011

On the 15th and 16th of February, the Culture in Motion conference: Pathways to EU-2020 took place in Brussels. The meeting was organized by the Culture Programme of European Commission to present what has already been done thanks to the Programme up to now (a report of several key projects in 2010 can be found online) and to plan, in an open dialogue with the stakeholders of the cultural sector, the future aims post 2013, referring to the goals set forth in the EUROPE 2020 document.

According to Mr. Jan Truszczyński, General Director of DG Education and Culture, the targets to reach for a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in Europe, as stressed by Europe 2020, should involve culture, even if it is not explicitly mentioned in the document. Indeed, the cultural industry in Europe saw an impressive growth over the last few years, and should therefore play a role in the future development of EU.

During the days of the Conference, many of the projects funded by the Culture Programme have been presented by the leaders, dividing them into five main focuses: 1. Intercultural dialogue; 2. Helping artists with their careers; 3. Strengthening the capacity of the cultural sector; 4. Access of the public to European cultural works; 5. Circulation of works in Europe and beyond. And finally, 6. The presentation of the results, the proposals for the future and the suggestions of the cultural stakeholders contributing to the Conference.

1. Cultural and linguistic diversity and intercultural dialogue
After the shocking words uttered by Angela Merkel, referring to the German context (“Multicultural society has utterly failed”), it is very important to show good examples of the contrary. BelBoBru Project, for instance, is a network of three organizations placed in Belfast (The Beat Initiative), Bologna (Associazione cultural Oltre) and Brussels (Zinneke), which had organized carnivals and festival parades, connecting three disciplines (Puppets, Street Theatre and Boom Dang), many skills (performers, actors, dancers, volunteers..), and three different urban contexts, involving common people in a collective creation.

At the end of the presentation, Jean-Marc Leclerc, head of Diversidad Urban Forum stated that in building Europe, we should have started with culture! This sentiment has been of course welcomed by an applause by the audience. One of the future challenges is to understand what is meant exactly by the label ‘intercultural dialogue in European projects’, and to find new methods for evaluating the long-term results in this field.

2. Helping artists with their careers
Kunstenloket in Brussels had been chosen to become one of the three pilot info points of a European network of organizations which aim to facilitate the provision of information about EU cross-border mobility for artists. The network is funded by the EU Commission and is called Practics. During the final debate, someone argued that Europe should fund organizations of artists instead of single artists.

3. Strenghtening the capacity of the cultural sector
The first speech referred to the European Regions of Culture Project, the equivalent of European Capitals of Culture for the rural regions: the pilot project, lead by Cornwall Council, UK involved three areas (Cornwall, South Ostrobothnia in Finland and Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodship in Poland), developing a cultural strategy for these regions, working with policy makers, young people and artists. The project was successful and now they are trying to spread it in 30 more regions.
Another important project discussed during the Conference was The Noah’s Ark one, a huge research about the impact global climate changes has on built heritage and cultural landscape. This study won the Europa Nostra’s award in 2009, and, at the request of UNESCO, the same staff is now leading a similar research at a global level, contributing to improve European competitiveness.

4. Increasing the access of the public to European cultural works
Jordi Savall of the Fundaciò Centre Internacional de Musica Antiga went back to the core issue of the conference, with an inspiring speech about art as beauty, emotion, memory and as the only common language that all cultures share. The musical field is used to join people from the four corners of the world to play in orchestras and bands together. It is now key  to transfer this experience to today’s youth.

Funded by the Grundtvig programme for LifeLongLearning, the working group for LifeLongLearning in Museums (LLML) set up an investigation in 2004 about adult education in museums.  This led to other four projects: MAP for ID (Museum as places for intercultural dialogue), VoCH (Volunteers for Cultural Heritage), MumAE  (Museums meet Adult Educators) and LEM project (the Learning Museum). This last project just started and demonstrates the need of networking and sharing good practices in a traditionally static field as the museum one.

The last speaker of this session, the Director of the Festival d’Aix en Provence, added three basic considerations:

• the importance of involving as much of the public as possible, without limits of age, sex or social level. These factors cannot be optional anymore for cultural organizations, and the crisis  should not be seen as a valid reason to cut educational programs. Therefore, local institutions should be sensitized, in order to provide the economical sustainability of programs, also after the end of European funding;
• digitalization is a big opportunity to democratize culture (for example showing theatre plays on big screens or live on television); 
• performing arts are necessarily relational and intercultural, they are an effective way, above all for young people, to experience the current issues  of our society.

5. Promoting the circulation of works in Europe and beyond
The babel of cultures and languages in Europe could be an obstacle or a great resource for literature: the small organization Readme.cc was brought to life to create a community of readers all over Europe, sharing reading experiences in different languages, and encouraging translations.

6. Stakeholder Consultation
After an online consultation about the future Culture Programme ended last December (964 answers from 42 Countries, most of them from people or organizations not yet beneficiaries of the Culture Programme funding), the delegates of the European Commission, Sheamus Cassidy, Vladimir Šucha and Ann Branch, could show for the first time the results of this mid-term evaluation of the projects. They also listed some of the future aims, which had been discussed by the cultural stakeholders during the public consultation in the afternoon of the second day of the Conference.

According to the delegates, the possible activities of the Culture Programme could:

• improve mobility of work and people working in this field in order to exchange good practices and networking, to step up the skills for professionals;
• enlarge access to culture and heritage for disadvantaged people; 
• develop cultural and linguistic diversity, and urban and regional growth; 
• communicate European culture outside EU.

Indeed, the possible future line of funding projects could aim to a diffusion of creativity and innovation in society, and on the other side, an improvement of entrepreneurship in the cultural field. Interdisciplinarity, intercultural dialogue and flexibility should remain the leading topics.

The cultural stakeholders present at the Conference added some good suggestions for the future to those already raised during the previous sessions: 

• the need to spread widely the contents of cultural projects of the Commission, in order to gather the necessary resources to improve the strategy in the sector. This issue is linked to the possibility of increase the awareness of local institutions, in order to assure the long-term sustainability of projects;
• the need to join forces to other sectors. For instance, at the international level, a possible referee could be the Defense sector: peace could be reached only through dialogue and cultural comprehension. One of the possible ways to increase awareness of the importance of culture could be to designate some “ambassadors” of European Culture or through specific events;
• to arrange specific projects for small organizations, for border regions and New Member States: in this case, networking could be a way to share risks. Moreover, the future Culture Programme should take account of the situation of some Counties in deep crisis, such as Greece or Ireland;
• to valorize experimentation in art, without forgetting crafts, which are an important part of our heritage; 
• to fund what the single Member States do not fund: researches at the European level, co-creations and co-productions in arts;
• to improve the creative exchange between Art/Culture and Science/Technology;
• to coordinate the digitalization of the sector and to use technology as a means to democratize culture; 
• to help young people in training, finding jobs in the field and improving youth entrepreneurship;
• to improve non-commercial tourism.

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Text: Irene Innocente, February 2011