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EVENTS Europe

Culture Action Europe: towards a proactive cultural policy in Europe

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- Cultural associations discuss the future of culture in Europe

While the new Creative Europe programme, to replace the MEDIA and Culture programmes, is being debated in European Parliament, many cultural associations have asked themselves what role culture should have in tomorrow's Europe. The European Commission's intention is to find more links between culture and cinema, but many questions still remain, as recently shown at the Culture Action Europe (CAE) forum.

Culture Action Europe (CAE), a forum for arts and heritage, is the largest civil society network working in Europe's cultural activity sectors.

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During their annual assembly, on November 9 and 10, CAE held a conference on the actions, responsibilities, perspectives, and potential contribution of European cultural operators towards the more inclusive and harmonious development of the continent.

See our interviews with :

Stojan Pelko, Former State Secretary at the Ministry of Culture of Slovenia

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CAE seeks to highlight its potential as a platform for coordination and exchange, and to be promoted as a representative and informed voice, in order to reinforce art and culture as fundamental for life in a society. CAE also contributes to making the voice of culture heard in European decision-making processes.

The meeting was the occasion to reaffirm culture as a driving force for change and social progress and artistic activism as a way to spread ideas and mobilise society, with examples of experiments conducted by associations on the ground. Culture and arts stimulate reflection and collective exploration of new spaces of existence. European cultural operators, its civil society, and its artists are taking active part in this collaborative effort.


In some cases, initiatives of artistic activism have rekindled a sense of citizenship and brought together the community around common objectives. Cultural action as a way to re-boost civil action at a local level has beens shown in several inspiring examples, from citizen resistance to projects that go against the common good to community initiatives to better the cultural, social, or urban environment.


Even if the cultural sector's economic dimension, its contribution to growth and employment, is increasingly well measured in Europe, culture and art's potential as a vector for social progress and its importance in individual fulfilment are however often overlooked in political speeches and decision making. Current trends in institutional public action for development show that the culture dimension remains weak.

The main points that emerged during the conference to reinforce the position of culture in public and private action are the following:

1 - Culture must be understood as a component of well-being and progress in a complex social ecosystem, in which development strategies are called upon to integrate the many variables: culture to the same extent as education, the environment, health, shelter, and community life. In these, cultural activism adopts a holistic vision of life in a society. This out-of-the-box approach means seeking to open up more to new synergies with initiatives and structures operating in other sectors of activity.

This concept of inclusive development is what inspires the orientations of international institutions, in particular the European Commission, in their action towards development. The culture world is called upon to participate with more dialogue and activism that is better coordinated with the whole of society on the sectorial, geographical, and institutional levels.

2 - The current crisis seems to have stimulated artistic activity and increased audiences in almost all sectors of cultural activity. Yet culture seems however not to be taking a more significant place in the daily lives of Europeans.

The challenge is to find new creative, efficient forms to bring art and citizens' culture closer together. Measures must be explored to make sure that artistic stimuli are more present in everyday life. Many CAE member structures are working towards this, bringing art to the streets, making audiences participate in artistic creation, mobilising communities around artistic and social initiatives. Better sharing these experiences and a systematic search for new forms of collective action would reinforce civil society in filling this role.


3 - The international and transnational dimension of a network of cultural operators's action should be reinforced. Better European integration, including in its international relations dimension, should stem from the continent's cultural diversity and wealth of peoples. Greater cohesion, efficiency, and visibility of the work of civil society in the cultural sector will legitimise and reinforce the network as a representative to public and institutional authorities.

The great challenge for CAE is to find more efficient methods to capitalise on its potential as a catalyst for social change and mobilising citizens to ensure that culture is taken into account in building a better society.

 

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