The international conference ‘Perspectives of national cultural policies development in the EU context: critical dialogues’ organized by the Institute for Development and International Relations (IRMO) was held in Zagreb on May 17-19, 2017. The conference gathered cultural policy researchers, cultural professionals, cultural civil society representatives, policy-makers, students and young cultural professionals from Europe and Croatia.

As an introduction to the main conference programme (18-19 May), on the 17th of May 2017, two pre-conference activities took place, organised in cooperation with IRMO partners. The workshop ‘CAE Croatian Hub – Reflection exercise on the future of Europe’, was co-organized with the network Culture Action Europe within the framework of the project ‘EUROPE OF CULTURE: co-creating a cultural scenario’. Furthermore, in cooperation with the Academy of Dramatic Art, IRMO organized a pre-conference lecture by Ms Corina Şuteu, cultural consultant, president of FilmETC and former Minister of Culture of Romania.

The conference focused on the following themes:

• Cultural policies and the crisis in/of European Union – how to achieve sustainable cultural development?
• Strategies and tendencies of local cultural development in Europe: the role and impact of European Capital of Culture project
• What kind of European comparative cultural policy research is needed today?
• National cultural policies in need of vision, innovation and leadership.

‘’Culture is not simply a large and important sector of the economy, it is a ‘social software’ that is badly needed to manage the complexity of contemporary regional societies and economies in all of its manifold implications” said Professor Pier Luigi Sacco, from the IULM University in Milan during his keynote lecture ‘Making cultural policy matter in the EU agenda: key topics and perspectives’. The interesting lecture on the change that culture is undergoing, in the context of convergence, from Culture 1.0 to Culture 3.0 kick started the main conference programme, set the tone of the next two days and sparked interest for a lively discussion. In the course of the conference the main speakers and participants reflected on how to make cultural policy matter on national or EU agendas, on the future of Europe and the place and role of culture in it, on prospects of achieving sustainable cultural development, etc.

By bringing into dialogue past experiences with present and future challenges the conference discussions tried to put in focus relevant questions that cultural policy must address in order to ensure emancipatory and sustainable culture. The international conference “Perspectives of national cultural policies development in the EU context: critical dialogues” was attended by 110 participants – cultural policy researchers, cultural professionals, cultural civil society representatives and policy-makers in the field of culture from Croatia and 16 European countries. This diversity of participants contributed to the widening range of the discourses and contributed to the breadth of discussions raised by the conference. The conference showed the key aspects of the changing cultural and media landscape today and how new approaches in cultural development and, thus, cultural policy, need to be made, which would take into account the emerging concepts such as Culture 3.0, alghoritmic culture, participatory cultural governance and cultural power. The discussions and contributions of the participants who represented most domains of the cultural sphere – from artists and practitioners, to researchers, executive managers and political decision-makers – demonstrated not only awareness, but also the ambition to (re)shape cultural policy in order for it to be able to respond to upcoming challenges.

Detailed CULPOL Conference Report (in English), List of participants and participants’ reflections (in English and Croatian) are now available on the CULPOL web site.

Other conference materials:

Programme-Culpol-conference-2017

CULPOL-Conference-Reader-2017-

For more information about the project follow the project CULPOL website or contact us  via e-mail: culpol@irmo.hr.

We are delighted to announce that the final program of the conference as well as the Conference reader for the International Conference ‘Perspectives of national cultural policies development in the EU context: critical dialogues’ are now available online.

We have prepared a very rich and dynamic programme that includes pre-conference workshop and lecture on the 17^th of May and the main conference events from 18^th to 19^th of May. We would like to highlight some of the events from our programme:

On Thursday 18^th of May, first Introductory keynote lecture under the title Making cultural policy matter in the EU agenda: key topics and perspectives will be given by Professor Pier Luigi Sacco, Special Adviser of the EU Commissioner for Education and Culture, and Professor of Cultural Economics at the IULM University in Milan. The next day, Friday 19^th of May, will start with the second Introductory keynote lecture Croatian cultural policy: purviews of the key strategic documents and a view of the future given by Professor Vjeran Katunarić, professor of sociology at the University of Zadar and Dr Biserka Cvjetičanin, Scientific Adviser Emerita at the Department for Culture and Communication, IRMO.

The panel discussion National cultural policies in need of vision, innovation and leadership will gather some prominent names including Dr Nina Obuljen Koržinek, Minister of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, Mr Janko Ljumović, Prof, MSc, Minister of Culture of Montenegro and Ms Corina Şuteu, cultural consultant and president of FilmETC, and former Minister of Culture of Romania.

In addition to these keynote lectures and the panel, during the two days of the conference another three working sessions will bring together in conversation Croatian and other European experts: Dr Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio, Researcher, University of Barcelona, Valletta 2018; Mr Chris Torch, Intercult CEO; Timișoara 2021 – European Capital of Culture, Artistic Director; Ms Catherine Cullen, Special Advisor on Culture in Sustainable Cities, Committee on Culture, UCLG;  Ms Emina Višnić, Rijeka 2020, CEO; Dr Marcin Poprawski, Deputy Dean for International Relations, Faculty of Social Sciences, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan; Dr Ole Marius Hylland, Senior Researcher, TRI – Telemark Research Institute; Mr Teodor Celakoski, cultural worker and activist, Right to the City/Pravo na grad; Mr Robert Manchin, President of Culture Action Europe; Dr Nada Švob-Đokić, IRMO; Mr Davor Mišković, Director of the non-profit organisation Drugo More; Dr Tsveta Andreeva, Researcher and person responsible for research activities of European Cultural Foundation (ECF); Dr Bjarki Valtýsson, Associate Professor in Modern Culture, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen; Dr Kate Oakley, Professor of Cultural Policy at the School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds.

As an introduction to the main conference programme, on 17th of May 2017, two pre-conference activities are organized in cooperation with IRMO partners. The workshop ‘CAE Croatian Hub – Reflection exercise on the future of Europe’, is co-organized with Culture Action Europe within the framework of the project ‘EUROPE OF CULTURE: co-creating a cultural scenario’ (IRMO library, 17^th of May 2017, 10:00 -15:00). In cooperation with the Academy of Dramatic Art IRMO is organizing a pre-conference lecture by Ms Corina Şuteu, cultural consultant, president of FilmETC and former Minister of Culture of Romania. (Academy of Dramatic Art, F22 – New Academic Scene, Frankopanska 22, 17^th of May 2017, 17:00)

Please see the Conference Reader to find out more about the speakers, their interventions and conference’s events.

CULPOL Final Conference Programme

Looking forward in seeing you at the conference!

Other materials:

CULPOL-Conference-Report 2017

Zagreb, Croatia, 17-19 May 2017, Venue: House of Europe in Zagreb

Organizer: IRMO – Institute for Development and International Relations

Framework: Jean Monnet project ‘EU Competences and National Cultural Policies: Critical Dialogues’ (2016-2018)

Supporting partners:

• Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia
• European Parliament, Information Office in Croatia – organizational and venue support for the conference
• Rijeka 2020, European Capital of Culture – partners for the session “Strategies and tendencies of local cultural development in Europe: the role and impact of European Capital of Culture project” on the 18^th May
• Academy of Dramatic Art – co-organizers and venue supporters for the preconference lecture on the 17^th May
• Culture Action Europe – co-organizers of the Zagreb workshop: CAE Croatian Hub – Reflection exercise on the future of Europe

The conference working languages are English and Croatian (with interpreting provided)

Registration for the international conference ‘Perspectives of national cultural policies development in the EU context: critical dialogues’ (CULPOL) is now open! The conference is open to academia, researchers, cultural professionals, policy-makers, and young professionals from Europe and Croatia.

The conference intends to contribute to enhancing the knowledge about the relevant cultural policy processes at the European Union level addressing the pivotal question whether it is time for a paradigm shift in cultural policies and what are the possible ways forward. It will tackle different challenges for EU and national cultural policies through two keynote lectures addressing EU and national level issues of cultural policies; and four working sessions that will focus on the following themes:

• Cultural policies and the crisis in/of European Union – how to achieve sustainable cultural development?
• Strategies and tendencies of local cultural development in Europe: the role and impact of European Capital of Culture project
• What kind of European comparative cultural policy research is needed today?
• National cultural policies in need of vision, innovation and leadership.

Please see the conference announcement for the detailed description.

The program is available here: Program_CULPOL Conference 2017

Registrations are now closed as we reached the maximum capacity for the main conference.  If you want to participate in pre-conference lecture ”The missing links between cultural administration and the functioning of cultural systems today – case study of a one year’s mandate as Minister of culture in Romania” by Ms. Corina Suteu, please register here.

For further questions, please contact us at culpol@irmo.hr.

Pre-conference activities on Wednesday, 17th May 2017

As an introduction to the main conference programme, on 17th of May 2017, two pre-conference activities will take place, organised in cooperation with IRMO partners:

• IRMO, in cooperation with the Culture Action Europe, is organising a workshop ‘CAE Croatian Hub – Reflection exercise on the future of Europe’, within the framework of the project EUROPE OF CULTURE: co-creating a cultural scenario. (IRMO library, 17 May 2017, 10:00 -15:00)
• IRMO in cooperation with the Academy of Dramatic Art is organizing a pre-conference lecture by Ms. Corina Suteu, cultural consultant, president of FilmETC and former Minister of culture of Romania. (Academy of Dramatic Art, F22-Nova akademska scena, Frankopanska 22, 17 May 2017, 17:00)

Workshop in cooperation with Culture Action Europe – CAE Croatian Hub – Reflection exercise on the future of Europe 

Given the fact that none of 5 scenarios presented in the White Paper on the Future of Europe mention neither culture nor arts, Culture Action Europe (CAE) initiated discussion process among cultural operators to contribute to a possible scenario that can guide us into a sustainable future of the European project. Zagreb workshop, co-organised by CAE and IRMO, will bring together Croatian cultural professionals, artists, networkers, researchers and policy makers with an aim that this targeted half day discussion will provide a basis to propose a sound alternative for a European future that includes culture and the arts. In this collective exercise we will discuss what do we mean when we say we want arts, culture and education at the heart of the European Union; and how exactly could this be implemented? Participation in this event is by invitation only. For more information on how to join this exercise please see the conference programme.

Pre-conference lecture by Ms. Corina Suteu, cultural consultant, president of FilmETC and former Minister of culture of Romania.  

In her talk entitled “The missing links between cultural administration and the functioning of cultural systems today – study case of a one year’s mandate as Minister of culture in Romania”, Ms. Suteu, a well-known cultural policy researcher in Europe, will address her experience as Minister of culture of Romania that allowed her to understand the system from, both, policy maker’s and researcher’s perspectives. Based on the Romanian case, her presentation intends to invite the audience on reconsidering the role that culture ministries in the region have today in regard to the cultural dynamics, identify the missing links between the present needs of the sector and the existing (inherited) instruments of cultural administration and reflect upon new and more efficient modalities to support and generate support for the arts and culture.

Conference materials:

Programme-Culpol-conference-2017

CULPOL-Conference-Reader-2017-

CULPOL-Conference-Report 2017

Zagreb, 18-19 May 2017

Europe House, August Cesarec Street 4, Zagreb

The international conference ‘Perspectives of national cultural policies development in the EU context: critical dialogues’ will be taking place in Zagreb on 18-19 May 2017. The conference is organised within the framework of activities of the Jean Monnet project ‘EU Competences and National Cultural Policies: Critical Dialogues’ and it intends to contribute to enhancing the knowledge about the relevant cultural policy processes at the European Union level. By bringing together researchers, cultural professionals and policy-makers it will foster the dialogue between different cultural-policy stakeholders, putting into the spotlight the issue of the need for sustainability of culture, as well as the fact that there is no sustainable development without culture.

The world in which we live is changing rapidly and in it, local and global levels are not any longer easily separated. In the 21st century, cultural policies have to deal with a (post)globalisation context that is marked by cultural, social and economic transformations; issues of rapid technological change and digital shift; social and financial instability that has not lead only to economic crisis, but also crisis of democracy, and has resulted in global socio-cultural inequality and massive migrations. All this has an impact on the conditions under which cultural sector operates today. Old funding systems are changing and available public budgets are decreasing; welfare policies seem to be under threat; cultural institutions are struggling to find sustainable development models and preserve their relevance for citizens’/users’/audience’s needs and interests; the success of their work is being scrutinized; the space for establishment of new types of cultural institutions is shrinking, etc. There is an urgent need for new concepts in cultural leadership that would be capable of addressing the described challenges, could imagine the different future, and lead the path towards new cultural policies for emancipatory and sustainable cultures.

In the context of EU politics, it is visible that culture is approached in a twofold way – as a target, as well as, an instrument in projects of social transformation. Culture has increasingly been used as an instrument for different social or economic objectives; EU international relations are increasingly becoming intercultural, while the place of culture seems to be shifting more and more from public value concept to market commodity. The crisis in Europe and of the European model has implications for cultural field as well; today’s Europe needs to reimagine itself – its aims, values and identities – and needs to find an adequate model for its sustainable cultural development. Due to the subsidiarity principle engrained in the Lisbon Treaty, the European Union has not been involved in formulating an explicit common cultural policy. Nevertheless, the EU has been indirectly contributing to the creation of common cultural policy frameworks through its soft cultural policy instruments and mechanisms that represent de facto policy approach to the various cultural policy issues and their related instruments (e.g. Open Method of Coordination – OMC, the Creative Europe programme, the European Capitals of Culture (ECOC) as the EU cultural programme initiatives, and other similar mechanisms). It is questionable whether such approach is still adequate for today’s cultural and social challenges, and whether national level cultural policies can tackle complex global problems, especially in the context where many other public policies are increasingly influencing the field of culture.

The international conference ‘Perspectives of national cultural policies development in the EU context: critical dialogues’ aims to address the pivotal question whether it is time for a paradigm shift in cultural policies and what are the possible ways forward. We invite researchers, cultural professionals, artists, cultural workers and policy-makers to share their knowledge, visions and concerns. The conference will tackle different challenges for EU and national cultural policies today including:

• Innovative cultural policies: what new models are there?
• Explicit and implicit cultural policies: will culture thrive in EU and its Member states?
• EU and cultural policy issues: limits of subsidiarity?
• EU soft policy mechanisms impacts on national contexts (OMC, Structured Dialogue, Creative Europe, lessons learned from the European Capital of Culture competition)
• Culture in the context of post-globalisation: what role for cultural policy research?
• Digital shift and its implication to sustainable culture of the future
• Socio-cultural inequalities and crises (democratic, migratory, economic); migrations and intercultural dialogue from the cultural policy perspective
• Achieving sustainability in cultural development: which way forward?

The conference will be organised in the form that allows plenty of discussions. In addition to two keynotes addressing EU and national level issues of cultural policies, main issues tackled in the sessions will be:

• Cultural policies and the crisis in/of European Union – how to achieve sustainable cultural development?
• Strategies and tendencies of local cultural development in Europe: the role and impact of European Capital of Culture project
• What kind of European comparative cultural policy research is needed today?
• National cultural policies in need of vision, innovation and leadership.

Please save the dates. Registration will be open soon and all information will be available at the project website culpol.irmo.hr.

For more information please contact us at culpol@irmo.hr.

Publication opportunities: Within the framework of the CULPOL project, the publication of the special issue of the journal Croatian International Relations Review (CIRR) focusing on the European Union and cultural policy issues is planned for 2018. Please stay tuned for the call for proposals.

Conference materials:

Programme-Culpol-conference-2017

CULPOL-Conference-Reader-2017-

CULPOL-Conference-Report 2017

8 – 9^th of December 2016;

Venue: IRMO Library and Gallery Klovićevi dvori

A two-day meeting of the Jean Monnet project ‘EU Competencies and National Cultural Policies: Critical Dialogues’ (CULPOL) was held on December 8-9, 2016, at the premises of the Institute for Development and International Relations and in the Gallery Klovićevi dvori in Zagreb.

The official kick-off meeting was held in the afternoon hours on the 8^th of December, 2016 at the premises of IRMO gathering Croatian cultural policy researchers, cultural professionals, cultural civil society representatives and policy-makers in the field of culture.

The Director of IRMO, Dr Sanja Tišma, opened the meeting, noting that the CULPOL project coordinated by IRMO’s Department for Culture and Communication provides a great opportunity for networking and opening of new topics in the field of culture and media research. The Croatian Minister of Culture, Dr Nina Obuljen Koržinek, delivered the welcome speech stating that this project contributes to the analysis and creation of public policies, and encourages intrasectoral and intersectoral cooperation, which is of great importance for small countries where culture is a sensitive issue. Dr Obuljen Koržinek also emphasised how it is valuable that the CULPOL project deals also with the importance of Digital Single Market (DSM) strategy due to its implications for the cultural and creative industries (CCI). The Minister concluded that she sees the CULPOL project as a good impetus for better integration of existing knowledge and research in the field of cultural policies and for developing new methods and policies. Dr Višnja Samardžija, the Head of the IRMO’s Department for European Integration and one of the project team members, presented Jean Monnet programme referring to the activities that promote the idea of the European Union and the EU’s research policy as well as its support to higher education. The Head of the CULPOL project, Dr Aleksandra Uzelac, gave a presentation on the role and importance of the project, its main objectives and expected effects as well as the main activities that will take place over the next two years of the project. The meeting was concluded with a dynamic discussion about the possible cooperation on the project that was moderated by Dr Jaka Primorac, a CULPOL’s team member.

The first meeting of the stakeholder groups was held the next day, on 9^th of December 2016, at the Gallery Klovićevi dvori. The meeting entitled Programe ‘European Capital of Culture’ and local cultural policies was organized in partnership with the Ministry of Culture and was attended by representatives of the Croatian cities candidates for the European Capital of Culture and other interested stakeholders of the CULPOL project.

The participants were welcomed by members of the CULPOL project team Dr Aleksandra Uzelac, Dr Jaka Primorac and Anera Stopfer, MSc., the Head of the Department for Cultural and Creative Industries of the Croatian Ministry of Culture. In the brief presentation team members divided participants in three groups and explained the focus group work in three parallel sessions with the following themes: 1) The main obstacles in the process of the ECOC application; 2) Positive effects of the ECOC process and application; and 3) How to use the ECOC experience for further development of local cultural policy and community. After the participants convened in each of the thematic groups, the main conclusions from the focus groups were presented, followed by a joint debate. The debate demonstrated the need to create some specific mechanisms that would enable that the knowledge and experience gained through the ECOC application process could be used to create both local and national cultural policies. Based on focus groups, joint discussions and available ECOC materials, an issue paper will be written and made available on the CULPOL’s website for the purposes of an international scientific conference to be held in late March 2017.

For more information on the project and planned events please follow us on the project CULPOL website or contact us directly via e-mail: culpol@irmo.hr.

Kick off and stakeholders group meeting program

The presentation of the CULPOL project is available in Croatian.

CULPOL Kick off meeting and ECOC SG meeting report