Dear CULPOL collaborators,

2017 has been busy and successful year for the CULPOL project and now, at its end, we take this opportunity to summarize this year’s activities within the Jean Monnet project ‘EU Competence and National Cultural Policies: Critical Dialogues’ (CULPOL). After the kick-off meeting and first stakeholders group meeting organized in December 2016, several project events and workshops were organized in 2017 and a number of analytical papers were published at the CULPOL website .

Organized events

The international conference ”Perspectives of national cultural policies development in the EU context: critical dialogues” was held in Zagreb from the 17th to the 19th of May 2017. The main conference programme took place on the 18th and the 19th of May and was attended by 110 participants – cultural policy researchers, cultural professionals, cultural civil society representatives, policy-makers, and young professionals in arts and culture from Europe and Croatia. The conference opened up space for discussion on the subject of cultural policies in the EU context. As an introduction to the main conference programme, on the 17th of May 2017, two pre-conference activities were organized in cooperation with IRMO partners. The workshop ‘CAE Croatian Hub – Reflection exercise on the future of Europe’, was co-organized with Culture Action Europe within the framework of the project ‘EUROPE OF CULTURE: co-creating a cultural scenario’. In cooperation with the Academy of Dramatic Art, IRMO organized a pre-conference lecture “The missing links between cultural administration and the functioning of cultural systems today – study case of a one-year mandate as Minister of culture in Romania” by Ms Corina Şuteu, cultural consultant, president of FilmETC and former Minister of Culture of Romania.

We would like to thank all our partners who helped us organizing this successful conference (Rijeka2020, Academy of Dramatic Arts and Culture Action Europe, Ministry of Culture, European Parliament – Information Office in HR) and all the participants for their active participation and interesting discussions hoping that this conference met your expectations. Conference materials are available on the CULPOL website.

The Second CULPOL Stakeholders Group Meeting was organised on the 5th of July 2017 in Rijeka, within the framework of the Unicult 2020 – The International Arts & Cultural Management and Cultural Policy Programme. The CULPOL organisational board worked together with members of the CULPOL stakeholders group in preparing a one-day event that would facilitate the knowledge transfer of the cultural policy related research conducted within the framework of the CULPOL project towards the UNICULT 2020 students.

Research activities

The papers published within the CULPOL Commentary and CULPOL Issue Papers series explored different ways in which the European Union impacts the cultural policies on the national and local levels. In 2017, seven analytical papers were published on the project’s website while several more are in preparation for the next year. The following papers have been published so far:

CULPOL ISSUE PAPER 1 – Subsidiarity, policy, OMC? Croatian cultural policy in the European context, by Jaka Primorac;
CULPOL ISSUE PAPER 2 – An overview of methodological approaches in European cultural policy research, by Ana Žuvela;
CULPOL ISSUE PAPER 3 – Cultural planning ‘in random’: benchmarking cultural policy trends and changes in Croatia with the experience of European Capital of Culture project by Mario Kikaš;
CULPOL ISSUE PAPER 4– The Place and Role of Culture in the EU Agenda. Policy Implications of the Culture Sub-programme of the Creative Europe Programme by Jaka Primorac, Nina Obuljen Koržinek and Aleksandra Uzelac;
CULPOL COMMENTARY 1 – The commentary on typologies of cultural policies by Nada Švob-Đokić;
CULPOL COMMENTARY 2 – Contradictions of the Internet and the problem of articulating the public interest by Paško Bilić;
CULPOL COMMENTARY 3 – Cultural diplomacy from the bottom-up by Matea Senkić

We invite all interested CULPOL stakeholders to contribute to the CULPOL Issue papers or CULPOL Commentary sections.

In response to the call for papers for the upcoming Croatian International Relations Review (CIRR) Special Issue on ‘European Union and Challenges of Cultural Policies: Critical Perspectives’ (Vol. 24, No. 83, 2018) published in June, we have received a number of papers and the editorial and review processes are under way. The publication of the special issue is planned for June 2018.

Plans for 2018

An international round table on the ‘Digital Single Market and Its Impact on Culture and Media in Croatia’ is planned to take place in Zagreb, Croatia, on 19 – 20 April 2018, aiming to gather participants from Croatia and Europe.
The Round table will emphasize the changes the Digital Single Market (DSM) strategy brings to the field of culture, and its impact on the culture and media sector in Croatia.

Before the official ending of the project on the 31st of August, 2018, a final wrap-up meeting will be organized in June, where the special issue of CIRR will be presented. More information on the event will be available on the CULPOL website.

We are looking forward to continuing our collaboration in 2018, hoping to joint realization of new interesting activities.

In the meantime, please follow our culpol.irmo.hr website where we will regularly publish all the information related to CULPOL project.

Happy holidays and best wishes for 2018 from CULPOL project team!

Aleksandra Uzelac
Jaka Primorac
Paško Bilić
Ana Žuvela
Matea Senkić
Barbara Lovrinić

The fourth issue paper ‘The Place and Role of Culture in the EU Agenda. Policy Implications of the Culture Sub-programme of the Creative Europe Programme’ written by Jaka Primorac, Nina Obuljen Koržinek and Aleksandra Uzelac is now available for download from the CULPOL website. Following short analysis of the changing European Union’s discourse pertaining to culture and media sectors, authors analyse wider policy context of the Culture Sub-programme of the Creative Europe Programme adopted in 2013. The analysis approaches the subject from two main angles; firstly, reviewing the policy architecture of the Programme and its feasibility; and secondly, focusing on the terms of the stakeholders’ agreements.

This issue paper is available for download from the following CULPOL link:

CULPOL ISSUE PAPER 4 –  The Place and Role of Culture in the EU Agenda. Policy Implications of the Culture Sub-programme of the Creative Europe Programme / Položaj i uloga kulture u Agendi EU. Policy implikacije potprograma Kultura u programu Kreativna Europa by Jaka Primorac, Nina Obuljen Koržinek and Aleksandra Uzelac, IRMO, Zagreb, December 2017. Language: Croatian with English summary.

The English version of the issue paper Cultural planning “in random”: benchmarking cultural policy trends and changes in Croatia with the experience of European Capital of Culture project written by CULPOL stakeholder Mario Kikaš is available now. This issue paper focuses on the perspectives of local cultural policies in Croatian cities that were involved in ECoC bid-process and had to deliver its local strategies of cultural development. It also deals with the impacts of ECoC bid-process on local cultural capacities and policies, and how are cities that were not designed as the hosts, dealing with its cultural development in post – ECoC time.

English version is available to download from the following link:

CULPOL ISSUE PAPER 3 –  Cultural planning “in random”: benchmarking cultural policy trends and changes in Croatia with the experience of European Capital of Culture project / Kulturno planiranje “u hodu”: proces kandidature hrvatskih gradova za Europsku prijestolnicu kulture kao indikator stanja i promjena u kulturnoj politici by Mario Kikaš, IRMO, Zagreb, August 2017. Language: Croatian and English.

CULPOL project stakeholders and partners Kultura Nova Foundation and Rijeka 2020 LLC organised the international interdisciplinary conference “Participatory Governance in Culture: Exploring Practices, Theories and Policies. Do It Together” that took place in Rijeka from 22-24 November 2017. The conference gathered scholars, researchers, theorists, cultural operators, artists, practitioners, activists, policy-makers, and decision-makers from across the world and from a broad range of disciplines to talk about the challenges, limitations, paradoxes and perspectives that cultural research, practices and policies are increasingly facing around the concept of participatory governance.

As traditional public governance and market-oriented governance systems do not manage to adequately respond to the complex realities of policy challenges nor to respond to the needs of cultural professionals and artists, audiences and local communities, this conference has put in its focus the necessity of establishing new models of governance in culture that has been recognised as relevant European and global issue. Numerous cultural initiatives around the world challenge traditional governance models and are experimenting with innovative approaches to governance transcending the conventional representative institutional frameworks – and this conference have put this in the spotlight.

During three full days, various practical, theoretical and political approaches and meanings of participatory governance in different geopolitical and social contexts have been discussed, and ideas were exchanged for integration of these practices into the existing framework of cultural and other relevant policies. The issue was considered from various angles, such as: the implications of participation for democratic values in public (cultural) policies; the complexities of power relations and authority devolution between different stakeholders; differences among private, public and common interests of all relevant stakeholders; ethics of participation; and institutional and policies change and innovation.

CULPOL organisational board members Ana Žuvela, Barbara Lovrinić and Aleksandra Uzelac (CULPOL project coordinator) participated at the conference together with other CULPOL stakeholders.

The conference was supported by European Cultural Foundation and IFACCA and has been selected as an ENCATC labelled event. The conference is a part of the ”Approaches to Participatory Governance of Cultural Institutions” project supported by UNESCO’s International Fund for Cultural Diversity.

Keynote speeches, panel sessions and open talks video recordings as well as the official photographs are now available at the Conference web site.

Conference programme booklet [PDF]

 

CULPOL project coordinator Aleksandra Uzelac participated at the Culture Action Europe’s AGM and its annual conference ‘Beyond the Obvious – Belonging & Becoming: Culture, Heritage and our Future’ which took place from 15-17 November in Rome (Italy). Conceptualizing culture as a cohesive force, the conference questioned ways to engage in the processes of becoming citizens and living up to our full potentials.

This year conference edition gathered cultural policy researchers, cultural professionals, cultural civil society representatives, policy-makers and leaders from Europe and beyond who shared their visions on the future of Europe. The rich program structured as Cultural Agora offered multiple choices of panel sessions focusing on the main theme Belonging and Becoming questioning:

“How can we, as artists and cultural operators, engaged citizens and policy makers, rationalists and visionaries, develop an inclusive belonging?

What is the impact of civic participation on social cohesion?

How can we on all levels – local, national and European – create an understanding of belonging based on diversity and inclusion?”

Taking place just prior to the launch of the European Year of Cultural Heritage, the event put its focus on the issues of heritage and social innovations, and on education, challenging the simplistic views and exposing the complexity of both issues. In addition to these two main topics, conversations and debates were opened on numerous other issues such as: participatory processes in public and private sector, the future of sustainable cities, audience development, etc. Within the programme Lungomare Mediterraneo, representatives from Rijeka 2020 and CULPOL project stakeholders – Emina Višnić and Irena Kregar Šegota presented ECoC Rijeka 2020 and exchanged views with the experts from the ECoC 2018 and 2019 cities: La Valetta and Matera.

The news of the inclusion of Culture and Education in the Gothenburg Social Summit on 17 November, as well as the EC’s Communication ‘Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture’ coincided with the conference, allowing for first exchanges with the political stakeholders and cultural players present.

Check the Beyond the Obvious Cultural Agora picture gallery and youtube channel.

Beyond the Obvious (BtO) report will be available soon at: https://www.cae-bto.org/