CANCELLED | Artistic Freedom Meeting @ Freemuse

With regret, Culture Action Europe and Freemuse have jointly taken the decision to cancel the Partners Meeting on Artistic Freedom which was due to take place on Friday, 13 March 2020.  This decision has been taken as a precautionary measure in order to limit the spread of the Corona Virus – COVID19.

We will monitor the situation and contact you again in due course either to reschedule the meeting, or to propose an alternative method to further our cooperation with regards to the points that were on the agenda for our planned meeting.

The main purpose of this meeting is to discuss progress on the planned Workshop on Artistic Freedom that is part of the European Work Plan on Culture 2019-2021.

At the request of DG EAC, Freemuse is formulating a proposal on the format and programme of the workshop.  During the meeting we will exchange views on this proposal in order to consolidate it.

The workshop is included in the European Work Plan on Culture 2019-2021 as approved by the EU Council, with the task for DG EAC to organise the workshop in the first half of 2020.  The topic of the workshop as reported in the workplan is “Artistic Freedom” which falls under the Work Plan’s priority C: “An ecosystem supporting artists, cultural and creative professionals and European content”. The rationale is explained as: “…artistic freedom is central to democratic societies. Art can help overcome barriers connected to race, religion, gender, age, nationality, culture and identity, by providing a counter-discourse and contesting privileged narratives and perspectives. Developments and challenges to artistic freedom will be discussed”.

Important to stress is the potential for the workshop to lead to a Conference on Artistic Freedom to take place in 2021, also mentioned in the EU Workplan.