State of Culture Report, Second Edition
State of Culture is Culture Action Europe’s biennial snapshot of cultural policy across Europe. The first edition appeared in 2024, when the sector was largely asking for recognition. This second edition finds that the demand has shifted to agency: the freedom to help shape Europe’s future, not only to take part in it.
The report’s central finding is that culture is praised more than ever and protected less than ever. It is a public good in the language of EU institutions, yet funding and evaluation still favour short projects, set outcomes and measurable impact. Recognition was never the finish line, only the starting condition.
The report draws on interviews with 27 representatives of 19 sector networks, a review of cultural policy documents from 14 EU countries and at EU level, and a survey of 483 respondents.
Contents
Introduction by Lars Ebert, Secretary General of Culture Action Europe, on what the report is for and what advocacy means for the network.
Key observations Nine takeaways from across the report.
Chapter 1. The Value of Culture: From Narrative Exhaustion to Policy Change. Culture is increasingly described as part of the infrastructure of collective life, and as a public good. The chapter examines whether this new language will translate into funding and practice.
Chapter 2. Culture and AI: Human Agency on a Tightrope. The sector’s question has moved from whether AI can be trusted to who decides what AI is for. The chapter looks at authorship, creative work and the conditions in which culture is made.
Chapter 3. Artistic Freedom: From Legal Principle to Lived Capacity. Artistic freedom is eroded by more than censorship, including funding pressure, ownership concentration, platform power and self-censorship. The chapter considers the case for a European Artistic Freedom Act and the role of the sector in practising freedom collectively.
Chapter 4. Europe: A Continent of Culture? Culture is becoming more geopolitical while space for global cultural collaboration shrinks. The chapter explores competing ideas of European cultural diversity and the role of openness in Europe’s cultural standing.
Conclusion. The state of culture today as a state of crossroads, with the sector walking several tightropes at once.
Annexes. Interview participants and survey respondents.