Culture Action Europe’s Executive Committee reflects the diversity, inter-sectorality and inclusivity of our network. From European and international networks to individuals representing all cultural practices and organisational structures, Culture Action Europe brings these voices together in order to put culture at the heart of public debate and decision making.
As of 26 October 2019, new members have joined Culture Action Europe’s Executive Committee. Burak Sayin (Trans Europe Halles), Inês Câmara (Mapa das Ideias) and Stefan Gies (AEC) were elected and Corinne Steinsznaider (Michael Culture) and Lars Ebert (H401) re-elected at the CAE Annual General Assembly in Kreuzlingen. Coming from different backgrounds and contexts, CAE ExComm members share the same aspiration: advocating for culture that is central to inclusive, plural, open and sharing societies.
“Europe is going through a transformation nowadays“, – says Burak Sayin, Community and Communications Manager at Trans Europe Halles and newly elected CAE ExComm member, -“In this transformation, culture plays an important role. Due to a lack of understanding, funding, support and dialogue, the role of arts & culture is even more important than ever: if the arts and culture play an integral part of our lives, as well as an important role in today’s society, we have a chance to overcome polarisation and we have a chance to really understand each other. That’s why I believe we should all gather and rally around the notion of cultural democracy for a better future in Europe.”
For Corinne Steinszneider, coordinator of Michael Culture, it is imperative to be more active and vigilant in advocating for culture and democracy in Europe. “The values, objectives and activities defended/conducted by CAE in the current European context – political, programmatic and financial – are more crucial than ever (…) I would like to continue my commitment in particular on the follow up of the trans sectorial approach and put my energy on the on-going negotiations on MFF and on the extra vigilance we need to have on the implementation – beyond the discourse – of a more open, fair and inclusive Europe.”
Transgressing boundaries and finding a common narrative for culture and the arts that has a social impact is what inspires our new ExComm member from Portugal. Co-founder of Mapa das Ideias, Inês Câmara and her team knit education, mediation, marketing and management in the field of culture, heritage and citizenship. “As a social scientist and a cultural and creative entrepreneur, I am very interested in the social impact of culture, arts and heritage, mainly from the education (formal and non-formal) stance. Moreover, we need to eliminate sectorial boundaries that tend to limit our vision and our action. For an omnivorous cultural consumer and for more profound social relevance, people from a museums’ background must learn from the world of the performing arts, from libraries, and so on.”
Lars Ebert from H401 believes in the transformative power of the arts and dialogue. “The arts must permeate all parts of society to make our future meaningful and human. Top down and bottom up interventions together will make this happen. I love to work locally to realise topical and current projects – and at the same time engage internationally towards better policies, funding and institutional structures to support our sector (…) Currently the discourse on Artistic Research is close to my heart and a focus of my activities to help achieve the strategic goals of CAE.”
Centralising and amplifying cultural operators voices in order to include these messages into a current political discourse is what Stefan Gies from AEC identifies to be a mission for a network like Culture Action Europe. “I know how important is to join forces in order to increase visibility and to be politically effective. I see CAE as an organisation bundling energies of diverse actors in the cultural sector to make a powerful voice out of it to promote the sake of culture at European policy level.(…) I could be a voice of music and music education in CAE Executive Committee, but at the same time contribute to building bridges between different disciplines and between art and society.”
Find out more about the CAE Executive Committee members here.
We also wish to thank the leaving CAE ExComm members Alex Meszmer, Noel Kelly and Yamam Al-Zubaidi for their strong engagement and continuous support.
Culture Action Europe 26.10.2019 in Konstanz/Kreuzlingen (D/CH) | Photo credits: Chris Danneffel
