The #CulturalDealEU continues to work to empower voices across Europe, to stand up for culture, and ensure a safe re-opening of cultural venues. A more lasting and sustainable recovery in the long term.
The Cultural Deal for Europe was first introduced in November 2020, a call in response to the impact of Covid 19 on the arts and cultural sectors which had unveiled its dysfunctional systematic structure. This overarching strategy aims at placing culture at the center of the European project and mainstreaming it across all policy fields: from the green transition to Europe’s geopolitical ambition and from the digital shift to a value-driven Union. It focuses on both facilitating the contribution of culture to Europe’s sustainable development and providing the sector with the credibility and resources for realizing its full potential.
In the coming weeks, two major #culturaldealEU events will take place in the Netherlands and Sweden. The design of a new chapter of #CulturalDealEU tailored to the specific realities of each Member State; So to mark Europe Day 2021, the Dutch Europa Platform (coordinated by Kunsten ’92, European Cultural Foundation, Culture Action Europe, and DutchCulture) will be hosting a Culture Action Europe Hub meeting.
The meeting will bring together professionals active in the Dutch cultural and creative sector with a (future) interest in working across European borders, to collaboratively examine the Cultural Deal for Europe and make it more relevant to the Dutch context.
Specifically, the meeting will look at how the Deal can strengthen European cultural policy at the Dutch national level. The aim is to generate concrete proposals for how to implement the Cultural Deal within the Netherlands and to investigate ways in which to connect European campaigns to their Dutch counterparts.
The hub meeting will focus specifically on five pillars from the Cultural Deal, deemed most relevant to the Dutch context. These five pillars will be explored in breakout rooms where participants will be encouraged to actively contribute to the discussions following inspiring examples of the pillars in practice. Input gathered during these sessions will serve as the basis for the proposals generated as the outcome of the meeting.
On the other hand, led by Intercult, Culture Action Europe members in Sweden, will be organizing an online debate around the Nordic Chapter of the #EuropeanCulturalDeal. The chapter is a result of the CAE Nordic Hub meeting that took place in January 2021.
The Nordic chapter of the Cultural Deal for Europe has been signed by Intercult (SE), together with Region Västra Gotaland (SE), Cirkus Syd (SE), Riksteatern (SE), Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium – Odin Teatret (DK), Institut för (X) (DK) and many more participating cultural operators in Denmark and Sweden. It is important for cultural actors in the Nordic region that our values are included, with such keywords as solidarity, creativity, cooperation, and inclusion.
In the panel discussion, taking place online on 30 April from 14.00 to 15.30, the Swedish cultural operators meet for a conversation about what this Nordic cooperation entails for economic, political, technical, and social challenges and opportunities in Sweden.
Prior to that, on 30 March 2021, Culture Action Europe and Michael Culture – European Network for Digital Cultural Heritage organized an online meeting, as a follow-up to last year’s meeting in Paris, aimed at strengthening the links between the French and European cultural sectors, as well as their representation in the European institutions and in the European cultural policy debate.
