Lars Ebert: “Now is the moment to start talking about European culture”
This interview by Ilias Maroutsis was initially posted on Creatives Unite on 2 June 2025.
“Artistic processes are so valuable because they are free” says Lars Ebert, Secretary General of Culture Action Europe, in an interview with Creatives Unite and he notes a lack of trust among policymakers and citizens regarding the cultural sector’s potential in society. “We are constantly required to justify our existence,” observes the Secretary General of CAE, emphasising the importance of trusting institutions and artists to produce relevant work without having to argue for it.
Lars Ebert, argues that culture needs a strong policy and an ambitious framework that ensures fair working conditions and autonomy to the sector. He also advocates the launch of a discussion on the notion of a contemporary European culture. The Secretary General of the CAE is defending the continuation of a stand-alone Creative Europe programme with increased funding, and is pointing out that funding decisions in the EU are political rather than rational.
AI and the exploitation of creative content, the precarious working conditions of artists and cultural workers, freedom of artistic expression, sustainability, and self-instrumentalisation are some of the key challenges facing the cultural and creative sectors according to CAE’s Secretary General.
Lars Ebert discusses artistic research within the context of European competitiveness, emphasising the importance of recognising that art-based methods generate new knowledge. Finally, with regard to the war in Ukraine and the EU’s new defence strategy, the Secretary General of CAE asserts that culture has a role to play, stressing that security comprises many layers and components. “Culture keeps a society together,” concludes Lars Ebert.
Creatives Unite (C.U.): The European Commission has launched a new initiative to shape the new framework for cultural and creative sectors under the name Culture Compass. Do you agree that culture needs a compass?
Lars Ebert (L.E.): I think culture needs a strong policy.
Compass is just a fashionable term that Ursula Von der Leyen loves to use. If we took it to literal, it would suggest that we lost our way. But the reality is for sure that we constantly need to explain where we are going, what our output will be and how we measure it with impact indicators. Especially when it comes to culture I like to quote Antonio Machato: “Traveler, there is no path, the path is made by walking”.
Artistic processes are so valuable because they are free. We in the sector are used to “trust the process”. But it’s precisely this trust that is lacking in public opinion and certainly in the funding programmes that are the result of cultural policy. Instead of playing to a very calculated Excel sheet-based agenda we need a framework that allows us to be autonomous and free. I will then have my peace with the term Compass!
C.U: What characteristics do you suggest that this framework should have?
L.E.: It needs to set the tone for all the other documents that will define our work in the next years. It needs to be ambitious and use all the leverage that it has within the competences of the European Commission.
We’re used to hearing that the EUs competences in the area of culture are limited and that the EU can only focus on transcultural mobility, transnational cultural production and cultural capitals. I think that, within these constraints, now is the moment to be very bold and to start talking about European contemporary culture. There is something that is distinctly European.
Generations of Creative Europe projects have produced knowledge and content that is transnational. There are criterias that describe what makes a European cultural process and a European cultural outcome. I think we should start supporting that by talking about the notion of a contemporary European culture.
The precariousness in our sector is overwhelming. We need to address this.
C.U.: What are the most significant challenges currently facing the cultural and creative sectors?
L.E.: Artificial intelligence is a high-priority issue. Despite the Artificial Intelligence Act, we are not even close to properly protecting creators or their content from exploitation.
Sustainability is another important issue. We must consider how we can contribute to changing the narrative of making our societies more sustainable, and how we can help societies to change, beyond just becoming greener ourselves as a sector. The issue of working conditions is also extremely urgent. The precariousness in our sector is overwhelming. We need to address this.
Another big question is why we focus so much on the past and hardly discuss culture’s contribution to the future. This is about the creative power of contemporary culture and socially engaged arts, and the aspect of cultural democracy that brings our societies forward. I, as a citizen, only have a reason to vote or be voted for, and exercise democratic agency, if I am involved in creating images of a better future. This is a very political issue.
Freedom of artistic expression and institutional autonomy are also critical issues. Freedom of artistic expression is under threat throughout Europe. This is evident in many countries and takes various direct and indirect forms. Examples range from dismissing people from official positions to imposing conditions on funding programmes and even leading artists and organisations to practise self-censorship to secure funding.
C.U.: You also brought up the issue of trust earlier.
L.E.: Yes, and this is related to the sector’s own instrumentalisation. What I mean is that politicians and policymakers — and perhaps even citizens — do not recognise the potential or role of the cultural sector in our societies in the same way that we do. Consequently, there is a great deal of distrust towards us. By distrust, I mean that we need to prove our value in terms that are not our own. So, we are accustomed to explaining that citizens who visit museums are less likely to suffer from depression and that neighbourhoods that engage in cultural activities have stronger social cohesion.
As artists and organisations, we are constantly required to justify our existence. Over the years, in the neoliberal heyday, this has led us to play to an entrepreneurial agenda. We have played to all kinds of agendas, such as jobs and growth or social cohesion. However, if we truly look inwards and have internal conversations, it will become clear that most of us woudl agree that, while not denying the impact we have on other policy areas, our existence has value as such. When I talk about trust, I’m talking about trusting culture as a foundation of society, without further argument…