Frequencies is a podcast that explores arts and cultural initiatives that seek to impact and transform communities, near and far. Each episode features the work, voices, and experiences of artists and cultural workers across Europe and beyond. “Frequencies,” a production of Culture Action Europe, lives at the intersection of culture and politics by focusing on the power cultural practices and agents have in nurturing inclusive, open, diverse, fair and democratic societies.
Special Edition: Elefsinian Mystery | Handle with Care
8 September, 2023
This episode focuses on the significance of care as an ethical and political obligation for our societies and the role culture and cultural professionals can play in this. How can culture and participation in the cultural life of communities nourish the sense of social and individual well-being? Read more…
Special Edition: Tales from Culturopolis
Episode 4 | Digital Environments
20 March, 2023
What is the relationship between cultural rights and digital rights? How can digitalising culture on the one hand create new possibilities for access and participation, but on the other create new inequalities? Read more…
Special Edition: Tales from Culturopolis
Episode 3 | Cultural Work
27 February, 2023
How is the work of artists and cultural workers valued and recognised? What inequalities continue to occur in cultural work? How can we ensure cultural work and workers’ economic, social and environmental sustainability? In this episode, we have an up-close look at the realities of artists and cultural workers across Europe and how they and their allies are fighting for their rights. Read more…
Special Edition: Tales from Culturopolis
Episode 2 | Participation and Communities
13 February, 2023
Who is being left out of the experience of culture? What is the cultural sector doing to improve the situation? We asked these and other crucial questions to the people from across the sector who are looking critically at the various conditions that affect the right to participate in the city’s cultural life, as well as the various forms of cultural participation. Read more…
Special Edition: Tales from Culturopolis
Episode 1 | Diversity
26 January, 2023
This episode focuses on Diversity, on the difficulties around invisibility or lack of diversity and on the importance of participation and the decision-making capacity inherent in the design of cultural policies. This area tackles the diversity of identities included in cultural rights (gender, sex, ethnicity, language, origin, background, etc.) and the difficulties that may be encountered with regard to freely experiencing this diversity. Read more…
6 May, 2022
Today we will be listening to a sound diary from three different cultural organisations based in Malmö and Lund in Sweden. The sound diary aims to “sonify” the daily operations of the people and organisations who make out the local culture sector there. It is an initiative from the European cultural network Trans Europe Halles in Lund, as a part of Culture Action Europe’s project Amplify: make the future of Europe yours. The workshop resulted in a status report, reflecting the participants’ experiences of the conditions and challenges in their day-to-day work within the culture sector. The sound diary that you will soon be listening to, wants to further amplify these experiences, as well as the sonic dimension of the spaces and conditions that these organisations operate within. Read more…
Rhythms of Memory | London / Syria
29 April, 2022
In this episode, we spotlight Qisetna, a digital platform seeking to preserve the cultural heritage of communities affected by conflict and displacement. Qisetna was founded in London in 2013 in response to the conflict in Syria. The organisation originally sought to reframe the narrative of those being displaced through the practice of sharing stories. The organisation encouraged Syrians of all backgrounds and denominations to capture their memories, producing a rich archive of different stories. Today we get a glimpse into how Qisetna uses storytelling in its many forms in order to protect cultural heritage. Read more…
Versed in Democracy | Ljubljana, Slovenia
22 April, 2022
Today we talk with Anja Zag Golob, a fierce voice in a movement to protect cultural and democratic rights in Slovenia. Anja is often described as a rising star of European poetry, winning awards such as the Jenko Poetry Prize for best Slovene Poetry Collection and the 2020 Kritiško sito award for best Slovene book. Anja also participated in the Culture Action Europe project, “Amplify: Make the Future of Europe Yours,” collaborating with fellow artists and cultural workers to demand more for the cultural sector in Slovenia and across Europe. Ahead of the upcoming national elections in Slovenia this Sunday [24 April, 2022], Anja reflects on how the Slovenian arts and cultural sector has been impacted in the previous two years and the work that lies ahead for both artists and politicians. Read more…
Visualising the Economy | The Netherlands
8 April, 2022
Today we explore the work of Ben Maier, an artist and a photography student at the Royal Academy of Art in the Hague, Netherlands. Alongside 10 other student artists, Ben proposed his art project focusing on the gig economy, an issue that he is interested in from an economic perspective, but also has a personal stake in the matter, as he is currently a delivery rider for UberEats and Deliveroo. Mostly Ben’s work is focusing on the aftermath of neoliberalism. As he has a background in economics, as an artist he calls himself a “visual economist” and works around themes that clash with ethical values in our society. Read more…
25 March 2022
This week we tap into the mind and heart of Rocío Nogales Muriel, the director of EMES International Research Network. As a sociologist specialising in culture, social innovation and social enterprise, she guides us through the vision and actions of a network in Spain that is creating social transformation in communities through artistic and cultural exploration, experimentation and collaboration. REACC, Red de Espacios y Agentes de Cultura Comunitaria (Network of Spaces and Agents of Community Culture), is an open assembly for dialogue and support between artists, community organisers, and cultural organisations. The members who make up the REACC network unite to safeguard community projects and try to provide answers to the endemic problems of the cultural sector. Read more…
Threading Identity | Antwerp, Belgium
18 March 2022
In this episode, we head to the Flemish region of Belgium and focus on a community centre in the heart of Merksem, a multicultural district of the city of Antwerp. Merksemdok Community Centre serves as a meeting point for people in the neighbourhood to participate in programs such as community theatre, Dutch language practice groups and a number of cultural and artistic programs for children. In December 2020, the centre held the “Stay Yourself” Fashion show and exhibition, an event culminating 2 months of work during which 10 young people created their own collection focusing on fashion & identity. The fashion show gave the pre-teens, all girls between the ages of 10 and 13, the centre stage to present their self-designed and handmade creations to a live audience comprised of their families, friends and other community members. Read more…
The Poetry of Politics | Rome, Italy
11 March 2022
In this first episode of the series, we visit Italy to explore the recent work of visual artist, Iginio de Luca. De Luca has been carrying out these blitzes for years, activating public spaces in flash interventions of cultural guerilla warfare. It is largely due to this interplay between political awareness and poetic sensibility that ECCOM decided to reach out to him for his involvement in the project, “Amplify: Make the Future of Europe Yours.” Read more…
