Voices of Culture: participate!

Voices of Culture ‒ Structured Dialogue between the European Commission and the cultural sector provides a framework for discussions between EU civil society stakeholders and the European Commission with regard to culture. It aims to strengthen the advocacy capacity of the cultural sector in policy debates on culture at European level, while encouraging it to work in a more collaborative way.

As part of our renewed structured dialogue on culture with civil society, we would now like to hear more about intercultural dialogue from interested civil society organizations - in arts and culture and beyond, including NGOs representing minority groups.

Promoting intercultural dialogue and bringing communities together through culture in shared public spaces

Brainstorming session
time: 17-18 March 2016
Place: City to be announced

What is it about?

The Brainstorming Session on Promoting intercultural dialogue and bringing communities together through culture in shared public spaces represents the opportunity for a group of 35 European civil society stakeholders in the cultural sector to exchange ideas on this topic and to present these to the European Commission. The group will brainstorm in March 2016, and then have the opportunity, in April 2016, to discuss their main ideas (to be summarised in a Brainstorming Report) with the European Commission at a Dialogue Meeting at Flagey in Brussels.

Calendar:

• The call will be online until December 4, 12:00 CET.
• Applicants will be informed whether they have been selected or not by January 2016.
• The selected participants are requested to come mandated by their organisation/network to the Brainstorming Session on 17-18 March 2016. Part of the preparation expected from participants in the Brainstorming Session will be to send some key messages from their organisation on the topic of “Promoting intercultural dialogue and bringing communities together through culture in shared public spaces”, which will be a starting point for discussion on 17 March 2016.
• The Brainstorming Session is a short gathering of a day and a half, which serves as an opportunity for the cultural sector to brainstorm together and structure the ideas they would like to convey to the European Commission at the Dialogue Meeting at a later stage.
• The summary of the discussion will be compiled in a Brainstorming Report, drafted by an editorial team appointed by the group of participants itself during the meeting. The Brainstorming Report will be finalised remotely in collaboration with the whole group between the Brainstorming Session and the Dialogue Meeting.

Who can apply?

The call is open to representatives of the cultural and creative sectors (professional organisations, cultural institutions, non-governmental organisations, European networks, foundations, private organisations, etc.) with sound expertise on the topic ”Promoting intercultural dialogue and bringing communities together through culture in shared public spaces”, who would like to contribute to discussions with the European Commission. Organisations applying must be from one of the 28 EU Member States.

Instructions

Instructions for applying, application form and more information about the theme:
voiceofculture.eu

Open theme

Have your voice heard and contribute to the selection of the fifth theme of Voices of Culture.
Taking part to the online consultation, you will contribute to the selection of the 5th theme for the Renewed Structured Dialogue, which will complement the four themes already selected:

1. Audience Development via Digital Means
2. Participatory Governance of Cultural Heritage
3. Developing the Entrepreneurial and Innovation Potential of the Cultural and Creative Sectors
4. Promoting intercultural dialogue and bringing communities together through culture in shared public spaces

These four themes have been proposed by the European Commission as they could contribute to feed policy processes under way at European level.

Propose a theme

It is now your turn to propose a theme for discussion and to further contribute shaping the debate at European level. Deadline: 18 November 2015, 12:00 CET.

Online consultation voiceofculture.eu