Since 2012 will be a key decision-making year during which the European Parliament and Member States will vote on the culture budget for the next seven years, the project will focus on this unique opportunity to advocate and convince the Nordic Member States to
a) support an increased budget for culture and
b) improve their national policies to complement the EU policies in the field of culture.
Because of the EU negotiations taking place right now, the project has a strong European focus, but the aim is also for the project to start more long-term processes and inspire the participating organisations to reflect upon how they can strengthen their own advocacy work on local, regional and national level and the existing and/or potential future platforms for such work in the Nordic region.
Activities
We start with two workshops with an activity phase in between. Next step is to evaluate the activities and finally communicating a joint project report including interviews and advocacy advice.
The advocacy workshops will engage the experience of the Irish initiative “National Campaign for the Arts”, and be based on the we are more campaign Message book. We will also develop and distribute the joint statement with advocacy advice.
Co-operating partners
Intercult will lead the project in partnership with Culture Action Europe.
Culture Clinic, Sweden
NCK – The Nordic Centre of Heritage Learning, Sweden
Riksteatern, Sweden
Trans Europe Halles, Sweden
TILLT, Sweden,
Intercult, Sweden
Performing Arts Hub Norway
European Jazz Orchestra – DSI Swinging Europe, Denmark
Center for Kunst & Interkultur CKI, Denmark,
TrAP, Transnational Arts Production, Norway
Produforum, Finland
Nordic dimension
Civil society engagement and joint actions on Nordic level during the key years 2012-2013 are crucial. When it comes to influencing EU policies, the formation of strong regional coalitions has been a prominent trend over the past years. As a result, the influence of networks of cities and regions has increased significantly. This project aims to facilitate for cultural operators to form a Nordic civil society coalition that lobbies for improved cultural policies in the Nordic countries to complement European policies and funding in the next EU budget 2014-2020. By acting together to defend Nordic values such as participatory democracy and freedom of movement, the participating organisations will increase the chances of their demands to be heard.
The many similarities in cultural policy and decision-making processes in the Nordic region, as well as the upcoming Danish EU Presidency (Spring 2012), makes a joint professional development project, tailor-made for cultural operators in the Nordic countries, very timely.
The overarching goal of the project is to strengthen the capacity of Nordic cultural operators in the field of arts and culture to act politically and influence long-term, structural changes in cultural policies. The participants will be given a concrete framework for their skills development. They will be able to widen their networks and deepen their understanding of how the decision-making processes on local, national, Nordic and European level are interlinked.
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