How
to detect diversity and interculturalism?
The
annual editorial workshop of the authors of the Compendium
of
Cultural Policies and Trends in Europe
took place in the middle of April in Budapest - not hosted by BO, but with our
participation. Credit should go to the Council of Europe for not hiding behind
the smoke screen of subsidiarity and for running a
project that highlights, compares and thus indirectly assesses national cultural
policies in Europe. One sees no real (legal)
obstacle against why the EU should not spend on similar enterprises.
Not
only the nearly 40 countries are different, so are the authors of their
profiles. This year's task was to reach an (editorial) consensus about
presenting the follow-up of two recent international documents on diversity
in cultural expression (Unesco)
and intercultural dialogue (Council of Europe, Opatija).
The political consensus about these two concepts has made it only a bit simpler
to grasp their concrete meaning. How to detect them in national cultural
policies? Or how to „measure" their impact? The next
updates of the national chapters will tell whether the authors
succeed.
Credit
should go to EricArts
for the work that they have invested in preparing the discussion of these vague
fields.
A
white spot in the middle of Europe
BO
was astonished in the previous memo about the absence of
a
Czech or a Slovak researcher among speakers of the 4th
International
Conference on Cultural Policy Research next
summer. Add BO
astonishment about the absence of a Czech or Slovak national cultural policy
profile in the Compendium.
A
bright spot in Slovakia
An
energetic lady sees to it that Slovakia should be on the map of cultural
policies in Europe. On the 11th of
April a hall in Bratislava was packed with
cultural operators of the country, who listened to and discussed the theory
and practice of the arm's length principle in the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom,
presented by high level representatives from those places. BO was present,
telling about the case in east and central Europe in general, and
Hungary in particular.
The
Commission spends
If
not on cultural policies, what does the European Commission spend on?
The
(probably) most successful cultural project of the Union, the European Capitals of Culture gets a tiny bit
only: "financial assistance ranges from €
200 000
to one million per project."
April
saw two examples on where else the money
goes.
"€
500 000
is intended to finance the organisation of cross-border venues in Augsburg, Salzburg and
Vienna and to
highlight the importance of Mozart's work for music and European
culture".
One cannot find many cities that are better off in Europe than these three; or a cultural icon that is
marketable easier than Mozart.
"€
1 000 000
is intended, at the time of the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, to
finance the preparation and organisation of an exhibition tracing the history of
European integration which will be held in Brussels ..."
The
call emphasises that there will be a single beneficiary only. What was on
the mind of the decision makers when they prepared, voted on and announced this
call? Who believes that serious businesses and organisations will set to pulling
together a bid for a one million project within a few weeks on the basis of the
available information? Without awards offered for the second, third etc seated
concepts...
BO
expects precious little from the exhibition. For BO it is indifferent who the
creator will be. BO would trust anybody that the Commission named upfront. With
this procedure, however, much of the trust is gone. In this context the pedantic
listing of the 25 countries from where candidates are eligible is silly and/or
cynical. Excuse my language. You may
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to us your confidential guess about the single beneficiary: if
many of you send the same name, BO can be of considerable help to the selection
board.
Essen
- Pécs - Istanbul
The
German authorities had invited the EU panel for the European capitals of culture
in 2010 to make the final choice between Essen and Görlitz.
"After an exhaustive debate the panel reached a firm consensus to recommend
Essen for the
title, given the innovative character of the project". It was not a price
competition: Essen offered to spend much less
(€
78 000 000)
on the event than Görlitz. (Pécs is offering € 141 million,
plus perhaps € 36 million - this is not clear in the
report.)
The
selection of Istanbul has made Dragan's
report
about that city's cultural prospects even more timely and topical.
Eastern
sound of music
In
the previous memo BO complained about the less than proportionate representation
of musicians from the east in the European Youth Orchestra. The
latest
round
of recruitment has improved the balance: 21 out of the 132 members will be from
our region.
Two
British items
BO
has brooded on the unfair advantage that the British enjoy because of their
language. Nevertheless we close this
memo by pointing at two remarkable items from the British pool of cultural
policy actions.
One
is a publication
on how differently culture is looked upon by cultural
professionals, politicians and the public - and how to treat this situation. The
other is a conference
on creative
industries, the
cult term of our days.
You can take your time for reading Cultural
Value and the Crisis of Legitimacy
by John Holden. However, the
Creative
Clusters
meeting has a 22 May deadline for submitting papers.
