[Nettime-nl] 'Sharing Cultures' conferentie, Rotterdam, 11-13.7

[geert <geert@xs4all.nl>]

Dear colleagues,

>From July 11 - 13, 2004 the European Cultural Foundation is 
organizing the 'Sharing Cultures' Conference in Rotterdam. This event 
will gather cultural operators and policy makers from all over Europe 
to discuss a cultural strategy for Europe. The conference provides a 
unique opportunity to present European Ministers of Culture who will 
attend the event with opinions and recommendations of the cultural 
sector. For more information please consult 
<http://www.eurocult.org/>www.eurocult.org !

As some of you may already know from a message sent around earlier 
today the European Cultural Foundation is currently preparing a 
Petition on Europe as a Cultural Project. An appeal of the cultural 
sector regarding this matter shall be presented to the Ministers of 
Culture during the conference. In order to gain sufficient momentum 
for this call for developing a cultural strategy on European level it is
of utmost importance that as many voices from the field as possible 
support this petition.

Please take a minute to read the request for support by Gottfried 
Wagner, Director of the European Cultural Foundation and the proposed 
text of the Petition. Both documents are attached to this message. 
For endorsing the Foundation's call for a Europe of Culture please 
reply to the attached message (petition@eurocult.org) by indicating 
your name, function and the organisation you work for (if applicable) 
at your earliest convenience.

Thank you very much for your cooperation!

Kind regards,

Philipp Dietachmair
European Cultural Foundation, Amsterdam

Dear Colleagues,

As an independent intermediary between cultural policy development 
and cultural practice, the European Cultural Foundation has organized 
the Sharing Cultures Conference in Rotterdam from 11-13 July 2004. 
This advocacy event, long in preparation, aims to put culture high on 
the EU agenda and voice the concerns and proposals of the field. 
Cultural operators and policy makers will gather together at the 
conference to discuss and propose a European cultural strategy. 

The Sharing Cultures Conference provides an exceptional opportunity 
to address the European Ministers of Culture. We are invited to 
present to them at their meeting in Rotterdam the findings and 
recommendations of the cultural sector.

We are working on several cultural advocacy fronts:

- An open letter, written by the ECF and EFAH (European Forum for the 
Arts and Heritage) and signed by prominent European figures, is 
published in major European newspapers to coincide with the elections 
to the European Parliament.

- A petition (see the attached "appeal") on behalf of the European 
cultural field will be presented to the media in June and to the 
ministers the following month. This calls on them to exercise their 
commitment to European cultural cooperation and citizenship and to 
put culture on the agenda of the European political institutions. If 
it is to have an impact, the petition should be signed and supported by
as  many as possible in the cultural sector (networks, organizations, 
institutions, artists etc.). Therefore we ask for your support.

- A conference manifesto will be produced, specifying recommendations 
in the five priority areas of the Rotterdam conference. This will be 
based on the work of the expert task forces that are preparing the 
conference. The manifesto will be presented to the ministers in 
Rotterdam.

- We will conclude this lobbying campaign with a meeting with the new 
Culture Committee of the European Parliament in autumn, prepared in 
close partnership by the ECF and EFAH.

We wish to convince the European ministers, the members of the 
European Parliament and other European institutions that the European 
Union is also a 'cultural project'. Europe needs a new strategy of 
cultural action that enhances mobility, strengthens co-operation, 
encourages communication and debate, and consolidates trans-national 
networks, based on new partnerships and resources from the EU budget 
that are sufficient to attain all these goals.

We hope that you will join us in our efforts to have these important 
issues placed prominently on the European agenda. Please give us your 
support by signing the petition individually or on behalf of your 
organization.

To offer your support, send us a reply by email saying 'agreed', with 
the name of your organization and, preferably, the name of a contact 
person, stating his or her function within the organization.

Yours sincerely,

Gottfried Wagner

Director, European Cultural Foundation

----

Petition:

EUROPE AS A CULTURAL PROJECT

An appeal by the cultural sector to the European Ministers of Culture

(On the occasion of the Sharing Cultures Conference in Rotterdam, 11- 
13 July 2004)

An ever closer European Union can only be realized if Europe's 
citizens are able to share their aspirations as a community. In 
building such a community, we, the cultural institutions and networks 
of Europe, have learned to experience what we have in common through 
cross-border cooperation and collaborative engagement.

Working in an enlarged Europe within a context of globalization, 
artists and cultural operators need support if they are to meet the 
new challenges and overcome the - sometimes severe - limitations 
confronting them. We are convinced that Europe needs a cultural 
strategy in order to secure vision and support: a strategy which 
balances the demands of artistic freedom, cultural competitiveness 
and active democratic citizenship, with incentives to nurture 
creativity; a strategy capable of achieving the following:

A substantial cultural mobility programme � providing more and better 
opportunities for cultural professionals to work together and 
cultural goods to circulate

A better-resourced and user-friendly EU cultural programme, with more 
pooled projects that build trust and strengthen artistic and cultural 
collaboration.

A European policy for cultural diversity, devised in full awareness 
of the cultural consequences of EU regulations, and sensitive to the 
treatment of cultural values, goods and services in international 
trade negotiations.

Support for the emergence of a European civil society, with the 
promotion of a European public space for reflection, critique and 
debate, bolstered by a vibrant cross-border media environment
Effective support for intercultural dialogue worldwide, paying 
particular attention to cultural cooperation � in a spirit of 
partnership � with the EU's neighbours.

Practical tools and coordinated efforts to enhance cultural 
cooperation in shared ownership, with new alliances and 
public-private partnerships providing cultural information, services, 
knowledge management and research.

Only a coherent and adequately funded cultural strategy � one which 
complements and adds value to the policies of member states � could 
be effective within the Union and with respect to the Union�s 
worldwide responsibilities.

We call on the European Ministers of Culture to exercise their 
commitment to European cultural cooperation and citizenship. We will 
support the Ministers, as well as future members of the European 
Parliament and officials of the European Commission, in developing a 
new strategy of cultural action that enhances mobility, strengthens 
cooperation, encourages communication and debate, and consolidates 
trans-national networks; a strategy based on new partnerships and 
sufficient EU budget resources to match these goals.

Signed,....



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