What it is about
Sineglossa has joined Culture Action Europe and ENCATC, two of the main European networks dedicated to culture. For us, this membership is not only an opportunity to strengthen connections with other European cultural organisations, meet new potential partners, and grow through professional dialogue, but, above all, it means being able to take part in the working tables where policies and funding for culture in Europe are decided. This is a topic we have already raised on a previous occasion of dialogue with the European institutions, when we met Glenn Micallef, European Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport, at a meeting dedicated to cultural organisations that have benefited from the Creative Europe programme:
Fabio Colombo, Sineglossa’s grant manager, highlighted the value that European funding can generate for the cultural sector, citing the experience of the Discovery Guide project, which supports the Ukrainian cultural and creative sector through the creation of an alternative tourist guide made by artists in dialogue with the local community. At the same time, he drew attention to the growing difficulties in accessing European programmes, pointing out how the rise in applications combined with falling success rates risks pushing many cultural organisations away from the European dimension, and calling on the institutions to experiment with more accessible participation and evaluation methods, capable of recognising not only the technical solidity of proposals but also their artistic, social and cultural value.
Who is Culture Action Europe
Culture Action Europe is the main European cultural advocacy network. It brings together cultural organisations, networks, artists, activists, researchers and policymakers from across all fields of culture. It defines itself as the political voice of the cultural sector in Europe and works to maintain a constant dialogue between cultural operators and policymakers, promoting cultural policies that recognise culture as a strategic sector and as a fundamental component of open, democratic and sustainable societies.
Joining the network will allow Sineglossa to take part with greater continuity in the discussions shaping the future of European cultural policies, bringing the experience built up as lead partner and as partner in projects funded through the Erasmus+, Erasmus Virtual Exchange, Creative Europe, CERV and EIT Community New European Bauhaus programmes.
Who is ENCATC
ENCATC is the European network dedicated to cultural management and cultural policy, connecting universities, research centres, professionals, cultural organisations and policymakers. Since 1992, it has promoted research, training and knowledge exchange, contributing to the development of a more sustainable, inclusive and democratic cultural sector. Through networking activities, publications, research and international exchange, it fosters the encounter between those who produce knowledge, those who shape policy and those who work in the cultural sector on a daily basis.
For Sineglossa, joining ENCATC means bringing into a European research and training network some of the knowledge we have developed over the past few years through our tools and methodologies, such as our policy recommendations on how to involve communities in the use of AI, the compass for guiding museums, archives and libraries towards a conscious adoption of AI, the methodologies for creating participatory narratives of territories (Discovery Journey and Nonturismo for Kids), and those for the STEAM approach, which explore the contribution of art to scientific learning processes.
The #NamePlaceFund campaign
The discussions taking place within these networks concern some of the transformations currently affecting the European cultural sector: the relationship between culture and artificial intelligence, environmental and social sustainability, the role of education, new forms of cultural participation, and the recognition of culture as an essential component of public policy. These are topics that have been guiding Sineglossa’s work for years and that today increasingly call for opportunities for research, dialogue and collaboration at the European level.
Among the first initiatives we are supporting as members of Culture Action Europe is the #NamePlaceFund campaign, launched at a crucial moment for the future of European culture. Negotiations are currently underway on the European Union’s next multiannual budget and on one of its main instruments dedicated to research, innovation and competitiveness, which will have an allocation of over €400 billion.
In the proposals currently on the table, however, culture and artistic research risk losing the space they had gained in previous years: the new European Competitiveness Fund includes no dedicated component for culture, and Horizon Europe’s Cluster 2, which included culture, creativity and inclusive societies, risks disappearing altogether.
For this reason, the campaign puts forward three very concrete requests to the European institutions:
- NAME: explicitly recognise the role of culture and creativity in European programmes dedicated to research and competitiveness.
- PLACE: ensure culture and creativity have dedicated structural components, with their own funding lines, work programmes and calls.
- FUND: allocate €5 billion to culture and artistic research in Horizon Europe and €3 billion to culture and the cultural and creative industries in the European Competitiveness Fund
This is a request we fully share. If culture contributes to the production of knowledge, to innovation and to social cohesion, it must be able to rely on adequate tools and resources to keep doing so.
