From February 8-10, around 40 members of the Community of Practice (CoP) 'Culture Matters' came together in Basel for three days. After attending the CROSSROADS conference on "International perspectives on culture, art and society", the CoP participated at a SDC-internal Face to Face (F2F) in order to talk about Culture and Development within SDC, operational issues and activities within the CoP. Many fruitful discussions emerged and the members of the CoP had the chance to get to know each other as well as to establish a basis for future collaboration.
- by Esther Mühlethaler
Participants of the F2F 'Culture Matters'
The F2F of the CoP ‘Culture Matters’ took place within
the framework of the CROSSROADS event, which was organized by the Swiss Arts
Council Pro Helvetia in cooperation with the SDC Knowledge-Learning-Culture
Division. Participating at CROSSROADS during the first two days, the present
CoP members had the opportunity for individual exchanges among each other even
before the F2F started. The whole CROSSROADS event included a variety of panel
discussions, conversations and art performances, which brought on stage experts
and artists from all over the world. Representatives of culture promotion
organizations, curators, scientists and artists from a wide range of branches attracted
an equally diverse audience.
Inspiring and lively panel discussions and
performances at CROSSROADS provided a basis for debates and experience sharing
within the CoP. The panel dealing with the question “How to talk about what no
one wants to talk about?”, for example, triggered discussions about the
possibilities and limits arts and artists have for a critique of society and for
raising awareness on specific topics. Corresponding questions also arose after seeing
a strong and provocative theater play about prejudices Black people are exposed
to, or a dance performance making homosexuality a subject of discussion in a
very intimate manner. Although the opinions about “How to talk about what no
one wants to talk about?” differed within the CoP to a certain extent, the
group members mostly agreed on the important role artists can play in shedding
light on controversial issues and in encouraging social transformation. However,
several discussions also displayed the difficulties local political and
societal contexts can cause for such critical arts. The importance of distinct
and adaptable strategies to make artistic work in general and arts on
controversial issues in particular accessible to a broader audience was
stressed on several occasions.
Full of impressions and inspiration gathered at the
CROSSROADS event, the members of the CoP participated at the SDC-internal F2F ‘Culture
Matters’ on the third day. The F2F primarily aimed to encourage sharing and
exchanging processes within the CoP, as well as to strengthen confidence in
culture work. After an introduction pointing out the history, policy and
structural basis of Culture & Development at SDC, the participants exchanged
ideas and questions concerning five main topics in the course of a World Café. A
first World Café table concerned the question on how to prioritize culture,
which allowed to share very concrete field experiences on how to set up and
promote culture programs. The monitoring of culture projects and programs was discussed
in a second discussion group, while a third focused on principles that have to
be specifically considered when promoting arts and artists in fragile contexts.
Another discussion group dealt with the complex issue of balancing the aspects
of artistic freedom and eligibility criteria in the promotion of arts and
artists. The fifth World Café table aimed to exchange on the CoP as such and discussed
the function and utilization of different channels of communication as well as
the needs and expectations of members of the CoP. Based on these discussions,
in the afternoon session the participants of the F2F defined first drafts of concrete
guidelines for setting up cultural programs, which will be further refined.
Impressions from CROSSROADS and the F2F
It was impressive to get a feeling for how much
knowledge and experience exists within the group, and how many ideas and
concrete action points emerged during the group discussions. The participants
closed the F2F by sharing some of their impressions of the day, naming
something they learnt and something they commit to within the CoP. Looking just
at a few statements, it seems that the F2F was a success regarding exchange and
networking, and also raised awareness about the importance of culture work and
cooperation within the CoP ‘Culture Matters’.
Among other things, the intense and very fruitful and
clarifying F2F showed the importance of regular personal exchange within the
CoP. Peer to peer learning, sharing of good practices and lessons learnt may
increase the quality of work of all of us. In that sense, we’re all looking
forward to meeting or hearing each other again, be it in bilateral
interactions, regional meetings or, at the latest, at the next F2F in two
years.