The research- and cooperation project Access to Culture has closed its final phase of implementation. In 2014 the project partners provided national policy studies on the situation in Austria, Croatia, Norway, Turkey, Spain and Sweden. These formed the basis for a detailed comparative study, which is ready for download.
Access to Culture has become a major topic on the cultural policy agenda of Europe as well as on other levels of government. The European Civil Society Platform on Access to Culture reported:
“Access to Culture is an essential right of all citizens but becomes fundamental in the case of those with economic and social challenges […] However, there is a notable gap and a lack of political and public debate on and between principles and commitments, and everyday practices of fostering Access to Culture“.[1]
Further relevance on the knowledge on the interaction between European priority setting on Access to Culture and the impact on national policy is enhanced by the current debate on the new EU Culture Programme 2014-2020, focusing on Access to Culture and the “development of long term audiences on European works”[2].
The proposed project aims at interrogating the gap between social reality and political normativity in the area of Access to Culture and to develop a set of recommendations to the European Union, aiming to improve European thinking on this issue and to interlink national discourse and the European dimension. Feasibility of recommendations will be given by the compilation and assessment of indicators on Access to Culture policy and implementation, applicable all across the countries of the Union and beyond.
Our main questions are:
Hereby a policy analysis method will investigate the European and national dimensions of Access to Culture. Moreover the assessment and development of indicators will make further development feasible for experts and policy makers.
Additionally the grouping aims to facilitate an open process and will invited national stakeholders to the meetings and implement discussion between national and European context of Access to Culture policies by round tables. This will contribute to the dimensions of Access to Culture as accessibility to cultural policy for partners´ nations and Europe.
The key competence of each partner impact the grouping as steering partnership.
The regional relevance will enable a comparative understanding among European Union and beyond (Turkey as gate to the South East).
[1] The House of Culture on behalf of the Access to Culture Platform (2010): Access to Culture. A fundamental right to of citizens. Policy Guidelines. p. 3 http://www.houseforculture.eu/beta/upload/Docs%20ACP/ACP-PGPartIofIV-PolicyGuidelines.pdf , accessed 02.10.2011.
[2] Anne Branch/ Head of the Culture Programme and Actions Unit, European Commission (DG Education and Culture) at the conference “European Audiences: 2020 and beyond” held by the European Commission October 2012
Duration: May 2013 to April 2015
Partners:
Cultural Policy and Management Research Center (KPY)/Turkey
Institute for Development and International Relations (IRMO)/Croatia
Interarts/Spain
Telemark Research Institute (TRI)/Norway
The Nordic Centre for Heritage Learning and Creativity (NCK)/Sweden
Client: European Commission, The Arts and Culture Division of the Federal Chancellery of Austria
Contact: angela.wieser(at)educult.at
Legal note: This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
Access to Culture - Project descriptionReview on the policies at European levelAccess to Culture - Final Report (with Annex)Access to Culture - Final Report
Reinventing Cultural Policy? Cultural Policy and Good Governance