culture.powers.europe: off we go!

Over 500 participants from 36 European and non-European countries have registered for the Fourth Federal Congress on Cultural Policy under the title "culture.powers.europe – europe.powers.culture", which has been booked out for weeks and has thus already exceeded the figures for the previous Federal Congresses. "Needless to say, that's a great success for the organisers. But what's more important is that our idea has worked. We wanted to show that Europe is feasible and is already being realised by many players in the cultural sector, day after day. This concrete and pragmatic approach has apparently caught on," said Dr. Norbert Sievers, Managing Director of the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft, in Berlin. Roughly one-third of the participants come from outside Germany, and the percentage of non-German speakers is even as high as 40%. The most frequently represented nations in both groups are Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands and Denmark. The gender balance is roughly even: 49% of the participants are women, and 51% men.

The Federal Congress on Cultural Policy is for the first time devoted to issues of European cultural policy. Its topics range from the cultural components of EU foreign policy, issues relating to migration, "Europe as a culture market" and the social situation of the creative class, all the way to European memory culture and the future of the European city. Roughly 90 speakers from 16 European countries will give presentations and hold discussions with an expert audience. Says Dr. Norbert Sievers: "We hope to advance the social debate on the promotion of the arts and culture in Europe. Among other things, that also includes addressing the particular working conditions in the culture/creative industries and the safeguarding of social standards for artists and creative workers. Cultural policy is social policy and must therefore actively tackle the problems existing between globalisation and regions, between cultural heritage, artistic initiatives and the culture industry."

The "Jahrbuch für Kulturpolitik" (Cultural Policy Yearbook) will also be available in time for the Congress. It is being published by the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft for the seventh time in 2007 and is likewise dedicated to the subject of Europe. It also contains information on the "Cultural sector as an employment and economic factor", a chronicle of cultural policy, a bibliography of new publications on cultural policy, and references to important addresses and websites.

The Federal Congress on Cultural Policy has been held every two years since 2001 and is organised by the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft in cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung – Forum Berlin. The name "Federal Congress on Cultural Policy" has since become an established element of the cultural policy debate. The topics of the previous events were "Art as an object of cultural policy" (2001), "Interculture" (2003) and "The development of the audience for culture" (2005).