Building Belonging Through Culture: A Conversation on Creativity, Libraries, and Everyday Europe

Culture shapes how people understand themselves, relate to others and find their place in the world. It is not only expressed in institutions or major events, but in everyday interactions, in the spaces where people meet, listen and make sense of their experiences.

In this conversation, Ruxandra Gidei, Programme Coordinator at the European Cultural Foundation, reflects on what she is seeing through her work across digital culture and libraries. Her perspective brings together two connected realities: the fast-moving dynamics of online cultural communities and the slower, deeply rooted role of libraries as civic anchors. Together, these spaces are responding to a shared shift. People are seeking culture that speaks to their lives, connects to their concerns and creates room for meaningful exchange.

Across both digital and physical environments, culture is becoming a way of understanding the world and one another. Conversations that begin with books or creative expression often move into deeper questions of identity, representation and belonging. At the same time, libraries are evolving into essential spaces for community life, especially in places where opportunities to gather and engage are limited. Here, culture is not an abstract idea but a lived practice shaped by participation and shared experience.

These insights reflect a broader reality: belonging grows through connection, and connection is built through culture. This is where European life takes shape, in the everyday spaces where people come together.