Following the open letter published by 110 pan-European networks on 30 October 2020 “Make culture central in the EU recovery”, the group comes together again to reiterate their call to the national governments and the European Commission. In the second open letter published today by the group, coordinated by Culture Action Europe, the European cultural community call on the Member States and the European Commission to secure a future for culture and cultural life in Europe.

"The New European Bauhaus challenges us to now come up with the ideas that will be deemed self-evident in 50 years because they “just make sense” for a better living together," concludes Max Möglich after an internship at the European Cultural Foundation. After first having been educated as an architectural draftsman Max Möglich went on to study European- and Cultural Studies in Amsterdam, Miami, and Bologna. His internship evolved around the question how our various European programmes could relate to the call for a New European Bauhaus. The views presented in the text are his personal.

The book Commons. Between Dreams and Reality addresses how cooperation and collective actions might influence political and economic realities. At its core, it focuses on the practical life of commons and commoning practices, their factors of growth and transformative potential, as well as on the challenges and contradictions which they face.

There is a genuine interest among philanthropic institutions to explore the opportunities to reorient investment policies to ‘Environmental, Social and Governance’ (ESG) strategies. In this blogpost our Supervisory Board Chair (Ad interim) Rien van Gendt touches on why the SDG lens and the gender lens offer fascinating opportunities to have a sound investment and contribute to a better and equitable world.

Philanthropy with a European purpose is yet to be imagined and resourced. And we know that we cannot do that alone. The Corona shock could become Europe’s moment and the moment for philanthropy to commit to our common ground, Europe. With this study the European Cultural Foundation and the Allianz Kulturstiftung for Europe would like to invite you to a discussion to imagine European philanthropy for a common future.

We are excited to introduce you to a joint Hivos, European Cultural Foundation and Prince Claus Fund project: Forces of Art. See the Forces of Art website to learn more about how arts and culture shape societies across the world.

On 26 November we co-hosted with Hivos and Prince Claus Fund the book launch of "Forces of Art - Perspectives from a Changing World". This thought-provoking and wide-ranging book challenges assumptions and stimulate new ideas about how crucial art and culture are.

In the open letter, published on October 30, 2020, Culture Action Europe, along with other 109 pan-European cultural networks and associations calls the European Union (EU) and EU member states to protect culture as part of the coronavirus recovery plans and dedicate at the very least 2% of national Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) budget to culture and creative sectors.

On Wednesday 14 October, the Europa platform sent a letter to the ministers involved in drawing up the Dutch plans for the European recovery and resilience fund prior to the EU Member States are expected submitting the first plans for the EU Recovery Fund. Read the full letter in Dutch here.

The open letter on the European Democracy Action Plan and freedom of artistic expression is submitted in response to the public consultation launched by the European Commission on the European Democracy Action Plan (EDAP). We - signatories - call on the EU to take positive action to monitor and promote freedom of expression in all its forms and submit the following recommendations.

Arts and culture will not be the same after COVID-19. The new situation requires new approaches and solutions at local, national and European level. We must re-imagine the future, despite of the current social, health and economic challenges. We teamed up with Culture Action Europe to map emergency initiatives and measures carried out across Europe

We are proud to be members of the consortium implementing the Cultural Relations Platform (CRP) - an EU-funded project launched in April 2020, designed to support the European Union to engage in international cultural relations.

Ahead of the European Council meeting on 19 June, we call on the Member States to: Double the budget of Creative Europe to 2,6 billion euros, as the core programme for reinforcing European cultural cooperation. (#Double4Culture). Make sure that the additional funds stemming from the Next Generation EU initiative, such as REACT-EU, reach cultural operators.

In preparation for the press conference of ministers of culture, the Europaplatform wrote a letter calling on Dutch Ministers to support the cultural and creative sectors in Europe with concrete actions, measures and finance, as the problems are very urgent due to the Covid-19 crisis. The letter highlighted current and future problems and possible actions and chances.

As a part of a series of essays, the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft (KuPoGe) asked selected individuals to contribute. Our head of Public Policy, Isabelle Schwarz contributed with an essay on a new approach to the design of European cultural policy.

The world of arts, culture, heritage and creativity will not be the same after COVID-19. The state of emergency at both local and national level has forced governments to redirect their resources to respond to the most urgent needs at home and this has left little room to address issues on a European scale. In a joint appeal with Culture Action Europe we look forward to a post-Covid Europe and formulate recommendations to the European institutions.

The current EU budget for Creative Europe is 0.14%, but 0.14% is not enough. To support the budget increase to 1% for EU Creative Europe, we wrote a letter to Dutch ministers last week together with the Europa Platform, we wrote a letter to the Dutch Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Minister of Culture to support budget increase EU Creative Europe.

After a first successful edition in 2017 - to which ECF contributed by being actively involved in the development and validation process - the 2019 release presents an updated portrait of the cultural and creative resources.

On September 23rd members from across the political spectrum of the European Parliament, including the Chair of the Culture Committee, Ms Sabine Verheyen, and over hundred representatives of arts, cultural and heritage organisations and networks from across Europe gathered at BOZAR in Brussels, to debate the place of arts, culture and cultural heritage in remit of the future European Commission.

Dutch Prime Minister Rutte is adressed with this open letter by ECF director André Wilkens: “On 20 June, when you will discuss Europe’s new Strategic Agenda 2019-2024, we are calling on you to put culture not only on the agenda but make it a priority for Europe.”

The European Cultural Foundation has sent an open letter to Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, calling for making culture, and museums, an integral part of the future of Europe at the upcoming summit on 9 May 2019 in Sibiu, Romania. Culture Action Europe initiated the campaign and urges more cultural networks and organisations to join.

The European cultural and creative sectors advocate for a culture and Europe that is democratic, diverse, fair, free, human, inclusive and vital. This Culture Action Europe campaign calls on political parties to take on board this campaign’s recommendations in their programs:

ECF is delighted to announce the publication of Governing Heritage Dissonance: Promises and Realities of Selected Cultural Policies – a pioneering study by Višnja Kisić, winner of the 2013 Cultural Policy Research Award (CPRA).

Europe: Closed Doors or Open Arms? The Culture Report/EUNIC Yearbook 2014/2015 discusses migration into Europe, inviting a string of renowned scholars, authors and writers, including Umberto Eco, Francis Fukuyama, Bassam Tibi, Zygmunt Baumann, Richard Sennett, Slavenka Drakulić, Claus Leggewie and Mely Kiyak, to share their views.

Exploring the connection between culture and broader goals of human development, this research focuses on cultural and creative industries in what is commonly referred to as 'developing countries'. Christiaan De Beukelaer offers a thorough exploration of how the concepts of cultural and creative industries are constructed and implemented across African countries and evaluates various policy implications of his findings. This publication is the result of the 9th Cultural Policy Research Award in 2012. It was presented in Amsterdam at the Boekman Foundation on 23 March 2015.

The Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Netherlands and Het Nieuwe Instituut, presents a new publication comprising 36 good practices in the creative industries across Asia and Europe, featuring ECF's Tandem Cultural Managers Exchange programme.

In Europe from the Outside: Expectations of Europe's External Cultural Relations, 30 authors from 20 countries look at what initiatives are needed in the area of external cultural policy. Our Head of Advocacy and Research & Development Isabelle Schwarz has also contributed with some insights from ECF.

During a time when the idea of Europe, and the EU in particular, is tainted with economic crisis and democratic decline, Aleksandar Brkić’s analysis of the role of cultural networks in helping Europe serve people is both a wake-up call for European authorities which support cultural networks and a tool for cultural networks themselves to check that they are fulfilling their European and intercultural remit as well as they should.

This publication is the result of the 7th Cultural Policy Research Award in 2010.

This publication is the result of the 6th Cultural Policy Research Award in 2009.

The European Cultural Foundation and The German Marshall Fund of the United States underwent a process of cooperation with the aim of supporting the capacity of cultural actors to be effective agents of change in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. You can read all the reports resulting from this partnership.

This publication is the result of the 5th Cultural Policy Research Award in 2008.

In 2007, the Cultural Policy Research Award went to Amanda Brandellero, an English-Italian PhD researcher at the Amsterdam Institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies (University of Amsterdam), for her research paper Crossing cultural borders? Migrants and ethnic diversity in the cultural industries. Amanda has accomplished an in depth theoretical study applying a specific interdisciplinary approach, and an inspiring empirical study on migrant entrepreneurship in the cultural industries in three European cities - Paris, London and Amsterdam.

This is the second part of a preliminary examination to ascertain whether there is sufficient interest in Member States, and if the preconditions exist, for the development of a coherent cultural dimension to EU external policies. It builds on an initial literature and web based survey conducted by the Boekman Foundation. Its tasks has been to verify whether the reasonably encouraging findings that emerged from the first study were true in practice, by interrogating stakeholders in six diverse EU counties: Denmark, France, Latvia, Poland, Portugal and the UK.

The goal of this survey has been to collect and examine documents on the external cooperation policies of the European Union and its MemberStates with third countries in the field of culture. This has been done in order to assess the degree to which EU Member States support the strengthening of the cultural components of the EU’s external relations and foreign policy.

This publication is an overview of research findings and debates prepared for the ECF, by Andreas Wiesand, in co-operation with Michael Söndermann, 2005.

This publications is the final report of the ECF Reflection group (2002-2004). With contributions from Geert Mak, Otto von der Gablentz. Michael Nauman, Dragan Klaic, Nasr Abu Zayd, Andrei Plescu, Zelimir Zilnik, Krzysztof Pomian, Sonja Licht and Maarten van Veen.

This publication is the result of the 2d Cultural Policy Research Award in 2005. The Position of Cultural Workers in Creative Industries: The South-Eastern European Perspective, written by Jaka Primorac, winner of the Cultural Policy Research Award (CPRA), 2005.

This publication is the result of the 1st Cultural Policy Research Award in 2004. Why We Need European Cultural Policies - The Impact of EU Enlargement on Cultural Policies in Transition Countries, written by Nina Obuljen, winner of the Cultural Policy Research Award (CPRA) 2004.