What Smaller Towns Can Teach Europe

Much of Europe’s cultural collaboration happens in major cities. Yet millions of Europeans live in smaller towns, rural areas and non-metropolitan regions, where cultural organisations often play a different role. They are not only places for events. They are places where people meet, talk, disagree, take part and recognise one another as neighbours.

This is the starting point of LOKAL – Programme for Culture and Engagement, a joint initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) and the European Cultural Foundation (ECF). LOKAL supports cultural organisations working beyond Europe’s metropolitan centres, especially in places facing social fragmentation, polarisation and pressure on democratic life.

In April 2026, more than 120 cultural practitioners, community organisations and partners from across Europe gathered in Świdnica, Poland, for the first European Networking Meeting of LOKAL. The meeting, organised with the Municipal Cultural Center of Świdnica and the National Centre for Culture Poland, created space for participants to exchange practices, build European connections and ask what local cultural work can do in a time of declining trust.

The new illustrated policy report, Culture in the Face of the Relationship Crisis, by the National Centre for Culture Poland captures the main insight from Świdnica: culture is moving from the logic of events to the work of sustaining relationships. Counting audiences and projects is no longer enough. Local cultural organisations need time, trust, stable support and stronger networks if they are to help people remain connected despite differences.

For ECF, this is where LOKAL matters. Culture brings people together not only through major European programmes, but also through everyday spaces close to home. Smaller towns are not peripheral to Europe’s cultural future. They are places where democratic belonging is practised, tested and renewed.

Read the illustrated policy report and watch the video report from the first European Networking Meeting of LOKAL in Świdnica.