16th ENCATC Annual Conference and General Assembly “Intercultural dialogue and project management: New training programs in a context of major challenges”.


The 16th ENCATC Annual Conference will be organised in Lyon, France, from the 16th till the 18th of October in close cooperation with the Faculty of Anthropology and Sociology of Lyon2, the city of Lyon and the Rhone Alphes Region. This outstanding event on cultural management education, taking place during the French EU Council Presidency, will focus on the International UNESCO Convention for the Protection and Promotion of Cultural Diversity. This document has highlighted the major international and local challenges ahead in the field of cultural development and prevention of conflicts. The debate on the diversity of
cultures versus the choc of civilizations addresses not only public authorities but also artistic and cultural producers: opinions are asserted, professional activities are evolving throughout Europe, and even if they stem from a variety of cultural policies, they are all questioned by these new perspectives.
Taking into account the diversity of cultures and intercultural dialogue can bring about changes in the professional circle. Training centres must identify these so that the services
offered can meet the new demands : (a) the anthropological dimension of cultures is being
considered, as is the diversity of practices in groups, class or gender ; (b) In order to « be a society », public policies are inventing new plans and actions that fully integrate the
multicultural aspect of European societies ; (c) Artists are becoming involved in local community projects seeking to encourage civil participation in local arts activities.
In the framework of the European Year for Intercultural Dialogue, this meeting aims at occupying a central position on the question of training. This international conference will therefore examine the current transformations at work and consider how expertise, skills and know-how should be adapted to fulfill these new requirements; will try to understand the didactic and pedagogical implications these changes will lead to and will exchange on the curricula that should be established and will contribute to the sharing of experiences on training programmes that develop new methodology.

Activities during the Conference:

- Cultural policy research Award Ceremony

- ENCATC Annual Students’ Conference

- 3rd ENCATC Board Meeting (2008)


- Working Group “Creative education and entrepreneurship”, meeting and study visit
- Working Group “Interpretation / Mediation applied to heritage sites, meeting
- Working Group “Analysis of methodologies used by cultural observatories and statistical centres, meeting
- Working Group “Audiences policies in Europe”, meeting and study visit
- Working Group “Europe non Europe”, meeting

The first meeting of the ENCATC WG Cultural observatories and cultural information and knowledge was organized last 12-14 March in Split, Croatia.
This event, aimed to analyzed and discuss about the role of observatories, their aims, objectives, scope, stakeholders, target groups and sectors, gathered together 17 experts , and 5 Cultural observatories.
During this meeting, the participants stressed the need to define common and different features of cultural observatories that distinguish them from other organisms devoted to cultural observation such as consultancies, university departments and statistical centres. In relation to the role of the working group, the participants asked ENCATC to be ambitious and to work towards the set up of a pull of expertise in order to become a reference for organisms such as the EU or regions.
In relation to the activities that will be developed by the ENCATC working group the participants agreed to work towards the development of a Tool kits about cultural observatories. The tool kits is intended to deal with the practical issues of the running of a cultural observatory that start with its origin and creation, follow with its running and finish with its evaluation. They will gather expertise form professionals. There are many topics to be developed such as: How to create a cultural observatory: role, scope, area of influence, competences, sponsorship, partnerships, how to run a cultural observatory: human resources, management, methodologies, information systems, outcomes, etc.. …The ENCATC group will also elaborate Working papers reflecting on issues concerning cultural observatories in the knowledge society. They will require a previous research. There are several topics that need to be researched and discussed about such us: The role of cultural observatories; Models of reference; State of Arts and Monitoring Culture.

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