Private: Expert Session #2 – The Social Value of Culture

In times of political distress and economic uncertainty, not many people will turn to culture. But isn’t culture an essential value, especially in times of uncertainty? Think, for example, of the enormous popularity of Ernest Hemmingway’s A Moveable Feast after the Paris attacks in November 2015.

With that in mind, this expert session will focus on the immaterial value of culture. How does culture contribute to social cohesion and social well-being in Europe? To what extent are cultural practices able to connect people, or help them make sense of the world in times of crisis?

During this session economists, artists and politicians investigate the value of culture for Europe and will explore how attention can be drawn to the social importance of culture for European society.

In the first part of the session, Pier Luigi Sacco will give a keynote as a starting point of the conversation. The second part of the session will be initiated by Bernd Fesel, who will present the issue of cultural and creative spillovers, as introduced in the recently published report by the European Research Partnership of, among others, the European Cultural Foundation (ECF). A short summary and the conclusion of the report can be found here.

Contributors are among others:

Keynote speaker Pier Luigi Sacco (Chair European Expert Network on Culture, Italy)

Keynote speaker Bernd Fesel (Managing Director of European Creative Businesses Network (ECBN))

Isabelle Schwarz(Head of Advocacy, R&D and Knowledge Management at European Cultural Foundation)

Tsveta Andreeva (Senior R&D Officer at European Cultural Foundation)

Gloria Benedikt (Dancer, Choreographer, Associate for Science & Arts at IIASA)

Ulrike Guerot (Director European Democracy Lab)

Ludmila Petrova (CREARE and Erasmus University Rotterdam)

Marcos García (Cultural Manager Medialab-Prado)

Robert Manchin (President of Culture Action Europe)

Monique de Louwere (Member Council for Culture, The Netherlands)

Moderator Farid Tabarki (Founder Studio Zeitgeist)

Rita de Graeve (Advisor – Policyholder Culture and Economics, department of Culture, Youth, Sports, and Media, Belgium)

Jelle Burggraaff (Head of European affairs Leeuwarden 2018)

Araf Ahmadali (Arts and Culture, City of Amsterdam)

Robert Oosterhuis (Ministry of Education, Culture & Science)

This expert session will be in English.