Culture Action Europe’s Annual General Assembly (GA) and Members’ Forum 2022

AEC renewed its support on the CAE’s current main advocacy actions which includes:

  • claiming that 2% of the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) are earmarked for culture when being implemented by the nation states;
  • fighting for better working conditions of artists and cultural workers, for which the CAE has participated in the background analysis paper The Situation of Artists and Cultural Workers and the postCOVID-19 Cultural Recovery in the European Union on request of the European Parliament’s CULT Committee and the Brainstorming Report Status and Working Conditions for Artists and Cultural Workers, in the context of Voices of Culture;
  • promoting artistic and cultural research and STEAM practices;
  • supporting actions ensuring the freedom of artistic expression.
  • following up the New European Bauhaus project.

The AEC has also validated and will further support the CAE’s new Strategic Focus for 2022-2024, which will work on issues such as:

  • Culture, environment and sustainability.
  • Well-being and well-living.
  • Actions upon the new Work Plan for Culture 2023-2026, that the Council is awaited to adopt in due time.

Part of the GA was dedicated to the re-election of the CAE Executive Committee on which not only the acting President Inês Câmara was confirmed in office, but also AEC Chief Executive Stefan Gies was re-elected for a second term. More information about the current composition of the CAE Executive Committee can be found here.

Stefan insisted on the AEC’s commitment to participate in the further implementation of the ideas that have been put forward in the Porto Santo Charter and to follow up actions to strengthen the recognition of Artistic Research. In this context it is worthwhile to point out that the action initiated by the AEC to challenge the Frascati Manual has cleared another hurdle with the official submission of a joint proposal for a revision of this document to the Frascati Manual editorial board.

Additional information for members:

New Erasmus+ call for proposals by the European Commission: On 15 June, the European Commission launched, a new Erasmus+ call for proposals, of a total budget of 2 million EUR. The call has built on the recent European strategy for universities, the Council conclusions on a European strategy empowering higher education institutions for the future of Europe, and the Council Recommendation on building bridges for effective European higher education cooperation, adopted of 5 April 2022.

The overall objective of this new Erasmus+ strand is to pilot a joint European degree label and to test institutionalised EU cooperation instruments, such as a possible European legal status for alliances of HEIs, aiming to facilitate deeper transnational cooperation between European HEIs.

The deadline for application submission is 6 October 2022.

NEB Festival – Networking event: As part of the New European Bauhaus (NEB) Festival, the AEC participated in a networking event organised by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) on 9 June in Brussels. Members from several European Networks and representatives from the European Commission discussed and exchanged views on the implementation of the NEB and the future of the networks’ collaboration with the European institutions and agencies.

Once more it became clear that the NEB project is very useful in order to help the disciplines of design and architecture, which are often neglected as members of the art family, to gain greater visibility, but offers only little to no touch points to the field of music.