Connecting Civil Societies of Asia and Europe Conference
FoAM was participating in 4th Connecting Civil Societies of Asia and Europe Conference, an official side-event of the ASEM8 Summit that took place from the first to third of October 2010, in Brussels (Belgium). The participants were elaborating on specific topics within the 8 working groups - Christina participated in the working group “Sustainable Creative Cities: the role of the arts in globalised urban contexts”.
The outcome of the workshops were summarized and fed into the ASEM8 summit, happening in Brussels on October 4th and 5th 2010, immediately following the conference.
The participants reflected on the notion of ‘sustainable’ ‘creative cities’, the ‘arts’ and the ‘role of the arts’ in contemporary urban contexts across Asia and Europe, coming to the conclusion that a shift in policies is required, away from ‘creative class’ and global competition of so-called ‘creative cities’ and towards more ecological-social-cultural engagements and more genuinely participative urban developments.
A report was compiled with the input of all participants and resulted in a short and long version of the discussions and recommendations. In the reports some information on the process applied for the workshop, the preparation and a glossary can be found as well. The report files can be found at the bottom of this page.
The following 3 recommendations concerning the role of the arts in globalised urban contexts for sustainable creative cities, to be delivered to the 8th ASEM Summit, were elaborated by the participants :
1. To meet the demands of living well together in the future, we recommend that the art of city-making embrace ecological growth as social, environmental, cultural and economic diversity; and governance as transparent forms of genuine, effective participation, dialogue and mutual learning. The arts can serve these processes as a dynamic catalyst and as a generator of imagination among all other disciplines. To this end, we recommend the creation of enabling environments for the development of larger numbers of smaller arts organizations/initiatives, which engage in participatory and transdisciplinary processes –cf. glossary- directly responsive to the needs of diverse communities.
2. We call for inter-sector, transversal (cf. glossary) and sensitive approaches to urban development. Such approaches should allow indeterminate common spaces for shared use in our cities. We recommend ASEM governments to integrate the significant contributions of artwork and art-creating processes in urban development. We urge them to establish an enabling environment for the active involvement of artists and other creative practitioners in urban development policies. This would include determining the modalities of such participatory processes.
3. To generate the capacity and the capabilities for sustainable cities, the arts have a role to play in formal, informal and non-formal education (cf. glossary) as well as in lifelong learning. Furthermore, we urge ASEM governments to actively consider looking beyond arts education towards a deeper role for art-in-education. Such an approach should include artistic ways of learning (with experiential learning, question-based learning and non-linear problem-solving skills – cf. glossary). We also recommend the inclusion of artists and other creative practitioners in consultative bodies on education policies.
short report: http://culture360.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/Sustainable-Creative-Cities.pdf
Discussion Forum: http://culture360.org/asef-news/culture-experts-urge-asem-governments-to-make-creative-cities-more-sustainable/
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