The CReW project is funded by the Erasmus+ Programme and coordinated by the University of Siena in partnership with EUNIC Global. It consists of three events focusing on supporting culture as an engine for development, cultural heritage cooperation, and promoting intercultural dialogue. The events were held in Morocco, the UK, and Germany and brought together practitioners, policymakers, and academics. The final conference will be in Italy. The project aims to foster dialogue between academics and policymakers, cross-fertilize research and practice, improve professional training, and facilitate access to relevant content for international cultural relations.

1. CReW Project
The CReW project
The Cultural Relations at Work (CReW) project is financed by the Erasmus+ Programme, Jean
Monnet Activities (EAC-A03-2016). The project is coordinated by the University of Siena in
partnership with EUNIC Global.
The CReW project consists of three events and a final conference. The first two events took place in
Morocco (Rabat - February 2018) and the United Kingdom (London, October 2018), while the last
one is set to take place in Germany (Stuttgart – April 25 and 26, 2019). The final conference will be in
Italy (Siena – Summer 2019) in the framework of the Siena Cultural Relations Forum and will gather
selected attendees and speakers from the previous events.
Each event focuses on one of the three work streams of the joint communication, “Towards a EU
strategy for international cultural relations” (JOIN (2016) 29 final): (1) supporting culture as an engine
for sustainable social and economic development (Morocco), (2) reinforcing cooperation on cultural
heritage (UK), and (3) promoting culture and inter-cultural dialogue for peaceful inter-community
relations (Germany). Participants are selected among local and non-local practitioners, policy-makers
and academics.
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2. CReW Project
The project has four main goals:
• foster dialogue between the academic world and policy-makers;
• cross-fertilize the academic work with recent practices and inform these with the results of the
academic research;
• improve the quality of professional training for practitioners and policymakers on international
cultural relations; and
• facilitate better access to content and methodologies that might be relevant for a wider audience
of academics, policy-makers and practitioners in cultural relations and cultural diplomacy.
The events encourage a combination of practice and theory and are focused on the analysis of specific
case studies. This methodological approach has two goals in mind: (1) make the practical knowledge
and theories often used in cultural relations more explicit and create a common language for
practitioners and policymakers and (2) collect and organize relevant information from the case studies
in ways that are applicable and grounded in theoretical social frameworks. The CReW project aims to
bridge the gap between what researchers do in academia and what cultural diplomats, policy-makers,
and practitioners do in their day-to-day work.
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3. CReW Project
The Stuttgart international seminar: Promoting culture and
inter-cultural dialogue for peaceful inter-community
relations
After Rabat (February 2018) and London (October 2018), the third international seminar of the
CReW Project took place in Stuttgart, Germany on April 25 and 26, 2019. The conference was kindly
hosted by ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), Germany’s oldest organisation for international
cultural relations. Our attendees – both local and non-local cultural diplomats, practitioners, and
leading scholars – dealt with the work stream “Promoting culture and inter-cultural dialogue for
peaceful inter-community relations” of the joint communication Towards an EU strategy for
international cultural relations (JOIN (2016) 29 final).
In her opening speech, Prof. Milena Dragićević Šešić (Head of the UNESCO Chair in Studies of
Interculturalism, Art and Cultural Management and Mediation in the Balkans – University of Arts in
Belgrade) addressed the nature and the evolution of European common heritage and the role personal
memories, group narratives, collective consciousness, and community identity play in it. To do so, she
led participants through art and artistic actions within mixed communities at the very “borders” of
Europe, a journey which uncovered the contradictions entrenched in a too simplistic view of heritage.
Finally, Milena brought to the fore the issue of communication between civic activists and policy-
makers and questioned the impact of the former on the shaping of cultural relations.
Session 1. Intercultural dialogue, cooperation and mobility
The first session provided an overview of various experiences and their impact on promoting
intercultural dialogue, cooperation and mobility with a focus on Eastern Europe.
Simon Williams (Director British Council Ukraine) presented the EU-Eastern Partnership (EaP)
Culture and Creativity Programme 2015-2018. The Programme, which was managed by a consortium
led by the British Council together with Soros Foundation Moldova, The National Institute for
Culture, Poland and Goethe Institut, was a 36-month intervention to support the role of culture and
creativity in the social and economic development of EaP countries. The programme supported the
objective by strengthening the sector as a vector of cultural, social and economic development,
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4. CReW Project
creating synergies between public and private actors, enhancing civil society’s contribution to cultural
policy, and strengthening EaP institutions to partner in international initiatives including Creative
Europe.
After offering an overview of the history of cooperation between EU institutions and EUNIC for the
implementation of the EU strategic approach to international cultural relations, Robert Kieft (project
Manager EUNIC Global) entertained participants with insight into “European Houses of Culture”, a
two-year project to be implemented by EUNIC. The term “Houses” stands for collaboration models
and practices that create safe spaces, whether physical or digital, permanent or temporary, for cultural
exchange beyond the arts, co-creation and people-to-people contacts. The objectives of the project
are mainly three: to test new models of collaboration between EU (e.g. EU Delegations), EU member
states (e.g. EUNIC members), and local stakeholders; to assist in designing and implementing
innovative projects on the ground; to help deliver the EU approach to international cultural relations,
complementary to Member States’ strategies. The project has already launched a call for ideas that
will lead to the implementation of several pilot projects in 2020.
Finally, Yevgeniy Zakharov, Executive Director of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group
(Ukraine) shared his decade-long experience in the field of Human Rights protection and its fruitful
links with the practice of intercultural dialogue, especially within Ukraine. Indeed, the KHPG, which
has been traditionally engaged in providing legal assistance in cases of human rights violations,
monitoring the human rights situation in Ukraine and developing human rights education, has also
invested in networking and awareness raising activities.
Session 2. Fostering peace-building through inter-cultural dialogue: Youth and
cultural rights
The second session was devoted to the analysis of three key experiences in the field of intercultural
dialogue for social cohesion and to the theoretical implications of the role of tolerance in such
practice.
Eleonora Insalaco (Head of Intercultural Research and Programming, Anna Lindh Foundation)
described Young Mediterranean Voices (YMV), the Euro-Mediterranean region’s flag-ship debate
programme aimed at empowering young people to enhance a culture of dialogue, to contribute to
public policy, shape media discourses, and create a shared understanding with peers, civil society,
education institutions and policy-makers across Europe and the Neighbourhood South on how to
address issues of common concern to their communities. The rationale behind YMV is not only to
provide capacity building to Arab youth but also to connect young people from the two shores of the
Mediterranean.
Hanna Dede shared her experience as programme director of Spaces of Culture. Launched in 2017, the
programme promotes cultural collaborations between Turkish and European entities to create
networking opportunities and strengthen cultural actors through training activities; it also provides
consultancy and distributes funds to empower cultural actors and aims to increase their visibility
within the local cultural scene and their sustainability within broader national and international
networks. The project was initiated by Goethe-Institut, the Consulate General of Sweden in Istanbul,
the Embassy of the Netherlands and the Institut français de Turquie, in cooperation with Anadolu
Kültür and Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV).
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5. CReW Project
Melanie Bono addressed the role of Residencies as a sustainable model for international mobility of
cultural actors, with a focus on previous and current experiences of Goethe Institut. After having
recalled the history of artist residencies, Melanie presented the artist-in-residence programme offered
by Goethe Institut, which is informed by a number of principles to ensure adequate quality standards
including selection, assistance, and follow-up.
Finally, Helen Wilson from Durham University dealt with the role of tolerance in intercultural
dialogue. Sharing her research experience on cultural dialogue, Helen led participants through the
concept of tolerance, its mis(interpretation) and its role. According to her, tolerance is a key
requirement for dialogue, but it is not a goal per se. Tolerance creates a space for exchange, it is a
fundamental basis to dialogue in which incompatible actors have an opportunity to listen and hear.
Tolerance opens a space for action when it is seen as a tool.
Session 3. Roundtable
Ms. Jasna Jelisić, Head of Western Balkans Task Force - Strategic Communications Division - European External
Action Service: Connecting by culture in the Western Balkans – our present and our future
The third session consisted of a roundtable on the role of Intercultural dialogue in the EU
programming cycle and ways it contributes to the successful implementation of the EU Strategy for
International Cultural Relations.
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6. CReW Project
Jasna Jelisić (Head of Western Balkans Task Force - Strategic Communications Division - European
External Action Service) explored the role of culture in the strengthening of EEAS action, with special
attention to the activities of her Task Force in Western Balkans. Despite the successes that have been
achieved so far, Jasna advocated for increased promotion of cultural relations in the area. This would
provide a real opportunity to promote intercultural dialogue but also to improve the EU’s image and
visibility.
Eleonora Insalaco resumed the conversation on the activities of the Anna Lindh Foundation by
introducing the format and the results of the Foundation’s research programme on intercultural trends
between the people of North and South of the Mediterranean. The research programme is based on a
public opinion poll in both European countries and Southern and Eastern Mediterranean (SEM)
countries. Among the many issues driving the study, the survey investigated what is the view people
have of the Mediterranean region, the level of interest that people have towards news and information
about the other shore of the Mediterranean, their attitudes towards multiculturalism, or the view of
people on the priority areas of action.
Last but not least, Gitte Zschoch (Director EUNIC Global) and Lina Kirjazovaite (EUNIC
Members and Programme Manager ) recalled the milestones and history of introducing culture as a
part of EU external relations, offered a detailed description of the last steps undertaken by EU
institutions to provide a framework for action for the EU strategic approach to international cultural
relations and explained next steps regarding the process of implementation.
Recommendations and Tools for a meaningful and sustainable
practice of Intercultural Dialogue in EU International Cultural
Relations
EU Visibility
• Be mindful about overemphasis on EU brand and on the role of Member States in strategic
communication. There is a risk of getting pulled in governmental “propaganda”, at least in the
perspective of arm’s length cultural relations organization. To improve image branding and quality
of content for optimum communication, the EU and other inter-governmental institutions
working in the field of international cultural relations (e.g. Anna Lindh Foundation) should have a
greater management role, in order not to be perceived only as donors but also as partners.
Management should also be shared with local partners to strengthen empowerment and mutual
engagement. EU delegations must play a greater role.
• There should be a strategic focus on visibility but in terms of shaping a more coherent narrative
(e.g. engage social media campaigners, influencers, and journalists), not in making the “EU brand”
more visible
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7. CReW Project
Reaching impact
• We recommend working more on target groups in order to reach those who do not believe in
dialogue
• Reaching and connecting the “converted” is good, for there is a need to build a stronger sense of
community. In this regard, it is recommended to work with hubs and influencers for the
promotion of intercultural relations to exploit the multiplier effect
• It is necessary to be more creative also in the way we promote intercultural dialogue within and
outside the EU. For example, ring-fencing cultural activities in Western Balkans can be
counterproductive
• Invest more in initiatives targeting public spaces to involve the general public more effectively
• Mobility and cultural exchange of professionals are great, but the risk is to be too elitist, non-
professional should also be included in mobility programmes
• Invest more on long-lasting networks
Process optimization
• Concerning selection of projects and allocation of funding, it is strongly recommended to simplify
the process and streamline bureaucracy to facilitate the engagement of smaller organisations. In
this regard, trust and risk measures should be included in the Evaluation and Monitoring criteria
and it is necessary to invest more on creative and flexible small grants.
• The selection criteria following grant application should give less relevance to the likelihood of
success and the solidity of expected outcomes and more relevance to innovation and
experimentation. In other words, beneficiaries should be “allowed to fail”.
• It is recommended to review the constraining role of matching funding in third countries, which is
often an obstacle for local partners.
• A shared structure for funds is needed. It Is recommended to work on a specific funding
instrument for International Cultural Relations. An independent line of funding for long-term
projects is needed.
• It is suggested to invest more in network opportunities between the different levels of EU’s
international cultural relations. This would improve communication, for cultural operators ask for
more direct interactions with the other stakeholders involved
Participatory governance and management
• Intercultural dialogue should be based on mutuality and co-production. EU institutions should
not engage with a pre-determined notion of culture but should be open to discuss it with partner
countries; moreover, policy-makers should not fear to address sensitive topics, including human
rights issues (e.g. cultural rights)
• It is necessary to avoid conditionality and promote bottom-up approaches and ethical
partnerships, by: consulting all stakeholders to promote collaboration based on priority needs;
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8. CReW Project
involving partner countries in governance; engaging local institutions to address needs and
implement structural change; involving local cultural operators in decision-making and
management.
• Cooperation for intercultural dialogue should rest on some basic principles. The EU should:
implement funding mechanisms with transparent eligibility criteria and outcomes-based approach
and should facilitate Member States’ funders to take a joined-up approach; promote a broad and
inclusive definition of culture and its value to communities; favour decision making informed by
appropriate expertise, best practice and awareness of complementary initiatives.
• Taking over from the Joint Communication and the Administrative Arrangement and in
accordance with the conclusions of previous CReW seminars, we reiterate our recommendation
that the work of EUNIC should be maximized. The Network is endowed with expertise in
working in third countries with local stakeholders and is a leading facilitator of cooperation
between EU Member States. EUNIC members, especially national cultural institutes, have long-
standing partnership in many third countries and EUNIC itself is already working with EU
delegations.
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