It’s a wrap: what we’ve learned from GCRP 2022

From May 10th to 13th, the Cultural Relations Platform (CRP) brought together 38 cultural innovators and changemakers from 38 countries to collaborate, share skills and ideas, and develop their international networks through the Global Cultural Relations Programme 2022 (Flagship training of the CRP). It was an inspiring and energizing experience for the participants, as well as for the Cultural Relations Platform team. Here are some of the things we took away from the programme:

The Big Themes of International Cultural Relations (ICR): 

For the past two decades, regional, European and global institutional frameworks and instruments  have emerged  in the field of International Cultural Relations. The outcome? A renewed and expanded agenda, which began to incorporate the notion of transversality of culture and as well as cultural diversity and interculturality, plurinationality, intercultural dialogue, gender rights, social justice, and community practices, etc.. All participants agreed that willingness to learn, genuine cultural exchange and effective collaboration are essential in this process.

Let’s talk about equity: 

The participants could listen and interact with three panelists (Serhan Ada, Annika Hampel and Anupama Sekhar) who we brought virtually for a hybrid discussion about “Equity in International Cultural Relations”. What is the landscape of International Cultural Relations? How do our collaborations impact this landscape? Topics such as transnational travel, cultural mobility, cultural policies and management, as well as the role of culture for sustainable prosperity and social transformation were addressed.

Go local. A visit to Istanbul’s cultural operators:

Our participants visited one of Istanbul’s independent cultural spaces (Depo, AVTO, IKSV, KOLI and SAHA) that work in the field of visual arts, publishing, film and music. The cultural operators provided them with alternative insights for artistic and cultural production, as well as gave them an overview of Istanbul’s art scene related to critical thinking, creative research and inter-cultural dialogue.

This isn’t the end!

This isn’t the end of the journey for the GCRP 2022 participants: all of them will have the opportunity to join our group of GCRP alumni from around the world to further exchange, collaborate and share ideas. We closely interact and collaborate with our alumni, and give them the opportunity to connect with the European Union institutions, European networks and Platforms as well as key stakeholders and engage with its diverse representatives and programmes worldwide. Find out more about what our alumni have achieved so far.