Access Europe

ACCESS EUROPE (AE)

Access Europa was launched as part of Intercult's activities in 2012 to raise awareness of international cooperation for the cultural sector and put international cultural policy on the agenda. It is a platform that offers business intelligence, networking, skills development and exchange of experience for international projects. Our ambition is to be a hub for cultural workers with an interest in international issues and cooperation. The platform's approximately 50 supporting members come from the region, municipalities, cultural organizations and about half are cultural entrepreneurs. The audience for the platform's activities reaches at least 3,000 recipients with Stockholm as the local area and fixed base for the outreach activities.

Culture as a leader in societal development

At Intercult, we believe that culture is a catalyst for creativity and growth and we are convinced that AE's activities can inspire people to come together. Conversations about politics, culture and art can serve as a tool to stimulate reflection, debate and discussion on complex or abstract concepts. Our projects aim to demonstrate the importance of international awareness in the cultural sector. We believe that the cultural and creative sector can play a leading role in creating social cohesion and sustainability. Therefore, in order to reach a wide audience, it is of utmost importance for us to have long-term partnerships with regional and local organizations and actors and not only focus on big cities.

Contents

We produce knowledge and content that can be used at local, national and European level. This includes panel discussions, lectures and practical workshops on topics relevant to our members. We also continuously update our Facebook group with analysis of what is happening globally in the cultural policy arena. In this way, we offer the opportunity to be informed and engaged in activities related to the cultural sector and international issues. The platform also gives its supporting members the opportunity to be more active in European contexts and to create more successful projects through applications to the EU's cultural programmes and other European and international forms of support. On the issue of international cultural initiatives, what is happening at a European level is of the greatest interest to Swedish actors. It is not possible to separate national cultural policy from the international arena and Swedish cultural policy initiatives need to be understood from a global perspective. We also have a reference group consisting of experienced cultural workers where we continuously discuss how AE can be updated to be relevant to its target audience.

Culture 3.0

In his book Art, Participation, Development (2013), Pier Luigi Sacco describes how we now live in culture 3.0, which is characterized by the dissolution of the relationship between consumer and producer. The audience has become the practitioner and culture has come to permeate all possible areas of society. The categories that previously characterized the cultural world and our understanding of culture have loosened, and this affects public spaces. If culture 2.0 was characterized primarily by mass culture, 3.0 is a reaction to the emergence of new subcultures interested in individual expression, thus changing the traditional division between visitor and actor. AE's activities are inspired by these ideas by encouraging members to co-create content, for example by participating in panel discussions or suggesting themes.

Audience development

Gender equality, diversity, democracy and intercultural perspectives have been a fundamental driving force since the start of our activities. It is important for us to ensure a geographical spread of our programs to make the content relevant to a wide audience. We therefore work actively on audience development to ensure that we reach out to different groups. Audience development is based on creating a relationship between the producer and the consumer of cultural and creative activities. For us, it is about having a cross-sectoral focus within the cultural sector where, for example, artists, cultural administrators, producers, independent groups and institutions feel welcome. Another important aspect for AE is how we can experiment with the idea of what content to offer to our members so that we don't get stuck in predictable patterns.

Link to the host organization Intercult

AE's activities complement the more general EU information activities of Europe Direct Intercult. AE allows us to focus on narrower issues and invite people with expertise in the field of culture and international affairs. AE's activities relate to Swedish and European cultural policy and focus on areas such as democracy and equality. Our ambition is to work to make the cultural sector in Sweden aware of the importance of working internationally and engaging in democratic issues.