Meeting in Amsterdam on 14 December 2012
All ERICarts Associates took part in a strategy debate of the Board of Governors, held at the Boekman Foundation in Amsterdam.
In the picture from left to right: Vesna Čopič (ECURES e.V.); Olivier Goebel (ERICarts Secretariat); Ritva Mitchell, President of the BoG (CUPORE); 
Ineke van Hamersveld (Boekmanstichting); Rui Gomes (Observatorio das Actividades Culturais); Andreas Joh. Wiesand (Executive Director); Susanne Keuchel (Zentrum für Kulturforschung).
The Board discussed problematic issues (e.g. current tenders of the EU or institutional partnerships with universities), highlighted the Council of Europe/ERICarts Compendium as a "flagship project", and advocated new initiatives prepared by the Secretariat (e.g. the "Helsinki Participation Research Process" or the "ABC Directory") as well as an increased collaboration to assist projects of the Associates with regard to their potential "European dimension".
Over the past decade, the ERICarts Institute has frequently been involved in conferences, workshops and hearings addressing perspectives of the "Creative Sector" (now often - and irritatingly - being labelled as "Cultural and Creative Industries"). More recently, ERICarts Executive Director Andreas Wiesand was asked by the ALDE Group (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) to speak about this topic in Brussels at the Committee of Regions during the 9th "European
Week of Regions and Cities" (11. October 2011), as well as by Fondazione Rosselli and the S&D Group (Socialists & Democrats) at a joint conference held in the European Parliament (22. November 2011) and by the EU-China Trade Project at a Workshop on CI development and the UNESCO Convention in Hefei/China (26/27 April 2012). His November presentation in Brussels can be downloaded here.
For Wiesand, this was not really a new issue: His first encounters with the subject date back to 1972, when he and Karla Fohrbeck published the "Authors' Report" (Der Autorenreport); together with Michael Söndermann, he was also the main editor of the "1st Culture Industries Report" in Germany, 20 years ago (download English Summary). This could explain why he now tries to damp down a bit the current high-flying expectations of politicians or consultants on both the European and national levels, some of which see the creative industries as a kind of magic bullet in strategies to counteract the economic crisis and to raise employment. His advice in Brussels: "Beware of unrealistic growth fantasies!"
Of course, there are stil a few "islands" in Europe where such CI growth - even as regards regular employment - can be registered, despite the general economic downturn since 2009. One of these examples appears to be Germany, but Wiesand warns against overgeneralisations, since the conditions in Germany are quite exceptional, at present: A robust economy with the largest consumer market in Europe, fuelled by rising salaries and export revenues. In his view, CI development efforts should start on a local or regional level, since this will better reflect specific strengths or traditional profiles and will, at the same time, help to secure what is crucial for European societies and economies: cultural diversity.
As a preparation for the 4th IFACCA World Summit on Arts and Culture in Johannesburg, the ERICarts Institute contributed the survey Achieving Intercultural Dialogue through the Arts and Culture? Concepts, Policies, Programmes, Practices. The report mapped views from all parts of the world and collected cases of good practice on the (potential) role of intercultural dialogue in arts policies.
More recently, ERICarts Executive Director Andreas Wiesand advised the UN Alliance of Civilisations during the preparation and evaluation of its Global Forum in Doha: Intercultural Dialogue to Boost Development.
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