An International Forum
Cultural Diplomacy and Culture in a Changing World
A text report of this event will be available in October 09
Video:
Tape 1 | Tape 2 | Tape 3
Thursday 18 June - 2pm-6.30pm at the Romanian Cultural Centre (Ratiu Foundation), 18 Fitzhardinge Street, Manchester Square, London W1H 6EQ
The concept of ‘soft’ power has shaped a lot of international political and diplomatic thinking in recent years. It has heightened interest in the principles and practice of public diplomacy and cultural diplomacy. The purpose of this international forum is to re-examine cultural diplomacy and in particular the place of culture in international relations. Taking account of some current thinking on cultural diplomacy and current examples, the intention is to look forward to possible future developments and trends and who is likely to be shaping them.
What is cultural diplomacy? How are the wider, connective and human values of culture being used to negotiate and recalibrate international relationships in a fast-changing and sometimes dangerous world? How can culture be used to explore differences and appreciate commonalities at an international level without being turned into a tool of public diplomacy and potentially of national propaganda? Who sets the cultural diplomacy challenges and agendas and who are the players? To what extent is people-to-people communication across borders and the sharing of knowledge and information changing? Will new social networking tools and evolving social media technology present an opportunity or challenge to the future course of cultural and public diplomacy?
2:00 Welcome & Introduction Gerald Lidstone
2:05 John Holden
Culture is a central component of international relations.
It’s time to unlock its full potential
Terry Sandell
A response
2:50 Audience response
3:15 Short break
3:25 Martin Fryer
The campaign approach to foreign policy:
the role public and cultural diplomacy can play
Ladislav Pflimpfl
Virtual Public Diplomacy: a Tempting Idea
4:00 Audience response
4:30 Helena Drobná
How are those engaged in Public and Cultural Diplomacy
trained for the role?
4:45 Audience response
5:00 Finish to be followed by a reception
The Forum is being supported by the UNESCO Commission of the Slovak Republic, European Network of Cultural Administration Training Centres ENCATC. The British Centre of the International Theatre Institute and Goldsmiths, University of London and we would like to thank the Romanian Cultural Centre (www.romanianculturalcentre.org.uk) for its partnership in hosting the event.
Speakers
John Holden is an Associate at the independent think-tank Demos, where he was Head of Culture for 8 years, and a visiting Professor at City University. A former investment banker with Masters Degrees in law and in art history, John’s interests are in the development of people and organisations in the cultural sector. He has been involved in numerous major projects with the cultural sector ranging across heritage, libraries, music, museums, the performing arts, and the moving image. He has addressed issues of learning, leadership, education, the creative industries, cultural policy and evaluation working with organisations such as DCMS, ACE, HLF, MLA, Creative Partnerships, the Reading Agency and Screen England, as well as individual organisations including Glasgow School of Art, the Sage Gateshead, the British Museum, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. John was a principal organiser of the influential Valuing Culture conference in June 2003, and is the author of works including Publicly Funded Culture and the Creative Industries, Democratic Culture, Culture and Learning: towards a new agenda, Capturing Cultural Value, Cultural Value and the Crisis of Legitimacy, Culture Online, Challenge and Change, and Creative Reading. He has given many keynote speeches in the UK, Europe, the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. John is a member of the Strategy Board of the Clore Leadership Programme, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a member of the Advisory Board of Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Terry Sandell’s career has included being a volunteer in Africa, a diplomat in Moscow, director of an international arts promotion agency and various British Council posts. He set up British Council in the Soviet Union, opening up offices in the Baltic countries, Belarus and Ukraine as well as in Moscow, and became its first director. With the Soviet collapse he became the first director of the British Council for the Russian Federation. For ten years he was Director of Visiting Arts, an organisation promoting international cultural relations through the arts and he has had extensive involvement with the Council of Europe, including working with the governments of six countries leading national cultural policy reviews (Russian Federation, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Romania and Ukraine). British Council roles have also included being Director in Austria and more recently in Ukraine. He was educated at Nottingham, Edinburgh and City Universities, including an MA with distinction in cultural policy and management from the latter. He has been trustee of several arts and cultural organisations. Awards include an OBE and a recent honorary doctorate from the Ukrainian Academy of Pedagogical Sciences. He is currently Special Adviser (Arts) at British Council in London.
Martin Fryer: current post, Strategic Campaigns and Partnerships Consultant at the Communications Directorate of the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). Currently working on a campaign to address the poor public perceptions and reputation of the UK in the Middle East and North Africa. On secondment to the FCO from the British Council. Previous experience: Director, British Council, Buenos Aires 2004 - 2008 Director, British Council, Barcelona 2001 - 2004 Head of British Council's UK Visits Department 1999 - 2001 Director, British Council, Istanbul 1993 – 1999. Has also worked for the British Council in Sao Paulo.
Ladislav Pflimpfl serves as Director of the Czech Centre in London and is actively involved in the work of EUNIC London as its Vice-President. Previously, he was in charge of operations and programming for the Czech Centre's international network. From 2002-2005, Ladislav was involved in organizing a series of seminars aiming to establish some of the first regional and international cultural networks in Central Asia. Mr. Pfimpfl earned a MA in Management from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and is currently working towards a PhD in International Relations at Charles University, Prague.
Helena Drobná is a cultural specialist at UNESCO’s Division of Cultural Policies and Intercultural Dialogue in Paris. Her work on culture and development issues in Africa, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe and the Caucasus has also included the development of UNESCO’s program on capacity building and training in cultural policies and management. A graduate of the University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovakia, she studied cultural management at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria, and served as manager and consultant for Central and Eastern European cultural development projects in Vienna, Bratislava and Paris. She joined UNESCO in 2000, and is currently on leave, undertaking a PhD research in cultural diplomacy training at the Institute of Cultural Management and Cultural Studies (IKM) at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria.
Gerald Lidstone BA MA ATC Dr.h.c FRGS is the Deputy Head of the Drama Department and founder of the postgraduate MA Arts Administration and Cultural Policy and MA in Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship programmes at Goldsmiths University of London. He originally trained as a theatre designer and has managed and toured productions extensively in Eastern Europe and the USA. For the British Council and other agencies he has also taught Arts Management training courses including Arts Marketing, Arts Education, Fundraising, Copyright and Strategic Planning in over 20 countries. He was also the director of a four-year British Know-How Fund (Foreign Office) project establishing Arts Management education in Slovakia. An outcome of this project was the publication of the first book on arts management in Slovak and in 2005 and subsequently the Closer to the Museum Project www.blizsiekmuzeu.sk . He has been working for the last twelve years on behalf of The Ministry of Culture and Information in Viet Nam establishing Arts Management education in Hanoi University of Culture, funded by the Ford Foundation. He is co-author of a needs evaluation of Arts Management in Vietnam and Curriculum Development in the Management of Arts and Culture in Viet Nam in a Market Economy Context he has also contributed a chapter on the evaluation of arts education projects to the ippr 2004 publication For Art’s Sake? Society and the Arts in the 21st Century. He has undertaken an evaluation of the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts [NESTA], Graduate Pioneer Programme and has written a report on Cultural Management training needs for the city of Odessa for the British Council and is currently part of the UNESCO group working on ‘Towards a New Cultural Policy Profile’ . He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, on the board of Sadler’s Wells, Greenwich and Makebelieve Theatres and is an Arts Council England Advocate for the Powerbrokers Leadership initiative, he has been awarded honorary doctorates by Vysoka Skola Muzickych Umeni v Bratislave in Slovakia, 2004 and by Hanoi University of Culture in 2009. In 2007 he co-founded the UK Cultural Policy and Management Network.