European Cultural Leadership – an international educational program for emerging leaders in the European cultural scene.

Background

Nätverkstan in Göteborg (Sweden) initiated a study in 2009 to learn more about Swedish cultural leadership. The findings highlighted three areas of deficit for the Swedish cultural sector with regard to leadership: 1. There are few opportunities for the development of cultural leadership 2. It is difficult to recruit competent leaders for cultural organizations 3. Leadership, in constrast to other areas of activity within arts and culture – for example artistic competency – has a relatively low status in organizations. On sharing these results with wider European partnes, we have come to believe this is not only a question for Sweden but that we can identify the same need for building cultural leadership capacity in a changing society around Europe. As a result, the European Cultural Leadership programme was born, a partnership between Nätverkstan, Trans Europe Halles, Olivearte Cultural Agency and ENCATC to develop a course in cultural leadeship that is relevant to the needs and future development of the arts and culture sector in Europe.

Aim and activities

The aim of European Cultural Leadership is to develop an educational program that provides an increase in capacity, skills and knowledge for leaders in the European cultural field. Using three dimensions of cultural leadership – operational, contextual and processual – as a frame or starting point we will prioritise a number of strategic areas and use this as a basis for developing the course in cultural leadership.

Timeframe

Between September 1^st 2014 – August 31^st 2016 the course will be developed through research, partners meetings (both face to face and virtual), consultation with the sector and testing of prototypes before launcing the course in 2017.

Organisation

Nätverkstan will coordinate the project and have a leading role in developing the educational program and two publications connected to the project, while the partners will contribute with their experience, knowledge and competence.