The report serves as a tool for self-reflection, encouraging the cultural sector to rethink its identity and strategy. CAE aims to spark dialogue through live and online platforms, helping stakeholders clarify advocacy goals and shape a new vision for culture in Europe and beyond.
Elena Polivtseva, Culture Policy Room, who recently spoke at the 2024 NEMO European Museum Conference 'Can we talk? Museums facing polarisation' has authored the report.
- Access the full report
- Read a summary
- Join the webinar series
Key messages of State of Culture
- The value of culture lies in its autonomy. Valuing culture solely through external needs and goals can only be a survival tactic, not a sustainable strategy.
- It is high time to assert and protect the value of human creativity against content produced by AI. Recognising human creativity means acknowledging that diverse, pluralistic and free human expression is essential for shaping our collective future and advancing as a society.
- Culture is not only about products; it is equally about processes. While owning a piece of art or consuming a cultural product holds value, it does not surpass the worth of the process and the value of being involved in it.
- Valuing culture means reaffirming our commitment to collective futures rather than succumbing to alienation and individualism. Culture is about embodying what it means to be a society – a collective with a voice and power – rather than just a group of individual voters or consumers.
- The value of culture today lies in its diversity. The plurality of culture lends it legitimacy as a genuine social good, and without this plurality it risks becoming the source of further polarisation of society or a political tool.
- Culture begins with the people who create it. Specific protections for creative workers are needed, not only to ensure their rights are on a par with other workers but also to highlight the unique value their work brings to society.
- Valuing culture means daring to believe in a better short- and long-term future. Not only does culture strengthen our imaginative capacities but its impact also unfolds over long periods. Long-term thinking fosters solidarity and helps us move beyond self-centred, short-term impulses.
- Democracy can be seen as too complex for a world under the stress of numerous crises, with its true value only evident in the long term. Similarly, culture, with its unpredictable nature and long-term impacts, struggles to be valued during crises. The valuing of democracy and culture shares common principles, and each can mutually reinforce the other.
