The SDG Global Festival of Action (2-4 May 2019 in Bonn, Germany) is a ground-breaking event powered by the UN SDG Action Campaign. The Festival is crowdsourced, designed BY the SDG Action community FOR the SDG Action Community. The Festival’s overall aim is to gather and inspire SDGs campaigners and multi-stakeholder partners to scale up and broaden the global movement to take action for the SDGs.

Taking place in Bonn every year, the Festival provides a dynamic and interactive space to showcase the latest innovations, tools and approaches to SDG advocacy and SDG action. It brings together leaders from governments, local authorities, international organizations, civil society, activists, young advocates, the creative industry and the private sector– to scale up the impact of their work and strategize joint actions, whilst motivating new organizations and individuals to join the movement and take action for the SDGs.

The Committee on Culture of UCLG will take part into this important event in a session entitled "Cultural Action to Achieve the SDGs: Cities Engage!", together with the cities of Lyon, and Malmö, and the Head of the Division of Culture of the German Commission for UNESCO.

Session Cultural Action to Achieve the SDGs: Cities Engage!
Friday 3 May 2019 - 1.30-3.00 PM
World Conference Center - Bonn, Germany
Rhine Lobby

Check out the online programme to know more!

The UN Special Rapporteur in the field of Cultural Rights current mandate holder, Karima Bennoune, will address the topic of “Cultural rights and public spaces” and is now consulting a wide range of stakeholders, including cities, local governments, States, United Nations agencies, academics and experts, artists, scientists, cultural workers and practitioners, as well as civil society organizations in this regard.

Should you wish to contribute directly or to disseminate the message in your circles, please find below the call for contributions.

 

 

Link

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Call for contributions on "Cultural Rights and Public Spaces"

UN Special Rapporteur in the field of Cultural Rights

Freemuse’s new report The State of Artistic Freedom 2019: Whose Narratives Count?  is an in-depth analysis of 673 cases of violations of artistic freedom that occurred in different cultural spheres in 80 countries throughout 2018. It identifies key challenges for artists’ freedom of expression and points out violation patterns and trends. Additionally, the report calls for accountability for these violations.

The report illuminates counter-terrorism legislation as a troubling and growing method of violating freedom of artistic expression. In 2018, 19 artist were imprisoned and 10 were detained under the guise of counter-terrorism. Freemuse’s research concludes that nine countries (Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Nicaragua, Russia, Spain, Turkey and the United States) are found to have used anti-terrorism and anti-extremism legislation and measures against artists in 2018.

Check also this video of the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of Cultural Rights, Karima Bennoune, on Freemuse's report on the State of Artistic Freedom (SAF) 2019.

The first International Children’s Culture Forum in Finland will take place in the city of Tampere in fall 2019. The forum’s aims are to widen international co-operation and to deepen the shared understanding of the value base of children’s rights and their role in a well-functioning society. In this context, a call for presentations has been open and will end on 28th April 2019.

The call will welcome innovative examples of policies, practices and research on children’s arts and culture, and will be looking for presentations or short workshops that describe or analyse at least one of the conference themes. Presentations can focus on policy, practice or research.

See the call here, and submit a abstract here.

On 4 October 2019 in Dijon, France, academics, researchers and practitioners from Europe and beyond will present their latest work during this session, organised in the framework of the 2019 ENCATC Congress on Cultural Management and Policy "Diversity and sustainability at work. Policies and practices from culture and education” (2-5 October). This gathering of the international education and research community will provide a unique interdisciplinary environment to get the latest world-class research conducted on cultural management and policy.

in this context, ENCATC launched an open call for submissions -abstracts, posters and teaching demonstrations-, which will be open until 25 May 2019.

The Cultural Cities Enquiry has published its final report.

The Cultural Cities Enquiry came together in March 2018 to develop a new model to help culture flourish in cities in the context of diminishing public funding in UK. The Enquiry outlines how UK cities can make greater use of cultural assets to promote thriving communities and to compete successfully for talent, tourism and investment – while developing new income streams that will support culture for the long term. It also emphasise the role of culture in attracting people to cities as places they want to work, live, and play.

The report demonstrates how business and cultural sectors can work together to plan and support local growth through culture, based on their shared interests in promoting creative and digital innovation, capturing external investment and attracting and nurturing talent.

The community and participatory arts worker François Matarasso just published a new book entitled 'A Restless Art. How participation won, and why it matters'. 

A Restless Art is about community and participatory art. It's about what those practices are, how people think about them, why they're done and what happens as a result. It's called 'A Restless Art' because this work is unstable, changing and contested. It involves a range of ideas and practices. It crackles with artistic, political, ethical and philosophical tensions that give participatory art life, energy and creativity. They are what make it matter in people's lives.

The book is freely available online.

More info about the book here.
More info about the author here.

On next 11-14 March 2019, the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA) will organize its 8th World Summit on Culture & Arts, entitled "Mobile Minds: Culture, Knowledge and Change", in Kuela Lumpur, Malaysia.

This Summit will bring together leading policy makers, researchers, managers and practitioners from the arts and culture sector from around the world to address these issues and examine how governments, cultural organisations, creative practitioners, and citizen can - and do - work together to actively lead change.

See official website of the 8th IFACCA World Summit on Culture & Arts.