This seminar, organized by the Arts & Humanities Research Council UK funded network Brokering Intercultural Exchange (www.managingculture.net), will explore how historical, institutional and social assumptions and traditions of arts and cultural management are exchanged and reproduced through the intercultural exchanges that take place in arts and cultural management practice.
We are looking for papers and provocations that consider the following questions:
- How do cultural norms, traditions and assumptions travel as a result of the international mobility of arts and cultural managers/cultural policy or the digitalization of practice?
- What agency do arts and cultural managers have in shaping intercultural understanding?
- What is the role of arts managers in times of political unrest/rising populism?
- How are arts and cultural management practice reinforcing or challenging cultural stereotypes?
- How do working practices in arts and cultural management come to be institutionalized on international scales?
- How might or are intercultural/international exchange activities challenging/reinforcing traditional and dominant practices, hierarchies, and assumptions in arts and cultural management?
- How are intercultural exchange activities in arts and cultural management employing or challenging cultural power, position, privilege and patronage?
- What collective identities emerge from intercultural exchange in arts and cultural management practice?
- What kind of new artistic / cultural formats might/do/should emerge from an arts and cultural management that takes intercultural challenges and opportunities into account?
We welcome different presentation formats, which may include the following:
- Traditional style presentations, 15 minutes maximum
- Group panel sessions, in which researchers and practitioners may come together to discuss a particular issue relevant to the seminar, 30 minutes maximum
- A presentation / provocation which facilitates an open forum discussion with seminar attendees, 30 minutes maximum (including presentation / provocation and facilitation time)
- An artistic presentation
Context: We define the field of arts and cultural management as incorporating the institutions, organisations, groups, and individuals who coordinate and lead the protection, marketing, mediation, and financial organisation of creative and aesthetic expressions; namely the fine and performing arts and heritage, rather than popular or commercial and broadcast arts.
This seminar is part of a series of seminars and the building of a network of researchers, policymakers, and arts and cultural management practitioners who are interested in developing greater critical discourse on the contribution of arts and cultural management to intercultural understanding. We wish that, together, we can reflect on the historical, institutional and social dimensions of intercultural activities that take place within the realms of arts and cultural management practice and education. These include:
- International project activities between individuals working in different countries;
- Inter- and cross-cultural interactions that occur in arts and cultural programmes among majority and minority cultures within a single country; and
- Teaching and learning within arts and cultural management courses, particularly in higher education
Intercultural understanding refers to the ability to know, accept, value and empathise with alternative perspectives and perceptions of the world. In their work with creative and aesthetic expressions, which are inherently reflective of cultural ideas, knowledge and values, arts and cultural managers (educators and practitioners) have a critical role directing, administering and mediating intercultural understanding. Yet, very little is understood about the historical, institutional and social dimensions of this process.
The seminar will be a small group of approximately 20 - 30 people attending who are keen to investigate these ideas through presentations and discussion. We welcome paper proposals from:
- arts and cultural managers
- educators and students
- artists
- policymakers
- researchers / academics
Contributions in English should relate to unpublished projects which are recently concluded, or still in progress.
Please submit the following for consideration:
- An abstract or summary of your proposed topic. No more than 500 words. Within this, please indicate the format / style of your presentation and any relevant notes regarding how you or your team plans to present / facilitate discussion. Please provide a list of a few key readings/references.
- A biographical statement of approximately 100 words for each individual involved
Review criteria are: the originality of the proposal, the methodical approach as well as the application of the presentation to the aims of the seminar.
The conference committee will make the final decision regarding selection and categorization. We are looking forward to your contributions!
The deadline for submission ends on August 26, 2017.
Speakers will be notified by the beginning of September, 2017. We are unfortunately unable to provide any travel expenses and subsistence.
Please submit to: raphaela.henze@hs‐heilbronn.de
Conference chaired by: Prof. Dr. Raphaela Henze, Heilbronn University
Conference committee: Prof. Dr. Raphaela Henze, Heilbronn University; Dr. Carla Figueira, Goldsmiths, University of London; Dr. Victoria Durrer, Queen’s University Belfast.