(text from the website of the European Network of Cultural Centres)
How can cultural organisation struggling for resources, time and energy join forces with other similar organisations?
How can policymakers create conditions to support this type of cooperation at the local level? What about the crazy way many small cultural organisations seem to operate? Is it creative chaos, dysfunction, or something else altogether?
Download the publication as a PDF
With this new, in-depth publication, we hope to bring new insights and ways of thinking to the conversation about local cultural and socio-cultural work, including pointers for rethinking our work in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis.
A few key points:
- What do we mean by socially connected culture?
- What are the 3 most common ways of talking about local networks?
- How do we define local networks (hints: ‘organised anarchy’ and ‘meta-organisations’)?
- What are the limits of building a local network just for pragmatic reasons (audience development/pooling resources)?
- What are the triggers of change for local networks (hints: institutionalisation is one)?
Written by Raluca Iacob as part of the ENCC Hubs to Nodes research project (2018-2021), the guide offers tools for thinking rather than step-by-step advice. It scrutinises the way cultural organisations work and opens perspectives that are anchored in research and existing theory rather than in common wisdom and hopeful thinking.
The publication also offers a treasure box of case studies of local cultural networks across Europe, from ENCC membership and beyond.
In 2018, the European Network of Cultural Centres (ENCC) hosted a flagship kick-off seminar in Pristina, Kosovo, dedicated to building local networks. This training, was part of the BECC (Building European Cultural Centres) staff exchange and development program, bringing together young cultural workers from across Europe. Raluca Iacob was one of the key trainers to the training.
In 2022, a new publication looked at how did the local networks of cultural organisations react to the changes our societies experienced during and beyond the pandemic. Download the full article here