NOS PROCHAINES RENCONTRES

La rencontre des Côtes d'Armor

16-19/09/2010, Saint-Brieuc, Brittany, France

NOS DERNIÈRES RENCONTRES

La rencontre d'Istanbul, 3-6/06/2010 23/02/2010

General meeting of Les Rencontres

& Public debate "Istanbul: an artistic and cultural life on the move"

Istanbul, European Capital of Culture 2010 with Pécs (Hungary) and Essen (Germany), hosted the General meeting of the association, on Friday 4th of June and a public debate on the artistic and cultural life in Istanbul on Saturday 5th of June.

(Photo: Courtesy Istanbul 2010 ECOC Agency)

DIVERS

White Paper 30/06/2009

The White Paper on the cultural policies of local and regional authorities in Europe

Since the autumn of 2004, when we published our «Green Paper on the cultural policies of local and regional authorities in Europe», the European cultural sector has clearly been stimulated by the increasing involvement from local, intermediate and regional authorities in Europe. Furthermore, new perspectives to the acknowledgment of the essential role of culture have been brought by the works of the Commission -especially through the European Agenda for Culture-, those of the European Parliament and the Committee of the Regions, as well as those from artistic or cultural networks and civil society organisations.

In this context, our association, bearing the aspirations and experiences of local and regional elected leaders and professionals in charge of culture, has decided to write out a White Paper which will present reflections and proposals on the field of cultural policies for the next years. This is the reason why since 2007 a certain number of working meetings on the White Paper have been organised in the framework of our conferences (Sibiu, Paris, Luxembourg, Malmö, Liverpool, Mons and Rome) during which the structure of the White Paper was approved, as well as the method for the writing phase.

The "Rencontre de Clichy-la-Garenne" was the meeting focused on the finalisation of the writing stage.

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Best practices 23/04/2007

Culture & Castles

Culture & Castles develops cross-border heritage projects between Germany and the Netherlands in the framework of Interreg initiative.

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Points of view 09/07/2009

The importance of Creativity
Keith Walters, 1st Vice-Chairman of the EDUC Commission, Committee of the Regions, and Member of the Cambridgeshire County Council, UK

"Creativity and innovation, in particular, play an important role in local and regional development. They stimulate trade and industry, the economy and employment in both urban and rural areas and help to curb rural depopulation by providing a livelihood. Europe's creativity potential must be harnessed in a way to support the local economy.
We would like to see more networks that bring together local talents, industry professionals, cultural associations and other stakeholders in our different regions in order to facilitate the exchange of best practice and experiences. It should also help creative talents to find ways to develop companies around the creative results they produce.

In our opinion on the European Year of Creativity and Innovation (2009), we highlighted that Europe's creative potential is the key to meeting the Lisbon objectives and thus to becoming the world's most innovative, knowledge-based economy. Early, pre-school learning and primary education have a particular importance for the development of basic competences. In the European cities and regions and at regional level, culture, creativity and innovation are the key sources of growth, investment and new jobs. The initiative makes an ideal follow-on to the Year of Intercultural Dialogue but we drew attention to the absence of any specific funding for the Year."

Excerpt from his keynote speech at La Rencontre du Lazio, 20 November 2009.

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