Gottfried Wagner

2008 is the European year of intercultural dialogue. What does this mean to you?

The term is such a vague one with a broad range of meanings. My focus is much more on the idea of “intercultural co-operation”, for example, dialogue between the different communities within the EU, such as between the native population and the migrants of member states. Migration and cultural foreign policy of the EU is what the ECF will be focusing on this year.

Does the ECF have its own agenda for the year of intercultural dialogue?

At the ECF we have started to look into our grants policies, to look at to whom we award grants, to assess whether we, as a cultural organisation, are fairly reflecting the change in composition of society, and to think about the sort of things we could do to establish benchmarks for reflecting society’s new communities and their potential in society. We hope that in the near future we will have a certain percentage of our active support geared towards cultural projects coming from the new communities.

How difficult will this task be of integrating the culture of new communities in the EU?

It is clear that there is still a lot of work to be done. Some countries, for example the UK, started initiatives concerning the integration of new communities into society about 15 or 20 years ago; the UK is therefore very much ahead compared with the policies of many other countries when it comes to policies concerning cultural diversity and multiculturalism. Furthermore, the not-for-profit sector on the continent is mostly white, and so exclusive without really meaning to be. If you look, for example, at the level of representation of the new communities on the boards of cultural organisations, it is much worse than in the profit-making cultural industries. The market has had quite a lot of influence when it comes to accessibility, embracing diversity, and so on. We in the not-for-profit sector are still “elitist” to an extent.

Why do you think it is that there is more cultural diversity to be found in the private sector?

Profit-making companies have understood that their clients have changed, not only in terms of consumption and spending, but also in terms of potential and creative capacity. This means that film or TV production, and especially the music industry, has acquired increasingly diverse content; this is different when you look at actors in the not-for-profit sector. For the cultural sector in particular, it will be of great benefit to look at why this is the case, to work out why we have remained so exclusive, and why we don’t yet have strong networks in the new communities.

Do you think that the year of intercultural dialogue can help improve this situation?

I am optimistic about the year of intercultural dialogue because today there is much more awareness of what is missing when it comes to diversity in the not-for-profit sector, and of the opportunities that we have to correct this situation, and of the need to do so.

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