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. Myfocus is much more on the idea of “intercultural co-operation”, forexample, dialogue between the different communities within the EU,such as between the native population and the migrants of memberstates. Migration and cultural foreign policy of the EU is what theECF will be focusing on this year.

Does the ECF have its own agenda for the year ofintercultural dialogue?

At the ECF we have started to look into our grants policies, tolook at to whom we award grants, to assess whether we, as acultural organisation, are fairly reflecting the change incomposition of society, and to think about the sort of things wecould do to establish benchmarks for reflecting society’s newcommunities and their potential in society. We hope that in thenear future we will have a certain percentage of our active supportgeared towards cultural projects coming from the newcommunities.

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

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

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

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

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

I am optimistic about the year of intercultural dialogue becausetoday there is much more awareness of what is missing when it comesto diversity in the not-for-profit sector, and of the opportunitiesthat we have to correct this situation, and of the need to doso.

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