The Compendium community consists of members of the Compendium Association, the Association’s board and the Compendium’s expert authors. This dedicated group of cultural policy experts and Compendium supporters meet once a year during our annual Assembly. In addition to official meetings for both members and experts, we hold an annual conference with an elaborate programme on cultural policy in general, featuring panel discussions and keynote speakers. Every conference revolves around a specific theme related to cultural policy.

International Cultural Policy Conference and the 5th General Assembly of the Compendium Association in Bucharest, Romania
Hosted by The National Institute for Cultural Research and Training

With the title “Culture & Cultural Policies in Times of Crises – Effects, Roles & Transitions” the conference started by culturally framing and conceptualizing three of the main crises affecting us today; the Ukraine war – representing a humanitarian and democratic crisis in Europe, the COVID-19 pandemic – disrupting and transforming social and economic systems around the world, and the climate crises – threatening everyone’s social and environmental future and well-being.

Experts and conference participants continued discussing the roles and means the cultural sector and its policies offer to the mediation of those crises. What role do democracy, cultural education and freedom of artistic expression play in crises management? Finally, members of the Compendium community and guests shared different methods and strategies to enhance change and modification.

Below you can find the following material:

• Conference outcome
• Conference portfolio
• Annual report 2021/2022 of the Compendium Association
• Pictures
• Keynote speech (Milena Dragićević-Šešić)

International Cultural Policy Conference and the 2nd Assembly of the Association in Paris, France
Hosted by the Ministry of Culture

On Wednesday June 5th and Thursday June 6th, more than 50 attendees participated in and took lessons from six main sessions, including those revolving around the conference theme Imagining the Cultural Policy Future.

In her keynote speech on the opening day, Professor Eleonora Belfiore argued that cultural policy models are facing a moral crisis, referring to the systematic exploitation of cultural workers contributing to the publicly funded practice: “This problem might be resolved if we work collaboratively on an activist research agenda in which public cultural institutions and funders should be held accountable in the name of fairness and social justice.”

Below you can find the following material:

• Summary report 

International Cultural Policy Conference and the 1st Assembly of the Association of the Compendium in Rijeka, Croatia
Hosted by Rijeka 2020 with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Media, the City of Rijeka and the Council of Europe

On Tuesday October 9th and Wednesday October 10th, the first Assembly of the Compendium Association took place. The Assembly was opened by Ernst Wagner (ENO) with a keynote speech on challenges faced by arts education in times of globalisation, nationalism and interculturality: “We need to strengthen the relationships between associations from four pillars dealing with arts education: research, policy, advocacy and practice. What we understand arts education to be, depends largely on our cultural, but also our linguistic backgrounds. We need a glossary that will help us be more effective and productive, in working together on arts education.”

Below you can find the following material:

• Summary report
• Keynote speech (Kate Wimpress)
• Keynote speech (Ernst Wagner)