Regional and local cultural policy is an increasingly important area of public policy-making that governs activities related to the arts and culture. Generally, this policy domain is being understood as fostering processes, legal action and institutions which promote cultural diversity and accessibility, as well as enhancing and supporting the artistic, ethnic, sociolinguistic, literary and other expressions or heritage of all people in a specific territorial area.
Regional and local
Regional and local cultural policies can also be seen as strategies or instruments that aim at empowering people to develop their creative talents and civic conscience, thus helping to turn the ideal of democratic societies into reality. Emerged from historical experience and political reforms over the last centuries, this concept implies “open” systems of local or regional governance in which there are realistic chances for the people, whether as majority or minority, to access decision making processes and to improve their wellbeing, both as individuals and as members of a community.
The Compendium and regional/local cultural policy
From the beginning of the Compendium project, the aspect of regional and local cultural policy has been part of the reporting presented in the national cultural policy profiles. In the current database, chapter 1.2.4 and 1.2.4 contain information on respectively regional authorities and national authorities.
In 2008, the Compendium initiated a more concrete analysis and outlook on regional and local cultural policies. This has led to the development of two regional cultural policy profiles, based on the previous Compendium methodology.
Download regional profiles
Catalonia (Spain):
For more information on regional cultural policy, please see the additional resources within the theme Cultural policy system.