What is the place of culture in our lives? A new vision for culture – integrity, direction and relevance. What needs to change in cultural institutions? Strategically rethinking cultural participation. Dealing with turbulent times – recovering and changing. These are the themes proposed by ADESTE+ (Audience DEvelopment STrategies for cultural organisations in Europe) for returning to the debate, begun last year in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, on the role of cultural organisations and their relationships with their publics.

This year, the annual ADESTE+ conference was due to take place in Rijeka, in Croatia. In the meanwhile, the constraints resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic led the organisation to rethink everything – from the themes approached through to the programming. Hence, the conference, and the Summer School that follows, are to be held online, enabling free access to all cultural operators, teachers and researchers, political decision-makers and sponsors in the field of the arts and culture that would like to participate.

Registration for each one of the five conference episodes – dedicated to the global theme of “The Change within the Change” – is compulsory and according to the following schedule:

1st episode
Culture’s place in our lives

31 August / Register by 27 August

2nd episode
A new vision for culture? Integrity, direction and relevance

7 September / Register by 3 September 

3rd episode
The cultural institution – what needs to change?

14 September / Register by 10 September 

4th episode
Rethinking participation strategically

21 September / Register by 17 September

5th episode
Tempestuous times – the crisis – recovery and change

28 September / Register by 24 September

 
ADESTE+ is a cooperation project, which the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is a member of, set up with the goal of developing new methodologies for the relationships between institutions and their publics, focusing on the acquisition of personal and organisational skills, competences and capacities. The ADESTE+ project is co-financed by the European program “Creative Europe”.