DUBLIN (IRELAND)

"'AWE' - Cultural Engagement through Accessibility, Wellbeing and Evidence" was initiated by Dublin City Council Culture Company in April 2020 as a sustainable response to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. 'AWE' was envisioned as a strategy to protect the cultural rights of Dublin's citizens, and to actively engage with them and respond culturally to their needs, through 3 main strands: (a) Accessibility, (b) Wellbeing, (c) Evidence. The Culture Company, established in 2018 with the mission to engage with people and communities through conversation and culture, increasing cultural participation and practice throughout the city's neighbourhood, continued their engagement work with community groups, youth leaders, artists, partners from the local authority, residential care homes, businesses and national cultural institutions. Through listening, responsive actions to improve accessibility, inclusion and create more ways into culture during the pandemic were created. 'AWE' has actively demonstrated the success, transferability and adaptability of an original methodology that not only ensured the cultural rights of citizens during the pandemic and beyond, but also undertook extensive research that could be considered as a benchmark for other cities.

See the summary of Dublin's initiative "'AWE' - Cultural engagement through accessibilitym wellbeing and evidence". 

See the article on Dublin's "AWE: Cultural engagement through accessibility, wellbeing and evidence" initiative.

The project “Ségou: A Creative City” started in 2015 as an initiative by the Festival on the Niger Foundation. In partnership with the municipality of Ségou, the initiative has provided the city with a sound cultural policy focused on sustainable development. The implication and commitment of all cultural actors together with the local government and civil society in the implementation process of this solid initiative has helped unfold its main objectives, providing access for everyone to culture and enhancing the value of Ségou’s cultural identities -music,
design and fashion, visual arts, heritage and gastronomy- and artistic and cultural creation, by putting art and culture at the centre of local development. “Ségou: A Creative City” has contributed to professionalize the cultural sector as well, improving the working conditions of cultural and creative actors and creating synergies among cultural organisations, stakeholders and citizens. Furthermore, “Ségou: A Creative City” constitutes a suitable framework for collaboration with other African cities, and promotes the implementation of projects based on co-creation, co-production, exchange of experiences and sharing of good practices.

The programme “Common Seongbuk Artist Roundtable: Local Culture Governance” began in 2014 in Seongbuk, a district of Seoul, and has become the most important community initiative in this area, involving over 300 people working together on the basis of cultural governance.

The Artist Roundtable defines itself as a network that works together for the coexistence and cooperation of the local culture. One of its objectives is the cooperative work with those responsible for the cultural policy of the city, through the Seongbuk Cultural Foundation and with the other public institutions with responsibility in the city.

The Artist Roundtable operates on the values and principles of ‘autonomous activity’ (autonomy), ‘cultural democracy’ (democracy), ‘friendship and cooperation’ (solidarity) and ‘respecting cultural differences’ (diversity). Furthermore, the initiative organises local festivals, manages cultural venues and contributes to supporting the artistic and cultural community in the area.

The programme “I AM… / The adventure of one community in the middle of a transformation” has been underway in Vaudreuil-Dorion since 2010, and works to promote the emergence of a united community that experiences differences as richness. Each year, 20,000 citizens take part in some 600 workshops based around 50 main activities. The goal: to create encounters which allow an understanding of others, and encourage respect for differences. Active citizen participation through cultural and creative acts is at the centre of community reinvention. Here, citizens rub shoulders, interact, and learn to understand one another. Besides working directly on social cohesion, these cultural activities contribute to solid progress in terms of environment, town planning, community bodies and their missions, physical and mental health, and business environments.

Website (in French): www.ville.vaudreuil-dorion.qc.ca

Facebook (in French): facebook.com/Je-suis-Vaudreuil-Dorion

Video (Mrs Nichols, Member of Parliament of Vaudreuil, and Mr Couillard, Premier of Quebec) : watch video