• Fri 26 February 2025, 3 PM - 6 PM CET (UTC +1)

Cynthia Cohen, senior fellow at IMPACT, Inc. and co-founder of the program Peacebuilding and the Arts at Brandeis University, introduces participants to key concepts from the field of conflict transformation. The workshop includes a showing of the documentary film ‘Acting Together on the World Stage: Performance and the Creative Transformation of Conflict.’ It highlights stories of nine exemplary peacebuilding performance practitioners and their reflections on key questions from the field. The documentary has played in hundreds of venues around the world.

Cohen will facilitate a conversation in which participants can question and analyse links between the concepts from the film and their own practice. How are terms from conflict transformation embodied in our practice? How can we imagine strengthening conflict transformation practices in our festivals?

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• Thu 27 February 2025, 9 AM – 12 PM CET (UTC +1)

In this interactive 3-hour workshop Oussama Rifahi, cultural management consultant and board member of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), guides participants through the process of transforming their organization's vision and mission statements using the power of storytelling. The goal is to help festival makers craft more compelling and action-oriented narratives that resonate better with their audiences, stakeholders and potential donors. Using storytelling techniques, participants will reframe vague or outdated statements into impactful declarations that drive organizational strategy and engagement. 

Bring your old vision & mission statements and let’s freshen them up together!

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• Fri 28 February, 3 PM – 6 PM CET (UTC +1)

In our troubling times, when the pursuit of social change and meaningful impact feels more urgent than ever, we often find ourselves hopeless or cynical about our works’ potential for influence.How can we think differently about impact? How can we leverage our festivals as platforms to promote policy change? And how to do this in an authentic way?

In this intensive 3-hours workshop, Michael Sheldrick, co-founder of Global Citizen (an international advocacy organization dedicated to ending extreme poverty worldwide), delves into his journey from a 23-year-old university student organizing his first concert in Perth, Australia, to advocate for polio eradication, to now a co-producer of an annual festival in New York's iconic Central Park to end extreme poverty globally.

Michael applies his 8-Step Playbook to Drive Social Change to the individual contexts of participants from the festival sector. He will guide participants to break down complex terms, present hands-on strategies and offer practical solutions that we can use to amplify the influence of our work. Michael Sheldrick invites us to focus on collective action, partnership, and finding common ground to drive solidarity and meaningful change.

Register now!