Act for Global Change | Partner Kick-off Meeting 13 – 14 November 2019 in the framework of the Atelier NEXT

ACT, a project supported by Creative Europe under the cooperation projects 2019.

The project entitled ‘Act for Global Change: A Global Conversation from the Arts to the World’ (ACT), supported by Creative Europe under the cooperation projects 2019, had its kick-off meeting during the framework of the Atelier NEXT (2019) of The Festival Academy.

The ACT Partners Kick-off Meeting happened on 13-14 November 2019 and was a crucial moment for all involved partners in the project to meet each other in person for the first time and discuss details about the upcoming workflow, planning and implementation of the cooperation project and how all parties would collaborate and proceed for the next 2 years. Therefore, during the meeting’s program, the first steps into implementing ACT and its ambitious goal to build bridges between different fields of actions, being the artistic, social, political, and business world were taken.

To this, it aims in a first phase to enable and facilitate a global inclusive conversation and critical reflection between festival managers from different art disciplines, origins, generations and social backgrounds on the role that arts, culture and more particularly festivals, can play in a fast changing world. 

The strategy towards reaching positive change consists of a series of new training modules, digital toolkits and a fund system for refugees. In a world increasingly polarized by inequality and lack of intercultural dialogue, ACT contributes towards more cultural diplomacy and informed, skilled leaders and activists with global perspectives, acting in solidarity to effect change on the local, regional, national, and international level.

Thanks to the kick-off program, all partners also had the first-hand experience of what an Atelier and the work of The Festival Academy are about. During the kick-off, partners were given the possibility to meet an international group of young and expert festival managers coming from all over the world while connecting with main stakeholders in the project. This first meeting also created links between the different Ateliers and training programmes that were a part of ACT as each programme built and continued on the previous ones. Partners were able to observe how the programme runs to be able to prepare the activities in the best possible way taking place at their organisation to fulfill the mission and vision of the cooperation project.