This year’s Saltire Society International Conference, Cultural Policy – The View from Europe, will bring together a range of high-level speakers to discuss issues connected with developing cultural policy in the EU’s devolved nations and regions.   At a time when cultural policy is the subject of national debate in Scotland, participants will learn more about the experiences of artists, administrators and politicians in Italy, Germany, Spain and Scotland.   Speakers will examine the processes connected with policy development, consider how internal conflicts are managed and look at the purpose of policy in terms of achieving a range of cultural, social and economic objectives. The conference takes place on Thursday 7th October 2004
10.30am – 4.15 pm in the Raeburn Room, University of Edinburgh.

Founded in 1936, the Saltire Society is a non-political body concerned with all aspects of Scottish life and culture.   Through its Awards it promotes excellence in the arts, civil engineering, education, housing design, music, literature, planning and environment, and sciences.   Through its international conferences the Society seeks to inform debate and discussion in Scotland.   The Society has branches in Scotland and overseas.

Who should attend?

The conference will be of interest to artists, broadcasters, arts administrators, civil servants, students of cultural studies, language activists, politicians and arts journalists.

Speakers

Wolfgang Schneider is the Director of the Institute for Cultural Policy, and Dean of the Faculty for Cultural Science and Aesthetic Communication at the University of Hildesheim.   He is a member of the German Parliament’s Enquête-Commission “Culture in Germany”;  a member of the board of the Goethe-Institut;  Honorary President of EUNETART (European Network of Art Organisations), President of ASSITEJ International, and President of the UNESCO-Association of Theatre for Children and Young People.

Luigi Blanco teaches in the Department of Human and Social Sciences at the University of Trento.   He is an expert on the ethno-linguistic history of the Trentino-Alto Adige region of northern Italy and has a particular interest in the tensions that can arise between rural and urban areas in the development and delivery of cultural policy.

David Mackenzie is the Director of the Centre for Galician Studies at University College, Cork.   He is a Hispanic Philologist, medievalist and lexicographer.   He transcribes and edits texts in Galician, Castilian, and Aragonese.  

Bryan Beattie led the Inverness and Highlands 2008 bid to become European City of Culture.   He is currently Expert Adviser to the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport.   He lives in the Black Isle.

Programme

10.30-10.45 Registration

10.45            Welcome (Ian Scott, Chairman of the Saltire Society)

11.00             Coffee

11.15             Luigi Blanco –
History and Cultural identity in Trentino-Alto Adige

11.55            Wolfgang Schneider –
Think global, act local.   How to create cultural policy for the regions of the world in times of globalization.

12.35-1.35 Lunch

1.35            David Mackenzie –
Me? Speak Galician?  Why?

2.15            Bryan Beattie –
A cultural Renaissance in the Highlands and Islands?
Are there genuine green shoots of a cultural renaissance in the Highlands and Islands – if so can the region lead, rather than follow, national policy?

3.0                Discussion

3.45-4.15 Tea

Conference fees:-  £25 for members, £30 for non members. This fee includes lunch and refreshments

http://www.saltiresociety.org.uk