Photo: Mohamed Gharbi
On 9 and 10 May 2023, OTM hosted its second Cultural Mobility Forum on an online and onsite (Tunis) setting, together with the support of Culture Funding Watch in Tunisia and Howlround, both On the Move members. A first of a series of 3 years that brought together more than 35 members’ representatives of On the Move and a wide arrange of local, national and international stakeholders in the field of culture and arts, together with the participants of the Cultural Mobility Developers’ Workshop.
Why a Cultural Mobility Forum?
As part of its multiannual programme, each year On the Move proposes a Cultural Mobility Forum to collectively investigate international artistic and cultural mobility trends. As a unique knowledge platform, the network works together with its members and partners to design thematic panel discussions. These in turn address the main points from On the Move’s annual Cultural Mobility Yearbook monitoring mobility opportunities and funding schemes, analysing flows and obstacles, and raising awareness of burning issues.
Focus 2023: environmental sustainability
The Cultural Mobility Forum 2023 was conceived as an attempt to (re)contextualise the conversation on cross-border artistic mobility and environmental sustainability, unfolding the interdependencies between privileged (Western) Europe and other territories, investigating local practical sustainable solutions (e.g. on time, resources, well-being, local networks management) and listening to a variety of voices from the Global South.
We aimed to nourish a more nuanced approach, informed and context-based, allowing for different models to coexist instead of reinforcing imbalances and injustice, together with speakers from Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia in particular. With this Forum taking place in the Mediterranean region, we wished to put in perspective the ‘greening policies’ for distributing public and private funding at national, macro-regional, European and international levels, along with sectoral needs in relation to the ecological transition.
If you could not attend the event or missed one of the panels, do not worry! We have uploaded all of them to our Youtube channel:
- Towards more ecological artistic production and distribution
- Greening policies and support schemes
- Sustainable local strategies and cultural impacts
- Sustainable transcontinental cultural relations & South-South mobility
Moreover, many resources and materials were shared and disseminated during the Forum. Here you can find a compilation of all of them in case you want to dig deeper into the topic of sustainable mobility:
Download the key resources document
Last but not the least, for further reference, you can also take a look at our flagship publication: OTM Cultural Mobility Yearbook 2023, where we analyse cultural mobility trends with a particular focus on environmental sustainability. You can also check the Cultural Mobility Funding Guide focused on the South Mediterranean Region, both publications being as well co-funded by the European Union.
Acknowledgments for the local support
The Cultural Mobility Forum was locally supported by the EU Delegation to Tunisia. It was held at El Teatro on 9th of May and El Hamra on 10th of May. The organisers wish as well to thank local partners for additional visits and meetings: Institut français de Tunisie, Cité de la Culture, Creative Europe Desk-Tunisia, L’Art Rue, Mass’Art, Dar Ben Gacem, Dar Sana, Dar Sadika and L’Espace Kouri Khaireddine.
