Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum

Third Eastern Partnership Cultural Congress (Lviv, 4-6 September 2015)

9 September 2015

by Krzysztof Bobinski, Co-chair of the EaP CSF Steering Committee

Cultural issues are low on the list of priorities of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) but cultural organisations from Lublin in Eastern Poland and Lviv are working to change this. Every two years they organise a congress devoted to culture in the EaP. The first two congresses were held in Lublin (2011 and 2013) and this year, the third came to Lviv supported by the Polish Foreign Ministry and the Lviv city authorities. An EaP CSF member Transkultura Foundation and Warszataty Kultury, a Lublin city backed organisation, are also involved. Both institutions want to build a role for Lublin as a cultural centre for the Eastern Partnership.

During the discussions in Lviv on the ''mission of culture in crisis'', including the military and political crisis in Ukraine, it became clear that the European Union funding for artists in the EaP is non-existent. One EU programme does exist - the EU-Eastern Partnership Culture and Creativity Programme aimed mainly at funding capacity building schemes for organisations in the EaP countries, which promote culture, but not individual artists.

Ian Biscoe, a producer and artist from the United Kingdom, and Nika Wegosky, a Belarusian art activist, attended the EaP Cultural Congress in Lviv and made suggestions on how the EU could help artists in the EaP countries.

Proposal by Ian Biscoe and Nika Wegosky

Project funded by the European UnionEU