Digital Inclusion at Cultural Mobility Forum on Wednesday 25 May 2022
Channel: HowlRound Theatre Commons
Date: 2022-06-09

Panel: Digital inclusion
Moderator: Sophie Dowden, project and fundraising manager at the European Choral Association – Europa Cantat (Germany)
Speakers: Ceyda Berk-Söderblom, artistic director of MiklagardArts (Finland); Yamam Al-Zubaidi, independent researcher (Sweden)

16:30–17:00 Conclusions and perspectives
Marie Le Sourd, secretary general of On the Move
Ouafa Belgacem, CEO and co-founder of Culture Funding Watch, host of the 2023 Cultural Mobility Forum in Tunis
Mary Ann DeVlieg, founding president of On the Move


Cultural Mobility Forum 2022 hosted by Nordic Culture Point in Helsinki, Finland and On the Move livestreams on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network Wednesday 25 May 2022 at 07:00 BST (London, UTC +1) / 08:00 CEST (Brussels, UTC +2) / 09:00 EEST (Helsinki, UTC +3) / 14:00 SGT (Singapore, UTC +8) / 16:00 AEST (Sydney, UTC +10).

Focus 2022: Digital Mobility

Is the digital shift providing all that it seems to promise?

The COVID-19 crisis has brought transnational cooperation almost to a halt. As researcher Milica Ilić has written, “this disruption is bound to have consequences that will mark the sector for years to come.” With little or no international travel, arts professionals are turning to their local environments, further changing the landscape for transnational work, and accelerating a trend which in some countries was already in motion due to political shifts or ecological concerns. The full effects of these changes are yet to be understood but could potentially have lasting consequences for a generation of artists, in particular those from less-privileged environments where mobility, more than a choice, is a necessity.

COVID-19 and the lockdowns, curfews, and closed borders that have come with it have deeply impacted international cultural mobility, with most on-site cultural activities shut down. New and/or revisited forms of transnational cultural projects have taken place online but offer only a very partial replacement for what existed before the pandemic and often offer very limited funding support for the artists involved. Nonetheless, we have seen many forms of digital cultural mobility arise and felt the need to discuss the changing nature of working practices and mobility flows in the culture field.

As On the Move President Marie Fol has observed, there have been many debates on the value of international mobility and physical encounters, as well as on digital practices—their limitations and challenges as well as their joys and opportunities. While acknowledging that cultural mobility has suffered from a wide range of problems in the past—ranging from unequal access to funding to unnecessary administrative burdens—several voices have observed that digital mobility could open new pathways and answer pressing needs in relation to issues such as diversity, inclusion, access, and the need for more balanced power relations.

https://howlround.com/happenings/livestreaming-cultural-mobility-forum-2022-digital-mobility