Final Conference
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What kinds of spaces make it possible for different identities and perspectives to coexist and shape a common future through dialogue?
This is the question at the heart of our final conference for Training for the Contact Zone. Over the last year and a half, this project has developed and tested a training curriculum to help cultural and heritage staff create new forms of activities that strengthen cultural belonging. The project’s overarching goal has been to strengthen European cohesion by encouraging dialogue and fostering shared cultural understanding.
This conference will explore how institutions and practitioners across the cultural, educational and civic sectors can facilitate spaces where people with different perspectives can engage in open dialogue, developing an approach that is both comprehensive yet adaptable to different local settings.
At a time of growing polarisation and social fragmentation, spaces where differences can interact are increasingly under pressure. In this context, ensuring cultural democracy, cultural rights, and democratic participation becomes challenging. We require culture and heritage spaces where difference is not only acknowledged but actively held and negotiated. We need forms of participation that allow people to access culture, as well as shape it, question it, and see themselves reflected in it. This conference will explore the structural conditions needed to sustain this work. We will look at how participatory cultural practices can be more consistently recognised, supported, and funded, with a specific focus on how the insights and methods developed through Training for the Contact Zone can inform European cultural policy and better integrate culture’s democratic role across sectors.
We invite cultural practitioners, artists, teachers, social workers, and policymakers to join us in July to connect the experiences of Training for the Contact Zone with broader advocacy for a more participatory cultural ecosystem. Through conversations, participatory sessions, and networking moments, we will discuss and contribute to the shaping of the future of cultural democracy in Europe.
One of the key moments of the conference will be the opening panel:
A key moment of the programme will be the opening panel:
Culture for People, People for Culture
📅 Thursday 2 July | 🕙 16:30 – 18:00 | 💻 Hybrid participation available
Moderated by Lars Ebert (Culture Action Europe), this conversation will explore cultural democracy and the role of policy-making in supporting more inclusive cultural institutions.
The panel brings together leading voices from the fields of policy, human rights, and the arts:
- Angelos Agalianos – Senior Policy Officer, European Commission (DG EAC), working on culture, democracy, and social cohesion.
- Alexandra Xanthaki – UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights and internationally recognised scholar on cultural rights and heritage.
- Barbara van Lindt – Artistic Coordinator of KAAI Theatre, working on inclusion, collective learning, and institutional transformation.
Another key moment of the conference will take place on:
How Do We Make Structural Change?
📅 Friday 3 July | 🕙 16:30 – 17:30 | 💻 Hybrid participation available
Moderated by Frans Damman (H401), this session will explore what needs to change for Contact Zone practices to become more widely recognised, supported, and embedded across institutions, policy, and cultural practice.
The conversation will connect grassroots experiences with adult education, funding structures, and institutional perspectives, reflecting on the conditions needed for long-term cultural change.
The session features contributions from two inspiring change makers:
- Benjamin Caton — opinion maker, activist, and initiator of the Decolonial Indonesian Dutch Commemoration, a platform centred on learning, healing, and connection through decolonial remembrance practices.
- Romy and Gable Roelofsen — founders of Het Geluid Maastricht, creators of socially engaged music theatre projects exploring how performance can contribute to a more inclusive and critical society through community-building and artistic collaboration.
Across the two days, the programme will also include participatory workshops, field reflections, methodology presentations, policy discussions, and networking moments connecting the experiences of Training for the Contact Zone with broader conversations on cultural democracy in Europe.
We warmly encourage everyone interested in culture, participation, heritage, education, social practice, and democratic futures to join us in Brussels or online.
For the full programme, visit here.
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Training for the Contact Zone is realised by:
Training for the Contact Zone is co-funded by the European Union within the framework of Erasmus+ Adult Education.
