Conferences

ICCPR (International Conference on Cultural Policy Research) aims to provide an outlet for an interdisciplinary and international exploration of the meaning, function and impact of cultural policies. Cultural policy is understood as the promotion or prohibition of cultural practices and values by governments, corporations, other institutions and individuals. The main function of ICCPR is to promote, in association with the International Journal of Cultural Policy, a biennial research conference of high academic standards in different parts of the world. The conference provides an opportunity for researchers to present papers that reflect on cultural policy from any relevant discipline, provided they make an original academic contribution to the field. 

​The theme of ICCPR 2022 is Cultural policy in times of disruption or interruption? Are we experiencing with the pandemic an interruption - like a ripple in the sea - or are we facing disruption, a crisis that is leading towards the need for breaking down and rebuilding of the system? Where does this leave cultural policy?  A victim lost in a global sea of debt?  Or a survivor that finds shelter and builds towards a more secure future?​

The COVID-19 crisis of 2020 and 2021 has had a huge impact on society and in particular on the cultural sector. Museums, theatres and other cultural organisations have all been forced to undergo rapid digital transformation not only in their way of creating but also in terms of their way of producing, presenting and/or audience engagement. Artists have often suffered the most from the crisis. In some countries, cultural policy makers tried to control the damage by calling for all kinds of emergency measurements and support mechanisms.

This public support was crucial for the majority of cultural actors in order to survive the crisis. Perhaps now we can look forward to a period of recovery….or is there more to come? If so, what have we learned from this exceptional period? Are we now better prepared or is the cultural sector still as exposed, and if so, might this lead to more significant consequences?

First, the value of arts and culture for society and for the well-being of people – who were forced to stay at home without any physical contact - became very clear. What are the implications of this?  Was the crisis disruptive on a systemic level? Does this also mean that we reached the end of neoliberalism? Will competitiveness be replaced by other collaborative formats? Will the public space be re-evaluated and given back to the community and society? Or will everything return to how it was before? How will cultural policy makers at different levels and in different locations respond to the crisis and to a world that is becoming more and more volatile and unpredictable (VUCA)? Do we need to find a new balance in the relations between the public, the private space and civil society? Or indeed does this suggest that we need to start again with new claims and subsequent arguments regarding the value and contribution of arts and culture?

The Responsible Fashion Series originated as part of the Fashion Colloquia collection of events founded by four institutions: London College of Fashion, Parsons school of Fashion and Design in New York, IFM, Paris and Domus from Milan. This new series reflects the need for fashion to take on a new mature and responsible approach for supporting the future of fashion.

At each Responsible Fashion event there is a mixture of specific themes of particular relevance to the specific location, and series themes, which allow different sets of contributions to be added and explored. This was also the case in Antwerp with the theme "Can Fashion Save the World".Central to the Antwerp edition was the question: Can fashion save the world? With COVID-19 we were in a crisis that was nothing like anything we had ever faced before and we were reminded of our Antwerp experience from the beginning of the 1990s. Then, we were facing in Europe important societal changes, increasing globalization, an escalation in migration and the breakthrough of populist parties all over Europe. Antwerp became in 1993 the cultural capital of Europe and ran with the ‘tagline’: “Can the arts save the world?” What Antwerp 93 wanted to stimulate was a reflection and debate about the societal role that Arts and Culture (including fashion) could play and thereby offering innovative approaches through arts and culture as a utopic remedy. The crisis today might need something similar? Thus, accordingly, we updated our offer: can fashion save the world? We claimed that no other field of study and practice embraces change like fashion and in Antwerp fashion designers have for a longtime been known for their creativity and disruptive imagination.Therefore, we asked: “Might Creatives play a greater role in a changing world?“Back in the 1980s creativity was mostly understood as still based on the individual genius and/or practice of certain skills (craftsmanship).

Today, some forty years later, it might be more accurate to understand that creativity no longer resembles this guise, but rather, now has evolved into something that is no longer seen as exclusively individual, but rather something that draws for its inspiration from influences from new sources: sometimes from other disciplines, from other cultures or perhaps reevaluating our heritage, etc... Thus, we are witnessing a new birth and guise for creativity; perhaps one that is an interdisciplinary response? We need to think differently…more creatively perhaps in terms of new ways of working including forms of collaboration? New technologies and processes? What business models are necessary in order to survive and prosper? Perhaps what these observations lead to is a further question: do we need to break a few things down before we can re-build?

Colloquium - Maandag 9 oktober 2017

"Natuurlijk is kunst kopen elitair: als dat niet zo was, zou iedereen toch kunst kopen, niet?" Zo’n uitspraak is wat kort door de bocht, maar illustreert een vaak voorkomende gedachtegang. 
Het Competence Center Management, Culture & Policy en Kunst in Huis organiseerden samen het colloquium 'Kunst kopen: elitair?' op 9 oktober aan de Universiteit Antwerpen. Experten bekeken het elitair karakter, poogden te zien waarom kunst kopen van belang is, gingen na waar kunst gekocht kan worden en bekeken hoe de prijsdrempels kunnen worden beslecht. En hoe zou de kunstkoopregeling hiertoe kunnen bijdragen?
 

Programma 

Local Fashion Communities

The Competence Center Culture, Management and Policy invites you to the 4th edition of the Non Western Fashion Conference about local fashion communities.

Fashion can be an important engine in the environmentally, culturally and economical sustainable development of communities with the potential to be a crucial element in the cultural ecosystem that nourishes identity formation. With this academic conference, we explore the contribution of small and medium fashion companies to the sustainable development of their local communities.

Highlights of the programme

23 November 2016 - doctoral workshop
Complementary workshop to provide (PhD-) researchers the opportunity to present and discuss their research. A panel of international experienced PhD supervisors provide critical feedback, led by Prof. dr. Ian King (University of the Arts London / London College of Fashion).

24 November 2016

• Victoria Rovine (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA): 'Local Means Global: African Fashion in Transcolonial Networks'
• Archana Surana (Founder and Director of the ARCH Academy of Design in Jaipur, India): ‘Heritage Crafts in Fashion Business - Tradition to Modernity’
• Panel discussion about the role of fashion in 'The Antwerp Ecosystem'
• Movie 'Political Dress' (Adam Mickiewicz Institute)
• Visit to ModeMuseum: exhibition 'Rik Wouters & The Private Utopia'

25 November 2016

• Co-creation session with shoe designer Dr. Catherine Willems 
• Round table: interdisciplinary research in fashion

Abstracts and biographies

In order to prepare yourself for the conference, you can download the abstracts and biographies of the presenters.

• Download the abstracts here.
• Download the biographies here.

This conference is a cooperation between the University of Antwerp, Antwerp Management School and the HKU University of the Arts Utrecht.

The focus laid on the dynamics between creative industries, knowledges organizations and urban policy. Ms. Edna dos Santos (former UNCTAD) gave the opening lecture. Other key note speakers were prof. Robert Kloosterman, prof. Paul Rutten, ...

The conference brochure gives you an overview of all the keynote speechers, the programme and the abstracts of the presentations.

ENCATC is the leading European network on cultural management and cultural policy education.

The master in cultural management, with coordinator Annick Schramme, took the opportunity to organise the 21th edition of the Annual Conference of this network.

Look at the programme of 'Rethinking education on arts and cultural management' in the conference brochure.

The International Association of Arts and Cultural Management (AIMAC) is an international network of researchers in arts and cultural management. The Association's main activity is a biennial research conference held in various cities around the world. Knowledge in the discipline of arts management cannot develop without the contributions of both researchers and practitioners. Through its conferences, AIMAC provides a forum for the exchange of insights and perspectives in this field of study. 

The conferences were already held in Bogotà (2013), Antwerp (2011), Dallas (2009), Valence (2007), Montréal (2005),  Milan (2003).

> Conference book with abstracts of all speakers.