Since June 2020, IYMF has decided to join the ENCATC Network to boost its influence on the international, European, national and regional culture and education policy. Last Friday, we took part to the Member Talk on « immersive technologies at the service of European culture and heritage ». The aim of this talk was to understand how to strenghten European collaborations between actors of the cultural world, immersive technologies professionals and education.

This is therefore fully in line with the priorities set by the IYMF for 2021. The pandemic has made us think a lot about our activities and rethink them. We are studying new possibilities, new projects for pedagogical and educational purposes, always with the aim of inclusion. We believe that art and technology, that the artists we work with, have a lot to contribute to the transformations and priorities of the European Commission as well. This is one of the reasons why we participated in the consultation for the new action plan on digital education which ran from June to September 2020. Our MUS-E network and the artists of this network who work in schools in many countries in Europe have proven that they have the resources, ideas and creativity to deal with the crisis and closed schools. We have published a summary of the different initiatives which has been relayed in our network and in the ENCATC network.

In this Member Talk, we got insight into what has been done by the European Commission for digital culture, especially with the intervention and presentation of Maciej Hofman, Policy Officer at the European Commission responsible for managing initiatives related to the role of culture in cities and regions, access to culture via digital means as well as support to cultural and creative sectors.

Insight: The ENCATC Network

ENCATC represents, advocates, and promotes cultural management and cultural policy education, professionalizes the cultural sector to make it sustainable, and creates a platform for discussion and exchange at European and international level. The strength of ENCATC comes from its members and from their understanding of the importance of the multiple aspects and impacts of education and training for the sustainability and competitiveness of the cultural sector. Members make the network grow to be more powerful and lively. All our members feel a sense of identity and ownership with ENCATC, and at the same time they share their knowledge and expertise with the ENCATC family. All members support the mission and aims of the association.