Describe the main features of the measure/initiative:
‘Thread of Culture’ Project has 2 main objectives; to empower Turkey’s cultural professionals and to enhance dialogue and cooperation between the civil and public sectors. Thread of Culture will establish a platform for professionals working on every level of the cultural field across Turkey to offer a wide variety of capacity-building training and set new standards for cultural production, policies, and management. Developing countries that are parties to the 2005 Convention have the opportunity to benefit from this fund, which aims to develop sustainable cultural policies and support practices, researches, and projects.
Thread of Culture, scheduled to begin in July 2020, aims to improve the competencies and skills and increase cultural professionals' overall capacity at a local level in as many cities as possible across Turkey. To this end, a need assessment research will be conducted, cultural management training programs will be designed and implemented, and a web platform open to the public will be activated. In order to establish a balance between participants from the civil and public sectors, the participants of the training programs will be chosen among the employees of both public and non-governmental organizations and independent institutions. The content, curriculum, and program of the training will be designed, prepared, and implemented by prominent professionals from academia, civil society, and the private as well as the public sector.
Thread of Culture will persistently open its resources and know-how to its participants across the country and to the public along the way for everyone to access a web platform that will reflect the diversity of cultural expressions in local contexts. The web platform will function as an online capacity empowerment tool (discussion forum, audio-visual content, publications) while assuring the project's sustainability in the future.
Enhancing dialogue and cooperation between civil and public sector
The project's objective is also to foster civic participation in the decision-making processes in the cultural field by enhancing dialogue and cooperation between the civil and public sectors, which is also among the foremost universal objectives of the 2005 Convention. Training sessions with novel methods of participation and dialogue are designed for civil and public sectors to work in a spirit of exchange and cooperation.
A multifaceted assessment of the project will be presented by the Cultural Policy Studies of İKSV to all relevant institutions, policymakers, and officials in the form of a report upon the project’s termination. To take shape with the contributions of the participants of the training program, the report will try and measure the integration of civil society into the decision-making processes in the cultural field and identify the obstacles faced by the private sector while proposing alternative ties with public sectors.
Carried out by the Cultural Policy Studies of İKSV with the partnership of Turkey Europe Foundation (TAV), Thread of Culture is planned to run between July 2020-2022.
Website of the measure/initiative, if available:
What are the results achieved so far through the implementation of the measure/initiative?:
• With the project titled “Thread of Culture,” it has been entitled to receive the International Fund for Cultural Diversity, which is implemented per Article 18 of UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.
• It aims to open up space for the diversity of cultural expressions and strengthen cultural professionals' capacities.
• A shadow report will be prepared to be presented to policymakers and officials in the field of culture and arts with the contributions of the participants of the training. This report will be prepared in line with cultural policies, obstacles, and problems in the issues covered by the project, the approaches of civil society and public institutions to dialogue and civic participation, and the opinions of those who participate in the training.
• It will contribute to the provision of the 2005 UNESCO Convention on making efforts to encourage creativity and strengthen production capacities by creating education, training, and exchange programs in the field of cultural industries.