• Danielle Cliche, Andreas Wiesand
• International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies

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04 September 2009As part of the preparations for the 4th World Summit on Arts and Culture 2009 in Johannesburg, the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA) opened up a discussion with its network members on the claim that intercultural dialogue has become a new priority for arts and cultural policy makers around the world. 

To address this question, IFACCA, with support from Summit co-host, the National Arts Council of South Africa, commissioned the ERICarts Institute to design and analyse the results of a survey to map views and collect cases of good practice on the (potential) role of intercultural dialogue in the arts and arts policies. A questionnaire was sent to the member organisations of IFACCA and to experts in its larger international network of researchers, arts practitioners and NGOs. Between April and July 2009, 108 respondents from 51 countries on all continents were collected online. 

Respondents were asked to comment on a proposed definition of intercultural dialogue and to provide examples that could illustrate what they consider to be relevant ICD policies, programmes and practices in or for the arts in their country. In addition, they were asked to reflect on key challenges, the current and future development, implementation and promotion of ICD activities by governments and arts institutions.

The survey results partly confirm the findings of previous research in Europe (such as Sharing Diversity, 2008), and expands its scope with voices from around the world. 

This discussion paper was prepared for the 4th World Summit on Arts and Culture Johannesburg, 22-25 September 2009.  A final version will be published in late 2009.