The Steering Committee for Culture, Heritage and Landscape (CDCPP) and the Italian Ministry of Culture are organising a Conference of Ministers of Culture in the framework of the Italian Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
The event will take place in hybrid format (Strasbourg/online) on 1 April 2022.
The conference will examine in depth the challenges and opportunities of digital technologies for European cultural policy, cultural heritage standards and audio-visual practices, addressing these subjects in two main sessions:
- The consequences of digital technology developments, including AI, for the Council of Europe’s cultural heritage conventions (Granada, Valletta, Faro and Nicosia) in order to reinforce their utility as a unique framework for European action, and in the pursuit of sustainable development goals;
- The specific challenges posed to creativity, diversity and pluralism by AI developments and global digital players using predictive algorithms within the audio-visual industry, as well as the need to foster cultural diversity and cultural participation in the digital environment and in creative production.
The Ministerial Conference on 1 April aims to encourage Ministers to take the lead and propose concrete measures to strengthen the European position through further international cooperation on dedicated guidelines that could amend the existing cultural heritage conventions and on a new public financial support programme for European drama series co-productions.
Various cultural events, including a performance from the Italian artist Quayola on 31 March and two digital exhibitions [the new Council of Europe digital #exhibition “Free to Create, Create to be Free” and the work of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes “Cultural Routes crossing Italy”] on 1 April, will bring additional flavour to this high-level conference.
