The Festival Academy has launched a new programme that will give fledgling festival managers the chance to spread their wings in Shanghai, China. Atelier for Young Festival and Cultural Managers Chinese edition is part of a cultural relations project between the EU and the People’s Republic of China that aims to ‘deepen Asia-Europe relations through international cultural exchange.’ The Atelier runs from 17-23 October 2017.
40 young managers will take part in the seven-day training programme, working under the tutelage of 10 leading cultural managers. The training includes lectures, one-on-one talks, group discussions as well as workshops on issues like artistic vision, public responsibility, cultural policy, creation and coproduction, internationalisation, audiences, networking, renewal and sustainability.
‘The Atelier is an intense training programme addressed at emerging festival and cultural managers,’ said a statement from The Festival Academy. ‘It is about sharing experiences and passing on knowledge to the next generation of festival and cultural managers while focusing on the very essence of cultural management – the arts, the artist and the audience.’
Special attention will be paid to the cultural scene in Shanghai, which hosts the annual Shanghai International Arts Festival. Past Atelier’s have taken place in Gorlitz, Varna, Singapore, Izmir, Ljubljana, Edinburgh, Poznan, Beirut, Gwangju, Budapest and Chiang Mai.
The programme is open to applications from all countries, with a deadline of 31 March. More than 450 people have attended Atelier events since 2006.