Visions for the Future: second brainstorm

Online

11 Feb 2025

Image by Taisiia Zhebryk

Looking forward into the future: do you have a clear vision of where you are headed? Are you curious to know how other socio-cultural centres across Europe tackle this question? Then join ‘Visions for the Future’, a trajectory of three online brainstorms designed to help us collectively prepare for the future. This coming February, at the second brainstorm in the series, we will discuss how the socio-cultural community in Europe can implement just transitions towards a sustainable future.

Register here

What?

On Tuesday, February 11th, 2025 at 10:00 CET, you are invited to join the second Visions for the Future gathering. This online workshop is aimed at encouraging sustainability transitions within the socio-cultural sector by focusing on connecting and nourishing. Building on insights from our first session back in March 2024 — where participants identified current challenges — this workshop aims to support participants in moving from reflection to ideation and purposeful action. You can revisit the key insights from the first brainstorm here.

In our previous sessions, we focused on uncovering and naming the challenges facing our sector, our work, and society at large. Together, we identified many diverse critical systemic issues, such as mental health pressures, democratic erosion, and resource scarcity. These conversations laid the foundation for deeper reflection and future collective action.

How?

With the expertise of researcher Anna Maria Ranczakowska and the FULCRUM partners, we will try to envision a future for the socio-cultural sector in a dedicated online workshop. We will discover the actual roles we can take up in connecting and nourishing our communities, and fostering just transitions towards sustainability. We will also look at concrete practices we can adopt in order to face our challenges and thrive collectively, both at the organisational and at the sectoral level.

We want to hear from you. Which actions (a practice, a project, a collaboration…) have you implemented to address one or more of these systemic challenges? Your responses will give us a clearer view of how our sector is evolving and how organisations are responding to these pressing challenges. They will also help us better shape the upcoming session to meet the needs of our community.

Together with colleagues from all over Europe, we will form an online safe space to share, connect and transform your vision of the future. Access to these brainstorms is free, the only required investment is some of your time. There is no preparation needed to join.

Where?

This brainstorm will be held online. You will receive the meeting link beforehand. To participate, please register here.

Is this for me?

These brainstorms are open to anyone who volunteers or works at/with a (socio-)cultural centre that is a member of the FULCRUM networks: ENCC (Europe), ACC (Belgium), SozioKultur (Germany), IG Kultur (Austria), Dire Fare Baciare (Italy), cult! (Belgium), ACCE (Estonia) and ALCC (Latvia).

We welcome anyone who wants to share insights and experiences on their contexts, obstacles and lessons learned, regardless of the size and shape of their organisation. Attendance to the first brainstorm is not needed to join. We invite everyone to make their mark on a collective vision for the future. Your voice should be heard. Come as you are!

All discussions will be in English, in order to facilitate exchanges among peers from different European countries. Interested but hesitating to join? Questions about the brainstorms or accessibility needs? Contact us at fulcrum@encc.eu to learn more.

FULCRUM

Visions for the Future is part of FULCRUM, a three-year Erasmus+ project designed for cultural workers and volunteers of the socio-cultural sector.