The FULCRUM Moment: Weaving the Future of Socio-Culture, Together
After three years of learning and envisioning, the FULCRUM partners brought together cultural professionals from across Europe one last time to share, multiply, and chart the path forward. The event was designed to disseminate the rich outcomes of the FULCRUM project, spreading its impact across the European socio-cultural ecosystem.
While marking the formal conclusion of the project, the gathering represented far more than an ending. Rather, it was a tipping point, where the insights, methodologies, and visions developed over three years of collaborative work began to multiply. By bringing together a diverse community of cultural professionals from across Europe and beyond, we aim to ensure that the project's outcomes continue to grow, evolve, and inspire new sector initiatives and policy developments.
View the photo gallery of the event here
The FULCRUM Moment offered an opportunity to gain insights from the project's training programmes on community building and environmental sustainability, as well as the three brainstorming sessions of the Visions for the Future cycle. Participants and project partners engaged in critical reflection on lessons learned, achievements, and challenges encountered throughout the project, while participating in forward-looking dialogue on how to sustain and expand the impact of this work.
Specifically designed to reach beyond the networks of the FULCRUM partners to amplify the project's impact, the event saw the participation of a diverse group of cultural professionals interested in the future of community-led cultural work. We welcomed workers and volunteers from cultural centres and community spaces from across Europe and beyond, with a delegation coming from the Saba municipality in the Caribbeans.
An extended programme was foreseen for the project's trainees, including study visits to local socio-cultural centres on March 25th and 27th.
Thursday, March 26th, at GC De Pianofabriek
9:30 Welcome and registrations
10:00 Welcome by the FULCRUM partners
10:15 Keynote speech by Niels Righolt (FULCRUM trainer, director of CKI, the Danish Centre for Arts and Interculture)
11:00 "From gatekeeping to shared power: key findings of the FULCRUM journey": conversation with Vittorio Bianco (FULCRUM trainer, co-coordinator of Cecchi Point), Yvonne Gimpel (FULCRUM partner, general manager of IG Kutur Österreich), and Anna Maria Ranczakowska (facilitator of FULCRUM's Visions for the Future brainstorm series, social anthropologist, researcher and educator), moderated by Sara Turra (ENCC coordinator) + Q&A
12:30 Lunch break
13:20 Workshops:
a) Strategies for community building: world café with Make it Happen ambassadors sharing key takeaways from the training
b) Environmental sustainability in socio-cultural centres: Q&A session with ambassadors from the Sustainability at the Centre training
c) Advocating for culture: tools from the Visions for the Future trajectory
14:50 Presentation of the FULCRUM Manifesto
15:10 Closing performance by Kaito Winse
15:35 Closing remarks by the FULCRUM partners
15:40 Drinks and networking
Wednesday, March 25th, at Le Brass - Centre Culturel de Forest
12:30 Welcome and lunch
13:30 Guided visit of the centre
14:30 - 16:30 Workshops with FULCRUM trainers
Thursday, March 26th, at GC De Pianofabriek
Public conference (see programme above)
Friday, March 27th (venue tbd)
10:00 Visit of GC Elzenhof, part of the N22 network
12:30 Goodbye
Niels Righolt is the director of the Danish Centre for Arts and Interculture in Copenhagen, Denmark. During his long career in the arts field, he has worked as artistic director, managing director, producer and curator, head of information, cultural policy developer, and political advisor within a variety of cultural institutions and organisations. He has also been a board member of, among others, Culture Action Europe, the faculty of the humanities at Malmö University, and the Audience Europe Network. Within FULCRUM, he has been one of the two trainers of the Make it Happen training programme on community building and audience development.
Anna Maria Ranczakowska is a social anthropologist and researcher working across cultural policy, creative networks, and social change. She collaborates with European cultural networks to design participatory research, mentoring processes, and practical tools that turn reflection into action. Within the FULCRUM project, she carried out the Visions for the Future trajectory and co-authored the project's "Manifesto from socio-cultural centres". Her work brings together research, practice, and policy to support cultural organisations responding to long-term social, environmental and economic transformation.
Since 2018, Yvonne Gimpel serves as general manager of IG Kultur Österreich, the association of independent cultural initiatives in Austria. Prior to joining IG Kultur, she worked for over ten years in the cultural policy field, as the Deputy Secretary General of the Austrian Commission for UNESCO and the Austrian focal point for the 2005 UNESCO Convention, among other roles. However, she started her career in the independent media and culture sector, working for film festivals, cultural initiatives, and independent media outlets.
Vittorio Bianco is one of the two chairpersons of the European Network of Cultural Centres, as well as a project manager for several other non-for-profit organisations. With a degree in natural sciences, he started his career in Legambiente, the main environmental protection organisation in Italy, with a focus on urban ecology and sustainable development. He then expanded his field of activity to other aspects of sustainability in the urban context, such as social inclusion, health, the solidarity economy, and culture. Currently he is focusing on the environmental impacts of the cultural sector in particular.
This event is part of "FULCRUM - skills development for future-proof socio-cultural centres". This Erasmus+ project aims to support socio-cultural organisations to become more sustainable and future-proof, by strengthening skills development and their capability for action (a fulcrum is a pivot point or leverage). The project is a cooperation between 9 cultural organisations based in Belgium, Austria, Estonia, Germany, Italy, and Latvia. Learn more here.