By International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies
Published October 5, 2011
The Chairman of the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA), Alan Davey (Chief Executive of Arts Council England), on October 4, 2011 announced that Chile would host the 6th World Summit on Arts and Culture in its capital, Santiago, on January 13-16, 2014.
Receiving the honour in Melbourne on the eve of the 5th World Summit was the Minister of Culture and President of the Chilean National Council of Culture and the Arts, Luciano Cruz-Coke. Minister Cruz-Coke will address delegates of the Melbourne Summit at its conclusion on Thursday, October 6, 2011 and present a video invitation to Santiago and the next Summit.
This will be the first time that the World Summit has been staged in Latin America.
The Summit will be presented in Santiago’s award-winning Estación Mapocho Cultural Centre. The Centre’s director, Arturo Navarro, was also in Melbourne for the announcement.
“It is great to announce the first World Summit to be held in Latin America,” said Alan Davey. “Chile is a nation of rich artistic and cultural heritage, and the setting, the Estación Mapocho Cultural Centre, is truly inspiring. We know that Australia has set the bar very high with the 5th World Summit, but that Chile will more than meet the challenge.”
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One of IFACCA’s most significant initiatives, the World Summit on Arts and Culture, provides national arts councils, ministries of culture and other agencies with an opportunity to discuss key issues affecting public support for the arts and creativity. Previous World Summits on Arts and Culture have been held in Canada (2000), Singapore (2003), England (2006), South Africa (2009) and Australia (2011).
Provisionally entitled Creative citizens: technology and culture for diversity, the theme for the 6th World Summit will address the current context of globalisation and the challenges in the cultural arena, specifically in relation to safeguarding and protecting cultural diversity and cultural identities. New technologies in culture represent an opportunity to impact positively on the visibility and legitimatisation of cultural identities, to foster increased cultural diversity, and to enhance access, production and exchange of cultural goods.
IFACCA is the worldwide network of national arts funding agencies dedicated to improving good practice in arts and cultural policy development, arts funding, audience development and public access to the arts. The announcement of the host of the next Summit was made at IFACCA’s fourth General Assembly of members, in conjunction with the 5th World Summit on Arts and Culture in Melbourne, Australia.
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At the General Assembly, IFACCA members also elected four new board members: Vasudevan Venu, (Joint Secretary of the Indian Ministry of Culture), Pius Knüsel (Director of Pro Helvetia/Swiss Arts Council), Gonzalo Martin de Marco (Deputy National Director of the Chilean National Council for Culture and the Arts) and Elise Huffer (Human Development Program Adviser, Culture, at the Secretariat for the Pacific Community, Fiji). Other board members are listed on the IFACCA website and include Kathy Keele, Chief Executive of the Australia Council.
At the General Assembly, IFACCA also launched WorldCP, an international database of cultural policies.
