We are more - act for culture in Europe
We are more – act for culture in Europe is a Europe-wide campaign for the arts and culture. It was launched in October 2010 and will run until 2013, when the EU decides about its next multiannual budget. The campaign promotes culture, heritage and the arts, together with education, social cohesion and environmental sustainability, as key areas in which the EU has to make more bold investments if it wants to reach its growth objectives and Europe to remain a thriving democracy in the future.
Join the campaign by signing it. Help to get culture in more in the centre of EU interests. We are more!
The two campaign demands are:
A bold and daring Culture Programme for the period 2014-2020 that will fund cutting edge artistic and cultural experimentation around our common European concerns and aspirations. A programme that will support innovative cultural co-operations, and experiment with new artistic, intercultural, social and economic models. Read more about our demands on the next Culture Programme here.
An increased and more explicit support to culture, heritage and the arts in the EU Regional Development Funds dedicated to cohesion and local and regional development, with the building of human, cultural and social capital, sustainable development, social inclusion, cultural participation and enhanced citizenship and governance as objectives. Read more about our demands on the EU regional development funds here.
Why now?
The campaign aims to influence the negotiations on the next multiannual EU budget beyond 2013 – an opportunity that only comes once every decade! The EU budget will be negotiated over the next two years and we want to make sure that the EU contribution to culture is explicit and with a stronger financial envelope.
Who’s behind the campaign?
The we are more campaign has been set up by Culture Action Europe, a civil society membership organisation and political platform for the arts and culture. The campaign is carried out in strategic partnership with the European Cultural Foundation. Culture Action Europe currently has over 100 members that together represent over 80.000 arts and culture players across Europe and beyond – in more than 14 artistic disciplines. The campaign is run in an open source way, and provide tools on the campaign website that encourage and facilitate for the entire cultural sector as well as individuals to get involved in and support the campaign.
Why the name we are more?
Because we want to send a broad, positive message and use the campaign to demonstrate the many different ways in which individuals, communities and arts organisations do more, and contribute more to our societies than what is visible at first glance. Just like the EU is more than coal and steel, and just like we need to speak about more than a single market, GDP and economic growth if we want to discuss wellbeing and human development.
This campaign wants to show that we are many organisations built up by individuals who value and act for culture in Europe.
We are citizens, parents, arts organisations, lovers of culture, and active participants in society.
