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To make the silos dance Back

To make the silos dance

2 Dec 2021

To make the silos dance is a paper written by Gijs de Vries, commissioned by ECF as contribution to the Cultural Deal for Europe. Gijs de Vries is a Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) where his areas of research include international cultural relations. In 2018-2020 he was an external expert in the German Foreign Ministry’s Reflection Group on Germany’s future strategy for international cultural cooperation (AKBP) and in the European Union’s Voices of Culture initiative on culture and the Sustainable Development Goals.

As the author writes in his introduction: “There are three main reasons why culture matters to Europe and why it should figure more prominently in EU policy. Culture matters intrinsically; it is central to a life worth living. Culture also matters as a central component of our societies and economies. Finally, culture matters existentially, as a principal but vulnerable dimension of our common identity as Europeans.”

“The cultural and creative sectors have long argued that the EU needs to adopt a horizontal, holistic view of culture”, de Vries writes. “My paper is intended to offer concrete suggestions about how this mainstreaming can be achieved in practice.”

The paper reflects his personal views. De Vries: “It is definitely not the final word on the subject, on the contrary. I intend it to be an open invitation to a wider conversation, both among policy-makers and among cultural experts. Together we are stronger; with luck and some perseverance I am optimistic that we will succeed in making Europe’s policy silos dance!”

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