Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s Post

What could society gain by listening more to the voices of artists and storytellers? Artists and storytellers have historically played crucial roles in shaping societal narratives and fostering cultural discourse. Recently, however, their presence in mainstream discussions appears to have diminished. We've proposed a panel session at SXSW London 2025 exploring this topic, asking how can we bring artists and storytellers back into public discourse? If you'd love to see this happen, please show your support by following these quick and easy steps: 1. Click this link: https://lnkd.in/dsnYj_5c 2. Log in or sign up (it’s quick and free) 3. Search for the session title - below - to vote. How can we bring artists and storytellers back into public discourse? (A search for 'Public Discourse' also works!) Many thanks in advance for your support in bringing this exciting event to the stage next summer. #SXSWLondon2025 #Conference #PublicVote

At the NI Arts Funders Exchange, we asked: Do funders need to think differently for their investments to succeed? Our key takeaways: 🌟 We have an amazing creative sector in Northern Ireland and change is needed to secure its future. 🤝 Collaboration is key – by sharing learnings, insights and by working together, funders can amplify resources and achieve more. 🚀 Supporting mission-driven growth is vital – and capacity building programmes such as Blueprint allow arts organisations plan strategically, take risks, and grow. 🔎 By exploring a mix of finance models, organisations can unlock new opportunities to achieve their goals A big thank you to everyone who joined us and took part in strategic discussions and to our insightful speakers Emer Morelli, Kate Beggs, Chris McCreery, Phelim Sharvin, Emma Drury and Brian Mullan. 📷 Thanks also to the Duncairn Centre For Culture and Art production team for capturing our event.  

Not necessarily everyone's idea of a treat (I do this so you don't have to!), but today I took a day off to attend the Creative Bureaucracy/Bristol Ideas workshop at the Watershed Centre in Bristol. It was such an inspiring day, exploring how we might make public administrations function better, how we improve their 'inner life' so that officers and politicians can give their best, and how we can make these public organisations relate better to the outside world: opening up participation and decision-making to all who might want to get involved. Moving the answer from "no, because" to "yes, if", being braver, and rebuilding trust in councils and public servants. And with climate change as a stress multiplier, opening the doors wide to innovation and learning from each other so that we can adapt quickly and fairly across the world. Speakers from the UK and around the world shared their experiences of innovative ways of tackling public administration, including radical new: 💡roles - such as the Dutch Chief Heat Officers, reflecting the impact of climate change; the Night Mayor in Amsterdam; Wales's Future Generations Commissioner, a role which has had transformational impact in the Senedd 💡organisations - such as UAE's Ministry of Possibilities, Bologna's Civic Imagination Office, the EU's proposed Citizen's Assembly 💡programmes - the Swedish housing board which celebrates the learnings through failure with its Failure of the Year Award; ideas to bring to and retain talent in the public sector, such as Lithuania's tailored recruitment programme to tempt back those who have worked abroad; schemes from Brazil and Germany that enable sharing of successful innovation in public administration 💡processes - re-skilling councils in procurement, and weaning them off consultants; co-designing policies and processes with service users, in Manchester (homeless people and housing officers) Denmark (patients and clinicians) 💡networks & communities - such as the German Diplomats of Colour network There was masses more and I've come back with lots to think about, plus a notebook full of ideas to explore! Today's event was a spin off from the Creative Bureaucracy Festival that takes place in Berlin each year - you can read more about the Festival here https://lnkd.in/e6ydDJ5M

We had an exciting, inspiring WahlheYmat Talks on October 23, 2024, at the Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek. Before sharing our takeaways, let’s give a big thank you to our guests: Kasia Wojcik, coordinator of Berlin Polyphon, Mine Nang, Co-Director of Give Something Back to Berlin e.V., and Philipp von der Wippel, Founder and Managing Director of ProjectTogether. Special thanks to Deana Mrkaja for moderating, Lucy Alice Thomas for the small group appreciation activity, Barbara Vid for boosting us and the Mentimeter exercise, Elisa for managing the Talks, Khaled Abdalla for handling the tech, Zina Hmidan for the graphics, Raunaq Malhotra for photographing, all our dedicated WahlheYmat volunteers, and everyone in the audience, especially for the insights from Sigrid Arteaga Marquard, Karen Enriquez Monroy, Nadav Nir, David. Wow - our list of contributors shows how the Talks are growing, with more new elements every time! Here are our top 5 takeaways: ONE THING – The first question asked: If you could change only one thing in today’s democracy, what would it be? Responses included: inclusive and equal participation for everyone, and allowing citizens to decide how 50% of all tax income is distributed. ENERGY – The energy in the room was tangible! When people come together to think about solutions and collaborate, energy flows. The room was filled with civic society leaders—true changemakers. REVERSE – The big question: How can we unleash the full energy of civic society? How can we ignite it as a powerful fuel for change? Can we reverse the current relationship between politics and civic society, where politics assigns tasks and provides minimal funding? Imagine if civic society set the agenda for politics. TENSION – There’s tension in society: What do we think about others, the “unknown”? How do Germans perceive newcomers? How much do newcomers understand about Germans, or even second-generation immigrants? We all carry assumptions and prejudices. How can we listen more closely and reconnect? TOGETHER – Society’s challenges are stacking up. Even East-West unity remains incomplete, with visible rifts rather than cohesion. Now, more newcomers seek participation than the entire population of former East Germany. Our only option is to take responsibility for finding new answers - each of us, one by one.

🌍 What can we expect from the EU's Creative Europe Programme in 2025? With an increased budget of nearly €340 million, #CreativeEurope is set to strengthen its focus on sustainability, digital transformation, and social inclusion across culture, media, and cross-sectoral initiatives. New #funding opportunities will be introduced for emerging artists, the literary and #heritage sectors, and expanded support for Ukraine's cultural landscape. Discover how the 2025 program will continue to evolve and support the cultural and creative industries across Europe. Read more about the upcoming initiatives in our latest article. 🔗https://lnkd.in/dDjywef5

Sometimes I think the reason that we have the systems we do, is because we forgot we made them up. If we could make up a #politicalsystem that focussed on reflection, #empathy and thoughtful engagement, we might find ourselves in a different space altogether. Luckily, we now have a #thoughtpartner to do the dreaming, problemshooting, execution and planning with. Meet Parker, who leverages the worlds very best collective insights on every dimension of politics. Your political advocate and sidekick in creating a better #democracy. #AIforGood.

‘Proving Kafka wrong…’ a typically quirky session-title at this year’s Creative Bureaucracy Festival in Berlin, which focuses on the role of public officials in changing the world (within their zone of influence). So it resonated to end up in Prague thereafter – where this amazing moving sculpture of Franz Kafka by David Černý could be interpreted as a metaphor for the labyrinthine layers and moving parts of bureaucratic systems….   The festival, however, celebrates how ‘bureaucrats’ can - and often are – supporting enabling systems that strengthen rights, access to services and agency in the communities they serve. There was lots to digest as usual. Some of my favorites: - ‘What if women designed the cities?’ With no less than 33 leverage points for intervening in urban planning, derived from insights from city-walks with women from all walks of life, in several cities. By May East - see her book by the same name. - Insights into the options for bureaucrats wanting to support change processes: o  Make it happen o  Help it to happen o  Let it happen. Sometimes getting out of the way can matter most…. - How not to let a crisis go to waste: A fascinating input by Mickey Dickerson who led the team tasked with fixing Obama’s crashing healthcare.gov site. Remember that? He argued that most of the time, you can’t change institutions. You have to spot the opportunities, and they typically require a crisis, with some of these elements: o  The organisation faces an existential threat o  There is an element of surprise o  There is time pressure so normal decision-making processes are up-ended o  There is a breakdown in ‘sense-making’: in accepted patterns o  The power structure is disrupted. And then you have to be ready with the alternatives.   All of which certainly resonated…..    Robyn Bennett Charles Landry May East #cbf2024 #cbf

#LatestNews 'Creative Pulse: A survey on the status and working conditions of artists and cultural and creative sector professionals in Europe', is out now! The report, compiled in partnership with Panteia reveals the challenges faced by artists and cultural professionals across Europe providing insights for policy actions Read it here 👉 https://ow.ly/CoaP50Rx2y1

https://lnkd.in/etWHqVDK This year, NGCI attends re:publica 24 festival in Berlin! As a platform for new perspectives and points of view, the festival facilitates a colourful and diverse dialogue that puts responsibility before profits and focuses on the potential for human development, with everyone in society committed to or standing up for the common good. As a digitally diverse society, we are threatened by complex issues and worsening crises that require multidimensional solutions. To meet future challenges, we will need a society that promotes solidarity, public advocacy, and civic engagement rather than one geared toward growth and success. Re: publica takes on these challenges with great curiosity and playful joy, leaving space for positive developments and innovation. So whether we are optimistic or worried, the question is clear: WHO CARES? #rp24

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