Based in Belgium, with associates from 37 different countries
Cultural&Creative Industries; Advocacy; Network and Knowledge Building
Culture Action Europe is funded by its members and additionally gets support from the European Commission – Creative Europe Networks Grant. CAE is also in partnership with the European Cultural Foundation (ECF). As a supporting member, ECF is implementing special projects with CAE.
Culture Action Europe is an active member of other civil society platforms – SDG Watch Group, Civil Society Europe, EESC Civil Society Liaison Group and works in a close collaboration with UCLG – Agenda 21 for Culture.
Their mission is to advocate the arts and culture as a fundamental building block of the common future of Europe and beyond. The CAE network enables them to research the multiple natures of cultural practices, to interact and mediate in order to ease effective policy-level communications and to share our collective knowledge and expertise.
As the only intersectoral network, it brings together all practices in culture, from the performing arts to literature, the visual arts, design and cross-arts initiatives, to community centres and activist groups.
Culture Action Europe (CAE) was established in 1994 under the name of European Forum for Arts and Heritage (EFAH) – Forum Européen pour les Arts et le Patrimoine (FEAP) under the Belgian law. Predominantly as ‘network of networks’, EFAH-FEAP aimed to maintain continuous dialogue and knowledge exchange between the cultural sector in Europe and EU policymakers.
The association changed its name to Culture Action Europe in 2008 and diversified its membership, opening it up to public and private organisations, both large and small. This change was mirrored in the mission and advocacy policies of CAE. It adopted a new strategy, advocating for access to the arts and participation in culture as a fundamental right of every citizen. It has continued lobbying for public investment in culture and the arts as the main force for the development of a sustainable and more cohesive Europe.
Today, CAE is the major European network of cultural networks, organisations, artists, activists, academics and policymakers. CAE is the first port of call for informed opinion and debate about arts and cultural policy in the EU.
The plurality of actions, events, research and opportunities in the cultural field promoted by the organization and their strong leverage on EU issues thanks to their supporting network and to the contestant stimulation of contemporary discourses.