European inventory of
societal values of culture

Working Group on Better access to and wider participation in culture - Policies and good practices in the public arts and in cultural institutions to promote better access to and wider participation in culture

Working Group on Better access to and wider participation in culture. (2012). Policies and good practices in the public arts and in cultural institutions to promote better access to and wider participation in culture. European Union Open Method of Coordination - EUROPEAN AGENDA FOR CULTURE WORK PLAN FOR CULTURE 2011-2014.

This report is the outcome of the work undertaken by the Working Group on Better access to and wider participation in culture, a group of twenty-four experts representing an equal number of EU Member States. The Working Group was launched in early 2011 under the Council Work Plan for Culture 2011-2014 which implements the European Agenda for Culture. The group worked together using the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) - a voluntary cooperation between EU Member States which aims at improving policy-making by exchanging those lessons learnt by the various Member States. The method was extended to the field of culture in 2008 on the recommendation of the European Commission in the European Agenda for Culture (2007). The main issues discussed by the group were illustrated through examples of policies and initiatives developed by cultural institutions, highlighting current practice in access and participation from the contributing Member States, either in relation to policy measures or to practices by arts and cultural institutions.