The 6th Edinburgh International Cultural Summit has come to a close

Ministers and experts around the world are pushing for the vital role of creative and innovative education for our economic and social future success.

The final day will highlight climate change as a cultural crisis and drive partnerships with Ukrainian villages, towns and cities with partners around the world to help its recovery.

The 6th Edinburgh International Cultural Summit has come to a close.

Cultural and educational broadcasting [timecodes below]: https://scottishparliament.tv/meeting/edinburgh-international-culture-summit-2022-culture-and-education-august-27-2022

Culture and Sustainability Broadcast [timecodes below]: https://scottishparliament.tv/meeting/edinburgh-international-culture-summit-2022-culture-and-sustainability-august-28-2022

Broadcast closing session [timecodes below]: https://scottishparliament.tv/meeting/edinburgh-international-culture-summit-2022-clothing-session-august-28-2022

Gathering over a weekend of expert contributions and ministerial responses, the Culture Summit was inspired by stories and evidence of the critical role culture must play in the world’s future economic, environmental and social success.

In addition to the keynotes delivered in the Debating Chamber, more in-depth and interactive discussions were held across Congress in breakout workshops and bilateral meetings of governments.

Focusing on the need to transform the relationship between culture and education, Saturday’s talk came from Andreas Schleicher, Director of Education and Skills at the OECD in Paris. [Educ 11:24:00]”The future will always surprise us. Climate change will disrupt our lives far more than this pandemic. And AI will put education to a real test.” talked about the things that are easiest to teach lose their value most rapidly in the workplace.

Talking about the global issues facing us all and the students’ response to and their ability to influence areas of crisis, he said: Ability to do things: Mobilize cognitive, emotional, and social resources. ”

Arguing that arts education and mathematics education are two sides of the same coin, Schleicher said the arts needed to be moved to the center of the curriculum. “For some reason, I’ve come to believe that the decline in creativity that he exhibited between the ages of 10 and 15 had nothing to do with education.” and the energy that fuels the economy.

Deirdre Quarnstrom, Vice President of Education Experience at Microsoft [Educ 11:08:54], shared examples of using Minecraft to build literary character houses, giving students the opportunity to think deeper and more circumspectly than traditional educational formats. She also talked about Scottish creator Stephen Reed and how he tried to ease the experience of Syrian refugees traveling to Scotland by creating in Minecraft a journey a family might experience. This journey was shared with classmates where the family was housed to build empathy before the family arrived. Minecraft works throughout the education and curriculum have been shown to benefit social impact and improve equity and accessibility.

Among the country’s delegation’s responses on education included Hwang Hee, South Korea’s vice minister of culture, sports and tourism. [Educ 11:55:00]Ms Dace Vilsone, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia [Educ 11:58:28]New Zealand Minister for Arts and Cultural Heritage Carmel Ceproni [Educ 12:05:25]Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Keiko Nagaoka [Educ 12:11:59]

The urgent need to transform our approaches and attitudes to climate change drove our conversations on Sunday.

The first keynote of the day was delivered by ethnomusicologist Steven Feld, who delved into Papua New Guinea’s Bosabi Rainforest, where he has been immersed since 1975. He explained how he recorded thousands of songs over 30 years and recorded over 7000 words. Weather features, forest flora and fauna. The tribe he was adopted from sang about water, birds, land, the spirit world and their ancestors, creating memory maps and staying connected through the world of sound. Amid growing global concerns, it has become a tribal resource to help people with issues such as education and law. Feld’s solution to this much-needed resource is working with the Bosabi people to project the heart and importance of the rainforest to the outside world, raise awareness and attention, and help communities cope through sales. was to make recordings, books and films that would generate funds for this. [Sust 10:06:47]

Mina Girgis, Producer and CEO of The Nile Project in Egypt [Sust 10:43:51], linked live from the early mornings in San Francisco, and despite skepticism from those working on the environmental side of things, those working on water issues see the important role that music-based projects can play. We quickly gathered it up and said yes. , that’s exactly what we need right now. The reason we have not signed the negotiated Nile Cooperation Framework Agreement is because there is no trust. ”

Among the reactions of the country delegations on sustainability, the summit heard from Gayan Umerova, Executive Director of the Arts and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF) of the Republic of Uzbekistan [Sust 10:35:33]; Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports of the Republic of Kosovo [Sust 11:00:43]; KM Khalid Deputy Minister for Culture, People’s Republic of Bangladesh [Sust 11:05:57]; Mr. Rao Quan, Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China [Sust 11:13:06]; Masha Vlaowicz

,

Minister of Culture and Media, Montenegro [Sust 11:19:32].

Dance artist Akram Khan [Sust 11:25:17] Khan concluded the session with a moving speech co-written by his daughter. .

Khan told an anecdote of the Amazons of seeing things differently and seeing time differently. The past is in front of you because you can see it, and the future is behind you. “Art makes it possible. It makes it possible to see things in a different way. Perhaps it will reverse the way we see things now.” I wondered if I should also go back to the tribes of the Amazon and learn how to find deep and meaningful ways to regain the connections and interdependencies I had. Nature. In creating his work, he suggested that the past and future should be treated equally, that the answers lie in the past, and that we should listen to our mistakes.

The closing session wrapped up the three days and summed up a call to action in support of Ukraine with James Arroyo, Director of the Ditchley Foundation. [Close 15:06:35] A reminder that “peace is a difficult process, not a state of rest”. He said of the perilous three-day journey that the Ukrainian delegation took to attend the summit, “They have the ambition to wipe Ukrainian culture and identity off both the map and our collective imagination.” “The war initiated by President Putin hinges on defining and promoting one culture at the expense of another, which has been condemned as decadent and unworthy. He went beyond emergency aid, speaking of the practical responses discussed at the summit, including financial support to keep artists, creation of new works, fellowships with Ukrainian artists, partner institutions, technical teams and artists. He said we need to think more long-term about how to help Ukraine. .

Paul Fitzpatrick, National Theater Scotland [Close 15:14:43], quoted Nicola Benedetti’s keynote speech from the first day, summed up the conversation on education. Innovation, he said, comes from the imagination, and called for a system that would break down silos and take advantage of hybrid progress opportunities to reimagine education with more students and diversity. He quoted his Dorotea Deshishku, a political adviser to the Youth Minister who was present from Kosovo, and said it was necessary to “be prepared for a job that has not yet been invented.” His final call is, “With the people in this room, the paradigm shift begins now.”

Fiona Hyslop MSP, Vice-Chair of the Scottish Government’s Net Zero Energy and Transport Committee [Close 15:22:30] reported a conversation on sustainability, beginning by quoting Robert Burns, who rumbled up the rat’s nest with a plow, saying, “I am truly sorry that human domination has disrupted the social cohesion of nature. She added that the use of human technology and carbon over the past few hundred years “has done more than put the brakes on nature’s social cohesion”. It called for building connections, driving social change and bridging differences. Hythrop stressed that massive climate change is happening right now and challenged the room to investigate what they were doing, something she urgently needed as an active citizen of the natural world. conclude by stating

Three live panel discussions from the Culture Summit, LIVE FROM THE CULTURE SUMMIT, gave people around the world the opportunity to hear and ask questions directly. These discussions and summit keynotes are available at www.culturesummit.com.

At the closing of the 6th Edinburgh International Cultural Summit, the partners said:

Rt Hon Alison Johnstone MSP, Speaker of the Scottish Parliament, said: It will continue to have a positive impact on our country and society for some time to come. ”

Angus Robertson MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, Foreign Affairs and Culture, said: Energy, insight and creativity to this year’s summit.

“This event is a boost to both existing and new partnerships and relationships, and I am confident that discussions on critical global issues facing us all will continue in the coming year.”

UK Art Minister Parkinson said: “After a lively debate about freedom, education, sustainability and the vital role that culture can play in all three, I am more confident than ever that culture is a real force for good. Leaving the Edinburgh International Cultural Summit with: In our world.

“It has been inspiring to hear new perspectives and make new connections, and we look forward to working together on many of the ideas we discussed this weekend.”

Fergus Linehan, director of the Edinburgh International Festival, said: The proliferation of new ideas and visions we all discussed during the Summit, and the meaningful support that can take many forms, will allow them to speak their voice. ”

Ministers and cultural policy delegations from over 30 countries attended the summit, presenting a unique and important platform for fostering collaboration among artists, practitioners, thinkers and policy makers from around the world.

The Edinburgh International Cultural Summit is presented by the Edinburgh International Cultural Summit Foundation on behalf of its partners in collaboration with the British Council, Edinburgh International Festivals, Scottish Parliament, Scottish Government and UK Government.

For more information on the Edinburgh International Culture Summit, please visit www.culturesummit.com.