For rights to artistic freedom to be recognised and respected, we must acknowledge that we need different models of leadership to bridge the gaps between rights and responsibilities. Sharing their lived experiences, these speakers will consider how leadership voices are being recognised, amplified, or silenced; the different ways that power is – or could be – shared; and emerging models of cooperation and collaboration that are making a real difference to safeguarding artistic freedom.

How do we progress a shared understanding of artistic freedom? How can leaders leverage their roles as intermediaries between government and the sector, and embed in their work social justice, equity, and respect for the rights and responsibilities to advance artistic freedom?

While too many in the world experience acts of repression and censorship that are barriers to artistic freedom, people are also finding innovative ways to work with umbrella agencies and the arts community to overcome challenges. This includes using legal instruments to defend the rights to artistic freedom, using entrepreneurial start-up mindsets and adopting multiple approaches to understand what constitutes artistic freedoms. By shifting participatory practice and adopting a social justice and equity approach, cultural workers, practitioners and communities are developing creative resilience to promote cultural rights and artistic freedom. This panel will discuss approaches and tools, barriers and key factors for success.

What opportunities have been - or can be - leveraged in response to the pandemic and other global influences - from climate change to social justice? And what will be the enduring effects? How has digitalisation changed the game? Have established structures of creation and distribution been outstripped by democratising technologies that circumvent institutional power?

Key barriers to artistic freedom include the weakness or absence of institutions and protective mechanisms that identify and combat prejudices and discrimination, including on the basis of nationality, race, ethnicity, physical ability, belief systems, or societal norms. These have real-world consequences for artists’ access to decent work and a standard of living, and their ability to enjoy the same social and economic conditions that others do. This lack of access to resources and legislation creates pressures that impede freedom of artistic expression. How can people that have been discriminated against secure their status and working rights as artists and cultural workers, to make their social and economic conditions less precarious and more decent?

Technology and digital innovation have provided new possibilities for engagement, mobility, accessibility and creative expression; and expanded artistic freedom beyond physical borders. However, they have also complicated the exercise of artistic freedom. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated our reliance on digital technologies, and the barriers many people experience due to limited means and/or lack of digital infrastructure and connectivity. This panel will explore how the innovative use of artistic approaches in tandem with technology enables the production and sharing of art in radically inclusive ways and helps expand our notions of artistic practices, which connect delivery of content with social justice to attract younger and more diverse audiences, and break down monopolies in information exchange.

The ubiquitous presence of gatekeepers is one of the more challenging barriers to artistic freedom. These are social norms that give formal or covert power and control to certain people or institutions and as a result benefit only those involved who authorise access. Over time, the impact of gatekeeping invariably perpetuates inequality and reinforces negative stereotypes, which has been highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The question emerges: what type of cultural leadership do we need for a new paradigm and how can it be fostered? This panel will explore how to create more open and collaborative spaces to share power and how gatekeepers can help create space for input and collaboration with genuine intention, respect for, and commitment to artistic freedoms.

As recent events have shown, the climate crisis is having a profound impact on all aspects of life across the globe. This workshop will highlight the interconnection of the environmental crisis, artistic freedoms, climate justice and creative responses. Participants will mobilise creative responses to the issues, share their experiences and insights, and explore current needs. The workshop will also provide an overview of national and international climate governance in relation to culture and the arts in diverse global, social, cultural and economic contexts.

Social media is a powerful vehicle. It has provided great opportunities for democratisation and freedom of expression: to share art beyond established channels, equipping artist-activists and other change-makers with tools for advocacy and amplification. Simultaneously, social media has also been a platform for unparalleled disinformation, hate speech and oppression. This raises questions for this panel about how the creative sector protects its practitioners as well as the integrity of art in the social media space. How adequate are current protections in the rights and regulatory frameworks in asserting those freedoms and rights? And how can the benefits of social media be maximised to create a real and lasting positive change, even as questions are asked of the various platforms on whether and how they discharge their responsibilities appropriately?

Many organisations around the world work hard to provide safe spaces for artists at risk. In many cases, these have provided the only lifeline for those fleeing conflict and/or persecution. This support does not cease when an artist is removed from a threatening environment but entails ongoing support. In recent times, attention has been placed on those that remain in areas of conflict and war, and how the international community can support them on the ground. This panel session will examine the support and infrastructure needed, at local and international levels, to ensure that the cultural rights of displaced peoples are respected and protected; and to support those working in the cultural sector, whose lives and livelihoods have been disrupted. The session will also explore ways in which local, regional and international communities can support efforts on the ground, where the solution may be in-country support rather than relocation and displacement.

This panel session will explore how creative practitioners, activists, civil society organisations and other actors can enable us to reimagine community, resilience and social justice in the context of increasing intolerance and shrinking public space. Socially engaged practice is a tool which creative practitioners use to involve people and communities in the process of making art through social collaboration, interaction and dialogue. The panel will reflect on and challenge how this approach enhances or compromises the exercise of artistic freedom; and explore how the critical success factors of this approach can be transferred across borders and in different contexts around the globe.

In a globalised and post-colonial world, the concept of nationalism is complex. In some cases, it can help frame our context and, in cultural policy work, it can protect and promote cultural expressions. In other cases, nationalism can serve as a mechanism or justification to prioritise nationhood over other beliefs and behaviours, creating a hierarchy over loyalty or association to other groups or identities. These two approaches can also coexist within the same country. The current rise of far-right extremism and nationalist imperialism poses significant threats to democracy and freedom of expression.

In this session, the panel will explore tensions in advancing and supporting artistic freedom in an era of rising nationalism and ask: How can we strengthen the rights of artists to express themselves in diverse political, social, cultural and belief systems? Do different geopolitical regions call for different approaches and emphases?

Across the world, communities and people affected by colonialism and globalisation have urged the international community to look at alterative models to safeguard their cultural, social and natural resources and expressions, with varying degrees of success. First Nations Peoples have been prominent in these discussions, as have other communities that want to reclaim their own narratives. The agency of communities and urgency of the issues is further affected by recent developments, from the pandemic to the climate crisis.

In this session, the panel will look at key developments including the issues in freedom of expression for traditional knowledge and cultural expressions, as well as restitution and ownership of stories, symbols and artefacts. The panel will also explore the adequacy of existing tools for protecting these freedoms, especially Western binary approaches to intellectual property frameworks that separate traditional knowledge from cultural expressions that are lived holistically? What are the emerging opportunities, risks and mitigating measures that will enable a more appropriate promotion of diversity of cultural heritage systems? And how can collective cultural rights be safeguarded in the context of artistic freedom?

Worldwide, artists face increasingly complex challenges and threats. Political polarisation, threats to multicultural democracies, and digital manipulation of information all put artists, cultural rights, and issues of freedom of expression on the front line. Globally, culture wars are making the political personal, fuelling hatred and division.

Threats to artistic freedom in the digital environment come from a variety of state and non-state actors and for many artists creating counter strategies to these hyper-polarised forces comes with myriad risks, whether censorship, persecution, or grappling with the policing of art online.

In this long table session led by Fellows of the Salzburg Global Seminar, we will explore the intersections of contemporary art, activism, politics, research, and technology. We will discuss how we can better stimulate and maintain free and diverse spaces for creation, dissemination, and access to cultural life in the digital environment.

Is it meaningful to speak of margins and mainstream? Can we integrate these concepts in a respectful way and co-create new shared narratives? In many parts of the world, one of the ways that artistic freedom is controlled is via restricted and constricting parameters in the arts and cultural value system that limits artists’ access to funding and resources, which results in conceptually conforming work and self-censorship.

In this interactive and participatory workshop, delegates are invited to explore how artists decolonise aesthetics in community settings, find alternative ways, and champion issues such as women’s rights in environments within limited and controlled spaces.

This training workshop will provide participants with a broad overview of the threats that artists experience around the world, as well as practical advice on how to prepare for, react to, and overcome them. Drawing on the Safety Guide for Artists and relevant recent research by the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), the workshop will begin with an overview of the patterns of persecution that artists face, including who is most likely to face risk, why, and from where, and will introduce participants to laws and regulations commonly used to criminalise artists. Finally, it will provide artists with knowledge of how to document threats and the range of resources available to them so that they are better equipped to identify, seek and receive assistance. The target audience are artists and arts organisations.

The various thoughts, viewpoints and reactions stimulated by Day Two sessions may not have been fully heard or shared. This Open Space is a responsive space for delegates to continue the conversation, seek clarity or share learning on the different contextual understandings of artistic freedom and how these manifest. The space will be facilitated by an experienced moderator to help identify and capture key ideas. Interested delegates can bring their topics to the session. These will also feed into the World Summit reporting.

This is a reflective space to have quiet conversations as topics emerge. It is a space for delegates to reflect on the day’s proceedings either by themselves or in small groups. Normal library etiquette will apply: no loud conversations, no use of any device that may be overheard by or distract others in the space and no eating or drinking.