Cultural diplomacy: creating memories
Since 1995 Dr. Victoria Solomonidis has been cultural counsellor at the Greek Embassy in London and the UK representative of the Hellenic Foundation for culture. Recently awarded an honorary fellowship by King's College London for her work in the cultural field , she opted not for a celebratory party but for a colloquium on the issue of cultural diplomacy, under the title "Angels Abroad: Cultural Diplomats at Work". Sitting in her Mediterranean blue attic office overlooking Holland Park she talks with great passion and commitment about the importance of cultural diplomacy today.
What is cultural diplomacy and what role does it play?
I believe cultural diplomacy is one of the key foundations of 21st Century international relations. We in the cultural field are part of a web of interaction and what we do is not an end in itself. However, I think it is accepted in most countries today that cultural relations are an essential third dimension in relations between states: "third" because they accompany politics and trade. It was no less a figure than Willy Brandt in 1966 who said culture was "the third pillar of foreign policy."
More recently, UNESCO, in its 2002 Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity described culture in the following way: "... culture should be regarded as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, and that it encompasses, in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs".
If we take this broad definition then cultural diplomacy or cultural relations can be seen in the context of work to transform traditional prejudices into attitudes of understanding and co-operation. It offers the potential for minimising tensions and managing difficult situations wherever they occur through the process of introduction, interpretation and, hopefully, sharing experiences.
Cultural diplomats engage with another country where relations are hostile, weak or non-existent or they work to sustain relations where they are basically sound but need reinforcement. They can also help counteract negative perceptions with positive models
And of course we want to share our love and enjoyment of aspects of our own cultural life that we are proud of.
Can I give you an example of cultural diplomacy? In 1972, following secret communications between the USA and China through third parties, where neither side wanted to blink first in public, the actual break-through which led to the Nixon/Mao meeting took the form of a table tennis tournament. If ping pong is a form of culture, this was an outstanding example of cultural diplomacy.
How has the cultural diplomacy scene changed in recent years?
The notion of cultural diplomacy has been changing steadily over the past 25 years and particularly since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Direct government-to-government arts and heritage cooperation has lost some of its political, historical, diplomatic and cultural importance. Resources for intergovernmental cultural cooperation in Europe have diminished steadily since the end of the Cold War. This has affected budgets of cultural attachés and of the national cultural institutes located abroad.
In recent decades, intergovernmental cultural cooperation has aligned itself more with wider educational and scientific agendas, and it has increasingly been acknowledged as that "third pillar" (alongside politics and economy) in some international negotiations.
Cultural cooperation in Europe is made up nowadays of a huge flow of projects and initiatives, launched and implemented by individual artists, non-profit organisations, local museums, theatres and companies, arts management companies, local and regional authorities, as well as by national governments and those organisations coming under their structures. Projects involving exclusively national governments are less and less the norm. However, it seems that for many reasons, states do have a role to play in filling the enormous gap existing in Europe between the domestic cultural agendas and the creation of a comprehensive European cultural space, the fostering of creative circles and the availability of resources for the emergence of new audiences.
In general terms, I would say European cultural cooperation has shifted from direct governmental action to governmental support for activities proposed by private or non-profit cultural organisations. Support to non-governmental activities is seen increasingly as the preferred form of indirect cultural diplomacy, benefiting the governments, the cultural operators and the audiences. Observation of cultural flows among European states shows clearly that extra-European cultural diplomacy is increasingly taking precedence over European choices. The emergence of markets in Asia, Latin America and some Arabic countries has prompted renewed national cultural activity. With regard to Europe, some EU member states have chosen of late to divert resources towards accession countries, while reducing their presence in the current EU territory.
But the constraints are the same as ever. When asked what were the chief obstacles to pursuing transnational cultural cooperation, the main factors listed by the national cultural institutes are insufficient time and human resources and not enough funds.
With so much cultural activity from individual artists and other non-governmental organisations nowadays, do we still need formal mechanisms and cultural institutions abroad?
The question has been asked ad nauseam, generally by those who hold the purse-strings: how do we justify formal structures and the expenditure that goes with them? "If they want our cultural stuff they should pay for it". The trouble is they cannot, or will not. The British Council was established in 1934 precisely to counter fascist propaganda on the eve of the Second World War; its establishment was overtly a political gesture, though the means were non-political and, to this day, the Council remains an independent organisation with a vastly enlarged remit. Other cultural institutions like the Goethe Institute, the Instituto Cervantes, and the Hellenic Foundation for Culture, though to a greater or lesser extent state-funded, are similarly structurally independent of their Foreign Ministries. The Alliance Française goes even further by having bi-national governance and bodies such as the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Onassis Foundation, to name but two, pursue aims complementing those of the cultural diplomacy institutions at national level.
How did you become involved in cultural diplomacy and what sort of work are you doing in the UK?
I completed my postgraduate studies at King's and joined the Greek Foreign Ministry in 1979. After a brief spell in Brussels, I joined our London Embassy in 1981, whereupon my then Ambassador instructed me to take over formal responsibility for cultural affairs. In 1995, after a four year spell in Italy, where I worked for both our Embassy and UNESCO, I returned to London and have been here ever since, acting as Cultural Counsellor to the Embassy and UK Representative of the Hellenic Foundation for Culture.
During the 80's and the early 90's, our work concentrated mainly on the academic side, with artistic exchanges rather piecemeal and definitely under-resourced. But since then two events have transformed our capacity: the establishment of the Hellenic Foundation for Culture as the national cultural institute in 1992, with the London branch opening in 1994. and the setting up of the Greece in Britain series in January 1998 www.greeceinbritain.org.uk
The series was conceived as a one-off programme of events to mark the UK Presidency of the European Union and was intended to last for six months. We will soon be celebrating our tenth year. The motto of the series is "to illustrate the wealth and diversity of Greek culture". This allows for initiatives across a wide range of activities and with a long historical perspective, from the achievements of the Classical and Byzantine periods to modern and contemporary aspects of Greek culture.
More than 3 million Brits visit Greece every year, most of them on return visits. They get to know our culture, and some of them form the basis of our core Greece in Britain audience around the country.
Through Greece in Britain, we organise lectures, poetry readings, book presentations,exhibitions, concerts, film screenings, theatre and dance performances, as well as gigs in clubs with popular Greek bands. These events take place in venues around the country as part of their regular programmes and attract audiences which may or may not have heard of Greek music, or seen a Greek film. The contribution of the partner venues is immeasurable. From art galleries in Belfast, to night clubs in Leicester and Coventry, Edinburgh's Filmhouse and the Arts' Centre in Dundee, Cardiff's St David's Hall and beyond, we are delighted to bring our Greek 'products' wherever we are invited.
Education is another huge part of our remit. We work closely with universities throughout the UK, wherever classics, Byzantine studies or Modern Greek is available. We provide scholarships for post-graduate studies in Greece to UK nationals We work with museums and learned societies in organizing events, seminars, colloquia and conferences addressed to specialists and the general public alike We respond to numerous requests for educational and other material from schools and individuals up and down the country We assist many of the 30,000 young Greeks who have chosen the UK for their studies. In turn, they act as 'cultural ambassadors' through the Hellenic Societies operating at the various universities.
The cultural Angels Abroad colloquium is going to become an annual event at King's College does this reflect the growing importance of the subject?
I personally do not regard cultural diplomacy as simply one element in normal diplomatic relations - it is something which can transcend diplomacy itself. It is often said that the golden age of diplomacy has passed. This may be, but beyond diplomacy is cultural diplomacy and for me this particular form of cultural relations is proving itself today and holds the promise for the future. Those involved are not just professional diplomats but academics, festival directors, arts administrators, artists and writers. As I said earlier we are part of a web of interaction. We, cultural diplomats, are the enablers who know our home constituencies, and the interests and operational modes of our host country. We bring together the appropriate partners in the two countries, help negotiate arrangements, iron out the inevitable wrinkles and then stand back and let the real doers, the artists, do their thing. Without I hope blowing our trumpet too brazenly, we make things happen which otherwise would not happen. We are very much in the business of creating memories.
The inaugural colloquium - Angels Abroad: Cultural Diplomats at Work took place on November 22 2006 at King's College London
For information on the 10th Anniversary Programme of Greece in Britain: www.GreeceinBritain.org.uk