Intercult

History and Background

Intercult was founded in 1996 by Chris Torch who has worked both as an actor and theatre director. The organisation has produced many cultural projects in various shapes and sizes. In 1998 Intercult contributed to the European Capital of Culture in Stockholm with the project Landscape X. In the project performers from the X-countries, or the formerly Yugoslavian countries, were presented to the Swedish public. During the years 2004-2010 Intercult lead a series of projects under the title SEAS. SEAS connected cultural operators in harbor cities around Europe. In 2008 Intercult established ERC, European Resource center for Culture and in 2009 Intercult started Europe Direct Intercult, a part of a network of Europe Direct Offices for information about the EU and Europe. Intercult is one of 17 Europe Direct Offices in Sweden. For a list of Intercult’s projects see below.

The ideas that motivate Intercult’s activity are that intercultural competence is essential in our continuously changing world, and that intercultural competence is gained and developed through co-operation, exchange of ideas and encounters between people across cultural and geographical borders.

Organisation, financing and activity

Intercult is non-profit organisation. Chris Torch, as founder and Senior Associate, is responsible for Intercult PROGRAM as well as Artistic Director for the multi-annual project CORNERS. Iwona Preis, as Senior Associate, is responsible for Intercult RESOURCE, including Access Europa (a network) and Europe Direct Intercult (an EU citizen office). Other employees include additional project and administration leaders and a Communication manager.

Between 2011-2015, Intercult was structured with Ida Burén as CEO. Ida Burén left Intercult in July 2015 and the present structure took form.

Financing

Intercult is financed with structural funding, project funding and other income. The structural funding comes from the European Commission, the Swedish Arts Council, Stockholm City Council and the County of Stockholm. The project funding comes from a string of different public funders such as the EU and the Swedish Institute. Intercult generates other income from course fees, lectures, renting out the facilities and ticket sales.

Productions

In the book “Strategic Management in the Arts”, Lidia Verbanova describes how Intercult designs cultural projects. “The project design of Intercult’s arts and culture collaborations takes the form of a platform that can grow with new opportunities for activities and collaborations. A project development usually starts with a core group of co-organisers, and is later extended with hosting partners, co-producing partners and associated partners in different countries and regions. In this way, the project is transformed into a platform with a strong thematic concept and artistic content, which gradually grows with new partners and activities. An example is the multilateral arts platform Black/North SEAS (2006-2010), which involved more than 100 artists and partners from the Black Sea and the North Sea regions.”

And she continues: “Many of the partnerships were cross-boarder collaborations connecting art collectives, municipal authorities, festival organisations, art institutions, free lance cultural operators, and local unconventional venues such as boats, pubs, a flea market, a church and a skateboard club.”

European Resource Centre for Culture

Within the framework of Intercult’s resource center (ERC) Intercult arranges seminars, courses, consultations and conferences. The idea is to share the knowledge that they have built up since the mid-1990s. Intercult’s resource model combines practice, networking and expertise: three areas of knowledge that mirror the organisation’s activity. Since the year 2008 the European Resource center for Culture has been financially established thanks to the Swedish Arts Council, Kulturrådet. ERC organises an annual conference on up-to-date cultural policy issues. Intercult works actively for cultural policies to incorporate an international perspective and a concrete international policy. For a list of previous conferences see below.

List of previous conferences

List of projects