CULTMED project associates Dr Ana Žuvela and Dr Dea Vidović participated in the international scientific conference “Cultural Policy and Sustainable Development: A Global Dialogue,” held from 5 to 7 November 2025 in Lima, Peru, co-organised by the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) and the academic journal Cultural Trends. They presented their paper “Friend or Foe? Philanthropy’s Role in Shaping Sustainability Agendas in the Arts and Cultural Sector” within the panel session “Cultural Policy and Sustainability: Tensions, Communities and Management Models.”
The international conference series “A Global Dialogue,” initiated by Cultural Trends, is conceived as an academic and political platform for discussing pressing public issues and challenges facing cultural policy today. Following its first edition held in Chile in 2023, this second edition focused on the cultural policy paradigm that links culture and sustainable development. While this perspective has been part of international debates for decades, it is particularly relevant today for understanding the inequalities in cultural creation and access to culture. The key question remains how such inequalities emerge, persist, and can be reduced through public policies and governance. In the context of current global dynamics, from democratic regression and the climate crisis to digital transformation, the conceptual framework linking culture and development, focused on the expansion of human capabilities, offers valuable tools to address these challenges and translate them into political action.
The conference brought together researchers from diverse disciplines, policymakers, artists, cultural managers, and representatives of international organisations from around the world. Its program included a series of plenary and parallel sessions, as well as workshops that, through presented research and open dialogue, fostered international discussions and opened new horizons for understanding the interconnection between culture and sustainable development.
More information about the conference and its program is available here.
