The 5th edition of the Cultural Management Academy was organised by the Goethe-Institut Bucharest between 2  – 12 November 2023 in Istanbul, Türkiye. 

Under the overarching theme of “Cultural Resilience and Authenticity: Navigating Turbulent Times for Cultural Managers”  the programme was set to host 12 cultural managers from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Moldova. Over the course of one week, the programme aimed to create an environment of mutual sharing, experiential learning through seminars, workshops, and institutional visits, as well as fostering networking and collaboration among participants. We, as the Culture Unleashed, contributed to this carefully curated programme with a seminar, a dynamic and tailor-made workshop and an exciting and insightful excursion to introduce the culture scene of Kadıköy.

On the first day, Mustafa Gül executed a thought-provoking seminar on best practices, exploring the nuances of policy and programme development within the creative industries and shared the Istanbul Development Agency’s perspective on creative industries. On the same day, Emre Erbirer and Mustafa Gül held the “Policy and Programme Development Roadmap Workshop”. The workshop was specifically designed for the programme and prioritised participation and collective production. The workshop theme was selected as “European Capitals of Dialogue” as proposed by one of the participants. General objective of the European Capitals of Dialogue was “helping establish peace via intercultural dialogue in Europe and its neighbouring regions” and the specific objective was “developing a new programme to foster intercultural dialogue.” As a result of the workshop, participants developed an intercultural programme within European Capitals of Dialogue as a combination of their project they developed in three different teams. 

The participants firstly discussed and explored the macro and micro level problems related to intercultural dialogue and their impact. After defining and discussing about the problems, participants worked on their canvases and explored and developed their perspective how a European Capitals of Dialogue as a programme can be managed, what type of governance model can be implemented with the help of interest and influence matrix, how the communication plan can look like, and developed their team projects. 

On the second day, the participants joined an excursion meticulously developed by Emre Erbirer to introduce the historical and dynamic creative scene of Kadıköy, a district known for its long lasting cultural life and attracting an increasing number of people with its diverse institutions and inclusive cultural environment. The excursion started in Kadıköy pier and the participants visited different cultural institutions in three different neighbourhoods of Kadıköy and learned their history and current situations from Emre.