5th Annual Conference of the University Network of the European Capitals of Culture (UNeECC)
Lessius University College Antwerp, 27-28 October 2011

On 27 and 28 October 2011 Lessius University College Antwerp hosts the 5th annual conference of the University Network of the European Capitals of Culture (UNeECC). UNeECC is a network of more than 50 institutions of higher education located in former, present and future European Capitals of Culture. UNeECC encourages its members to become involved in cultural policy-making, and in doing so increase their local, national and international standing. Lessius University College Antwerp was one of the co-founders of UNeECC and Lessius’ Vice-Chancellor, Professor Flora Carrijn, is President of UNeECC.

The theme of the conference is Culture in/and Crisis? Some 50 academics and policymakers in the field of culture from 20 countries will discuss the impact of the (economic) crisis on culture; moreover they will ask themselves whether this is a temporary situation, or the symptom of an underlying ‘crisis of culture’. The conference participants will address the theme from both an academic and a practical point of view; most papers are based on concrete situations in European Capitals of Culture and in Higher Education.

The official opening of the conference Culture in/and Crisis? takes place on 27 October 2011 at 18.00h in Campus Sint-Andries, Sint-Andriesstraat 2, 2000 Antwerp. The keynote speakers during the opening session of the conference are Professor Gabriel Fragnière, former Rector of the College of Europe and Chairman of the Europe of Cultures Forum, and Baron Frans Van Daele, Head of Cabinet of the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy.

If you want to attend the opening ceremony, please register at communicatie@lessius.eu.

Since its creation in 2006 UNeECC has become the meeting place for researchers and policymakers in the field of European culture, notably the European Capitals of Culture. The outcome of these encounters can be found in UNeECC Forum, the network’s yearbook that was launched in 2010, and on the UNeECC’s website: www.uneecc.org.

Meanwhile UNeECC has also become the advocate of cultural commitment in higher education. UNeECC’s student working group, for instance, looks into the attitude of students towards culture; during the Antwerp conference the group will participate in Antwerp European Youth Capital 2011. The Erasmus co-ordinators of the member universities meet annually to discuss study mobility and other university collaboration. Moreover UNeECC does not restrict its activities to Europe alone: in May 2011 it was a partner in ‘Living Culture in the University’, a Transatlantic conference organized by the University of Luxembourg in which over 200 European and American students, professors and university cultural co-ordinators participated.

Wim Coudenys