The Cultural Observatory of the Universitat de València organises, jointly with two Ibero-American universities, a series of international events to share experiences on culture as a global public asset. The activity is carried out under the framework of the 75th anniversary of the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI) and will extend for a whole year, until March 2025.
Ibero-American conversations with observatories includes 12 online talks in which 27 Cultural Observatories and Cultural Information Systems pertaining to a variety of Ibero-American countries will take part. All of these conferences are open access, will be broadcasted online and will be shared on the websites of the participating observatories. The conferences will start this Monday, 15 April, and will be carried out on the third Monday of each month until March 2025, always at 18:00 (Spanish time).
This initiative stems from the Observatório de Políticas de Ciência, Comunicação e Cultura [PolObs] of the Universidad do Minho (Portugal) and counts in the organising committee with the Observatório de Políticas Públicas Culturais da Universidade de Brasília (Brazil). The Cultural Observatory of the Universitat de València has been invited to be part of the organising committee.
“This invitation comes at a key time for the Cultural Observatory of the Universitat de València, after almost five years of creation under the wing of the Office of the Vice-Principal for Culture and Society of the Universitat. We are proud that the work we have put in is producing results of international scope. This is an extremely valuable opportunity to create bonds and collaboration networks with scholars and cultural agents of the 27 Ibero-American cultural observatories involved, something completely in line with the Strategic Plan of the UV for 2023-2026”, noted Raúl Abeledo, head of the Cultural Observatory of the Universitat de València.
This series of events has as its main objectives to strengthen the relations between Ibero-American cultural observatories, to draw attention to their strategic role in the development of the cultural sector and to reflect on the new role of culture as a global public asset.
The Cultural Observatory of the Universitat de València directly organises 4 out of these 12 events, acting as moderator of talks and dynamising dialogues. The first one will be carried out this Monday, 15 April, at 18:00 (Spanish time), and will consist of the inaugural dialogue between the three organising observatories. The conference is open access and does not require prior registration. Those interested can join through this link, also found in the website and the social media platforms of the Cultural Observatory of the Universitat de València: https://www.uv.es/observatoricultural
Twelve open access podcasts, which will soon after be available on the website of the Observatori, will be composed with the materials extracted from these dialogues. In addition to this, the series of events will result in a publication co-edited by the organising observatories which will be available to the public starting October 2025.
The closing three-way conference will be held in 2025, coinciding with the official activities of the 75th anniversary of the OEI. It will consist of three keynote conferences and three panel discussions that will summarise the conclusions and challenges that the 12 previous events will present. These conferences will be on-site, one for each organising university, in October 2025.
