Diversity, authorship in the AI ​​era, and the "culture of peace" will be the focus of Mondiacult's Civic Agora.

Before Mondiacult brings together more than 150 ministers of culture, Barcelona will warm up with another major international gathering, that of civil society and cultural stakeholders from the world's major cities. While cultural policymakers must reach consensus on international legislation and public measures to enhance the role of culture in society, this Civic Agora aims to propose concrete proposals and decisive actions from cultural facilities and their creators toward the same goal.

The event will begin on September 26 and conclude on October 1. The opening ceremony will be led by Alexandra Xanthaki, UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights, who will discuss culture as a key element in human development and concepts such as diversity, accessibility, and sustainability. "We weren't interested in holding just a meeting of ministers. We wanted to use Mondiacult to give a voice to the sector itself. We've managed to bring together a variety of voices, themes, and emphasis to consider the connection between culture and development," stated Jordi Martí, Secretary of State for Culture.

The meeting will serve, among other things, to present the Ministry of Culture's new Cultural Rights Plan , with 146 measures and five main lines of action: guaranteeing cultural democracy, strengthening culture as a tool to address contemporary challenges, promoting the sustainability and independence of the cultural ecosystem, consolidating cultural rights as a framework for public action, and coordinating a public administration committed to guaranteeing these cultural rights.

At the same time, the Catalan Government's Ministry of Culture will present its own Cultural Rights Plan , which has already been approved by the Catalan government and is now undergoing parliamentary approval. "We want to complement a historic event like Mondiacult, where we can agree on common policies and compare the results of the measures established to enhance the transformative capacity of culture," said Sonia Hernández, the Catalan Government's Minister of Culture.

This Civic Agora, with more than 100 scheduled activities , will include names such as Patrice Meyer-Bisch , one of the authors of the Freiburg Declaration, Justin O'Connor , author of the influential essay 'Culture is not an industry', Daisy Fancourt , the prestigious psychobiologist and epidemiologist, the Colombian journalist and lecturer Jorge Melguizo, the activist Alison Tickell and the singer María Arnal. "The aim is to establish connections and networks between different international cultural agents. We want to lay the foundations to ensure that culture will have its specific space within the next UN 2040 Agenda," said Jordi Baltà, curator of an event that includes 76 conferences, round tables and small-scale in-person performances, as well as around thirty online activities.

In total, both Mondiacult and Civic Agora will share six thematic axes. The first is ensuring equality, participation, and accessibility within universal cultural rights. The second is protecting linguistic diversity and giving voice to minority cultures. The third is how Artificial Intelligence has changed the paradigm of copyright and what the role of public authorities should be in regulating it. The fourth is the relationship between culture and peace, with representatives from conflict zones, such as Palestine . The fifth is the need for culture to be included in the upcoming 2040 Agenda established by the UN. Sixth is establishing the value of culture as a force for expressing both individual and collective identities in order to influence more just societies.

Civic Agora will also bring together the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) association to establish the foundations for local culture and the role of cities in ensuring universal access to culture. The Culturopolis conference will also open, where the Barcelona Declaration on Cultural Rights will be presented. Finally, the Ministry of Culture will present the Culture and Citizenship Meeting , which this year celebrates its eleventh edition. "In a dark context of ongoing crises, culture is not exempt from responsibility. We want to demonstrate that culture is more than just another economic sector, but rather a citizen right with transformative power," concluded Martí.