In May 2009 the British Council began the project Cultural Leadership International (CLI), to engage with partners in countries across the UK, Western Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and the United States.
The cultural sector has a unique and vital role to play, both in rebuilding the world economy and strengthening international collaboration. By nurturing creativity and innovation, the cultural sector contributes immensely to economic development, but this is seldom recognised. As a cultural relations organisation, the British Council realises the value of investing in cultural activity, and in particular the need to invest in the best and most innovative individuals to lead the sector.
The CLI project is about identifying those individuals and developing them into the next generation of international cultural leaders, creating the links that will allow them to share knowledge, and establishing relationships that will encourage cross-border understanding for years to come.
Inspired by the expertise, creativity and dynamism of the original nominees for CLI in the Netherlands and Belgium, and aiming to keep these people involved and extend the reach of the CLI project, British Council Netherlands developed the concept of the ‘Innovators Group’. This includes building a new cultural leadership network across the UK and Benelux countries, which also incorporates an international professional exchange.
The Innovators Group is divided in two branches: one in the Netherlands and one in Belgium. The common link between core members of the ‘Innovators Group’ is that they have potential to lead positive change in their cultural sector.
 The inaugural gathering of the Netherlands branch of the Innovators Group took place on 5 March 2010 in Amsterdam, and was a vigorous and fruitful meeting, exploring the challenges of contemporary cultural leadership and some of the best approaches to audience development.
The report is available for download: Innovators meeting Amsterdam
The second meeting of the Netherlands branch took place on Friday 24 September 2010, at The Ministry for Education, Culture and Science in The Hague and explored the challenges of funding cuts in the cultural sector. Participants also had the opportunity to stay in the city after the meeting to take part in the TodaysArt festival.
The report is available for download: Innovators meeting Den Haag
The last meeting of the Netherlands branch took place on Monday 9 May 2011, at the Graphic Design Museum in Breda and looked at 'Innovations in Curating Design' and 'Culture and its Future Audiences'.
The report is available for download: Innovators meeting Breda
The inaugural meeting of the Belgium branch of the Innovators group took place on Friday 22 October 2010 in Brussels and triggered discussions on engaging with audiences from curatorial, communications and artistic point of views.
The report is available for download: Innovators meeting I Brussels
The second meeting of the Belgium branch of the Innovators group took place on Monday 21 March 2011 in Brussels.
The report is available for download: Innovators Meeting II Brussels
The following materials are available for download (see report above for more details): Workshop 1 EU funding pack (contains 9 documents) ; Workshop 2 Sponsorship (one power point presentation); Workshop 3 ST'art (one power point presentation)
The 6th Innovators meeting was held in Brussels on 7 May 2012 and looked at Diversity and Equality – empty words or real driver for added value?
The 7th Innovators meeting was at Mediamatic Amsterdam on 22 November 2012. The meeting explored case studies of 'New Business Models' in the UK and the Benelux. For futher information please download the report, the video report and take a look at the photos.
The international professional exchanges introduce participants to key contacts, expertise, and practices in the UK’s cultural sector, and then vice-versa when the UK-based counterpart makes a reciprocal visit to the Netherlands or to Belgium. This would be to swap perspectives not just on their own work and strategies, but also well as the wider cultural infrastructure of that region, thus also forming new international channels for sharing expertise and new forms of creative public engagement in the arts.
In the first exchange, which took place between the Netherlands and the UK in February/March 2010, Björn Stenvers, Amsterdam Historical Museum, was partnered with Nick Merriman, The Manchester Museum.
The report is available for download: Innovators Professional Exchange
For more information on the Belgian branch, please contact Isabelle van de Gejuchte. For more information on the Dutch branch, please get in touch with Anna Devi Markus.
For more information about the project in other countries, please see Cultural Leadership International website.
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