In her first international representation as IFACCA’s Deputy Director, Magdalena Moreno participated in the 17th Ministerial meeting for culture in Mexico City on 28-29 August, which included Ministers and higher authorities on culture from the 22 countries of the Ibero-American Community of Nations.
Mexico City became the heart of Ibero-America as the National Council for Culture and the Arts (Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes – CONACULTA) hosted a memorable meeting that included the opening of the Ibero-American International Youth and Children’s Theatre Festival.
The President of CONACULTA, Licenciado Rafael Tovar y de Teresa, spoke of the importance of Ibero-America as a cultural place of convergence for its diversity of peoples and communities.
Some of the key themes that emerged in the discussions were on the digital era and the challenges in protecting copyright, the consolidation and strengthening of its international funding programmes known as the Iber-programmes (that gather support from a minimum of five countries to support and promote international exchange and circulation), and the importance of developing satellite accounts on culture for all the countries in Ibero-America.
Minister of Culture of Chile, Ms Claudia Barattini announced that Chile would be host of the next Ibero-American Congress in 2015, an important meeting where civil society and government agencies come together.
In addition, Minister of Culture of Colombia, Ms Mariana Garcés, spoke of the importance of continuing the campaign for the inclusion of culture in the post-2015 Agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals as set by United Nations.
In this regard, Ms Moreno spoke of the campaign that IFACCA is leading, together with other networks, under the title “the future that we want includes culture” #culture2015goal.
Finally, Ms Moreno informed those present that CONACULTA, the highest authority on arts and culture in Mexico, was in the process of becoming a member of IFACCA, and that the IFACCA community was extremely pleased with this decision.
Nearly 50% of the countries that are members of the Ibero-American space are national members of IFACCA and this constitutes 10% of IFACCA’s global membership.