IFACCA's board will meet in Hanoi, Vietnam, on 25-26 October. The meeting, to be hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Information, will provide an opportunity to discuss recommendations arising from recent mini-summits, the theme of the next World Summit and new project proposals. The last meeting was in Washington DC in April 2004. Suggestions for agenda items are always welcome by the IFACCA secretariat.

NewcastleGateshead, England, has been selected by IFACCA as the venue for the Third World Summit on the Arts and Culture. To be co-hosted by the Arts Council England, the Summit will be held on 14-17 June 2006. The Summit, which will focus on the role of the arts and culture in regeneration, is expected to attract about 500 cultural leaders, policy makers and regeneration managers from around the world.

IFACCA today released its latest D'Art report, Arts and Disability Policies. Written by IFACCA's research analyst, Chris Madden, with the help of 11 respondents, the report looks at concepts and issues surrounding disability and the arts, and explores disability policies and programs adopted by arts funding agencies. Examples of arts and disability initiatives are provided, with resources listed both by type of initiative and by country. The report will be of interest to anyone looking to develop arts and disability initiatives or review existing policies and programs. IFACCA welcomes feedback and additional comments on the report. For more information on the D'Art program, click here.

A strategy for the international development of new media culture policy, the Helsinki Agenda, has been proposed by the participants in the expert meeting on media arts and media culture policy which took place on 22-23 August. The paper outlines the values of new media culture, provides 11 recommendations and three proposals for further action. The meeting was co-hosted by IFACCA, the Arts Council of Finland and m-cult centre for new media culture during ISEA2004, the 12th International Symposium on Electronic Art.

IFACCA has received a query from Mary Ann DeVlieg, Network Coordinator of the Informal European Theatre Meeting (IETM), for information on artists' mobility programs. Ms DeVlieg is looking for information on programs that aim to encourage the movement of artists across national borders. IETM has developed a bibliography of recent European Commission communications, studies and documents on artists' mobility. A link to this bibliography is provided in the attachment here with other online resources on artists' mobility collated by the IFACCA secretariat. CONTEXT As the references and resources attached to this question indicate, artists' mobility is an issue of considerable and increasing interest to national and international arts support agencies in our 'globalised' context. With the aid of new communications technology and cheaper travel, artists are collaborating more easily across national borders. Research indicates, however, artists themselves encounter a variety of obstacles when moving between countries. Examples of hindrances are: financial barriers administrative and institutional barriers, such as obtaining visas, and navigating legal and institutional rules and regulations in other countries loss of protection of rights, social security and professional support access to relevant information about working in other countries. A number of recent meetings have focused, at least in part, on how to encourage and facilitate artists' mobility: Following the Second World Summit on the Arts and Culture in November 2003, IFACCA and the Asia-Europe Foundation held the first Asia-Europe Arts Promotion Agencies Network (ASEARTS) conference. The theme for the conference was the international mobility of artists between Asia and Europe (Link). The Networking for the Arts in Europe meeting in Cork, Ireland, in May 2004 hosted by the Arts Council of Ireland, aimed to explore how the national level arts development bodies and departments across Europe might work together to improve conditions for artists' mobility, circulation of artistic works and transnational artistic collaboration. (Link). The World Cultural Forum in So Paulo, Brazil, in July 2004, provided a platform for reflecting on and discussing global issues of arts and culture and policy, and to offer new forms of international cooperation (Link). The Sharing Cultures conference organised by the European Cultural Foundation, Rotterdam, in July 2004, discussed new initiatives for cultural cooperation in Europe. (Link). The full paper on Policy Recommendations for Mobility, drafted by IETM, can be found on http://www.ietm.org What do we mean by artists' mobility? We are seeking information on programs that arts agencies and other organisations have developed to facilitate the movement of artists across national borders. Examples of such programs might be: Funding programs to provide money to artists to travel abroad to work, research, train or gain experience, such as mobility funds, travel grants, and 'go see' grants. Published guides with information to help artists work abroad. Touring guides and programs that help artists and arts groups tour to other countries. Touring guides and programs that help overseas artists tour in your country. International artist exchange programs. International artist residencies. Websites that help artists find information and contacts in other countries. In order to focus our search, we are putting a lower priority on information about programs that promote the exchange of art products, or programs that help artist emigrate permanently. QUESTION We would be very grateful for any materials, weblinks, or other resources that could help us with the following: Details of policies and programs about artists' mobility and artists' exchanges Evaluations of such policies and programs Guidelines and resource materials for artists' exchange programs and residencies Research on artists' mobility Websites, bibliographies and databases on artists' international mobility Please email information to [email protected] by Friday 15 October 2004.

m-cult, centre for new media culture in association with Arts Council of Finland and IFACCA will host an expert meeting on 22-23 August to share information on policies to support media arts and new media culture. With participants from Canada, India, the Netherlands, England, Thailand and Australia, the meeting is bound to generate an interesting debate. Reports on the meeting will be published online by IFACCA and the Arts Council of Finland will pubIish (in English) a special edition of their quarterly magazine, ARSIS. The meeting is held in affiliation with ISEA2004, the 12th International Symposium on Electronic Art 12-22 August 2004. The mini-summit will also aim to: * assess implementation of new media policy, both models of best practice and failures * understand the implications of media arts-specific policy in relation to a model where "new media" is supported across the spectrum of all art forms * discuss new media culture policy, where media arts is a focus area * discuss the increasing focus on combined research and production and the challenge the approach poses for traditional divisions in funding * discover ways through which international collaborations (productions, networks, non-local organizations) could be better funded: the networked new media culture. * develop concrete collaborations, possible funding schemes, statistics accumulation, research and development projects amongst the participants ISEA2004, the 12th International Symposium on Electronic Art 12-22 August 2004, is a major media arts and culture event that spans Helsinki and Tallinn and Baltic Sea cruise. To see the ISEA2004 tabloid magazine about its programme, go to: http://www.isea2004.net/mainframe.php?id=latestnews