The culture office of the city of Dortmund is organising an international conference to present and discuss different concepts of the intercultural work in local communities. Co-Organiser is the culture department of the state chancellery of NRW. The Congress ist supported by German UNESCO-commission, Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft (German association for cultural-policies), RUHR.2010 – Cultural Capitel of Europe, EUROCITIES and the Council of Europe.

The congress will present the respective specific strategies, concepts, structures, models and lead-projects from different towns and regions, cultures and societies that are relevant for the intercultural work on the spot. Primarly the best practise and concepts of action from in large cities in Europe (e.g. Amsterdam/Netherlands, Lyon/France, and Barcelona/Spain) will be presented and discussed. In these presentations the best practise attempts become the focus of attention whereby the presentation should be carried out by qualified experts from those cities who combine practical experience with conceptual points to this topic.

Of course this practical part which is the focal point of the conference will be complimented by theoretical and cultural-policy contributions among others from NRW some selected European countries and the EU. The results of the research on the cultural participation of immigrants which is currently being carried out in Germany for the first time in the city of Dortmund should be presented at the conference too.

Main questions the conference deals with are:

How can arts and culture support the integration of migrants?
What are the needs and demands of migrants in respect to the cultural institutions in their new homeland?
Which measures can local communities undertake to strengthen the process of cultural integration of migrants?