Reframing Cultural Participation: From Access to Agency

Gerald Lidstone, ENCATC President

What happens when cultural participation shifts from access to true agency?
This event examined the limitations of traditional top-down cultural funding, where resources from governments, agencies, and foundations often reach grassroots organisations only through competitive applications. Participants noted that such funding is increasingly tied to external agendas—identity politics, wellbeing, or economic growth—which can restrict rather than empower communities. This model tends to cast people primarily as audiences rather than creators with agency.