As the global community looks beyond 2030, the intersection of culture and sustainable development takes on renewed urgency. The ENCATC Congress 2025—held in Barcelona, a city renowned for its cultural vibrancy and educational innovation—will gather international scholars, educators, cultural professionals, and policymakers to engage with a critical question: How can cultural policy, practice, and education form the foundations of regenerative futures? Under the theme The Future Is Cultural: Policy, Practice, and Education, this year’s Congress invites reflection on the strategic role of culture not only as the backbone of well-being for individuals, communities, and organisations, but also as the backbone of society itself. In a time of global transformation, how might a deeper integration of cultural values and systems serve as a guiding framework for more inclusive, resilient, and equitable development?

In a world increasingly shaped by ecological uncertainty, democratic fragility, digital acceleration, and growing inequalities, the Congress affirms that culture is not an ancillary domain but a structural condition for human flourishing. It is through culture that societies generate meaning, strengthen social bonds, and imagine alternatives. Culture enables people and institutions to develop the emotional, ethical, and intellectual capacities required to navigate change—not only to sustain systems but to transform them.

ENCATC has long positioned cultural management and policy education as an essential field of knowledge and practice. This Congress will deepen that agenda by focusing on how cultural education fosters civic imagination, critical reflection, and systemic thinking—competencies that are increasingly indispensable in all areas of public life. Engaging with concepts of transformative learning as developed by theorists such as Paulo Freire and Jack Mezirow, ENCATC advocates for education that integrates heart, mind, and action, empowering cultural actors to become agents of just and sustainable transformation.

Such a paradigm demands a rethinking of educational practice—not merely as the transfer of knowledge but as the co-creation of meaning through social learning. Drawing inspiration from the work of Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner, the Congress foregrounds ENCATC’s ambition to be a social learning space, where communities of practice form across institutional, disciplinary, and geographical boundaries. It is within these spaces that new forms of cultural leadership and institutional innovation emerge—driven not only by professional competence but by mutual trust, care, and shared purpose.

In this light, the 2025 Congress will serve not just as an event, but as a living laboratory for cultural inquiry and policy co-creation. Organised in partnership with the Universitat de Barcelona, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, and the Espronceda Institute of Arts and Culture, the programme will include scholarly panels, paper presentations, policy dialogues, project showcases, workshops, and in-person meetings of ENCATC Focus Groups and Think Tanks. These conversations will also feed into ENCATC’s contributions to MONDIACULT 2025 and the European Commission’s Culture Compass, further positioning the network at the heart of the European and global policy debates.

The Congress will explore how cultural policy and management can be reimagined to reflect regenerative values, moving beyond extractive institutional logics toward approaches that prioritise ecological responsibility, cultural rights, artistic freedom, and cross-border solidarity. At stake is the development of a cultural ecosystem that not only adapts to crisis but actively contributes to systemic healing and democratic renewal.

This vision also requires a renewed commitment to cultural educators—those who design the pedagogies and learning environments through which the next generation of cultural actors will emerge. ENCATC calls for sustained investment in cultural education and for its recognition as a vital force in building societal resilience and institutional relevance. Cultural and arts education must be mainstreamed across learning systems, not only for its economic contributions but for its capacity to cultivate connection, responsibility, and hope.

ENCATC members are already advancing this vision in universities, cultural institutions, NGOs, and communities across Europe and beyond. The 2025 Congress is an opportunity to recognise, amplify, and connect these efforts, to collectively assess where we are and where we need to go. As a network rooted in Europe but globally engaged, ENCATC continues to evolve as a trusted platform for horizontal collaboration, co-learning, and long-term capacity building in the cultural field.

At a time when the role of culture is being rediscovered across domains—from environmental policy to mental health, from digital rights to inclusive urban development—the ENCATC Congress 2025 provides a critical space for shared inquiry and future-making. It invites those working at the intersection of research, education, and practice to come together, not only to reflect, but to shape what comes next.