Cultural Happy Hour is ENCATC’s flagship initiative designed to bridge the long-standing gap between European cultural networks, EU institutions and Brussels’ local arts and cultural ecosystem. Since 2013, these informal yet strategic gatherings have created a shared space for professionals from across Europe to connect, exchange, and build partnerships — breaking institutional silos, increasing access to European cooperation and funding, and strengthening cultural collaboration across borders.

This working group aims to improve academic standards and quality of education by breaking stereotypes, understanding “otherness”, and embracing diversity in education. The goal is to lead to innovative approaches in managing creative projects and new working opportunities for graduate students, keeping in mind the economic, social and academic impact of internationalisation to extend beyond personal growth and contribute to the advancement of the arts and culture field as a whole. This working group will convene each year through 4 online webinars and one meeting in presence. One of the outcomes will be the production of a toolkit for the internationalisation of culture programmes including a list of best practices at the end of 2026, to be updated in 2028, and similarly an article each for the annual Policy Tracker in 2026 and 2028.