In today’s rapidly changing world, it is a great challenge to create a path for sustainable societies working together to face the global challenges such as climate change, gender equality or inclusion of minorities. Arts and culture have a recognised role in shaping societies and have the potential to significantly contribute to a better and more sustainable future for all, as demanded by the UN with the Sustainable Development Goals.
Specific training for cultural leaders is needed in order to face the above mentioned challenges and to implement necessary changes. Personal and professional development as well as knowledge based training on particular subjects is crucial. The project SHIFT aims at shifting towards better trained cultural leaders, specifically those of transnational cultural networks, with regards to SDGs.
On Monday, 18th October at 10 o’clock a presentation on Cultural Leadership and Reduced Inequalities outputs that were produced by the SHIFT partners will take place at the Vytautas Magnus University.
One of the speaker will be Sophie Dowden, Project & Fundraising Manager at the European Choral Association
Sophie Dowden is the Project and Fundraising Manager at the European Choral Association – Europa Cantat, where she leads on the application of SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities in cultural organisations for the SHIFT project. She also leads the EPIC project, supporting the internationalisation of the careers of emerging musicians and co-coordinates the Training Leading Voices project, which supports the international career development of choral and vocal leaders. She was formerly Policy Officer at Culture Action Europe and prior to this developed materials for and supported the launch of the Strategy 21 website. Sophie has a Masters in World Heritage Studies from the University of Birmingham.
SHIFT – Shared Initiatives for Training, is a project co-funded by Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. More information here
