Resources
Read the report from the session 'Perspectives on artistic freedom at risk'
By Elena Polivtseva
At the IETM Berlin Plenary Meeting 2025, three cultural workers from Poland, Germany and Uganda shared their perspectives on the status of freedom of expression within the arts. Jakub Depczyński is a curator and cultural worker who co-organised the anti-fascist year in Poland 2019-20. Mey Seifan is a Syrian artist based in Germany and focussed on trauma in her performative practice and was involved in actions in response to Berlin’s anti-discrimination clause. Gerald Odil is a queer arts producer and part of the Kampala-based artists collective Anti-Mass and spoke about how Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act has affected their work and forced them to leave Uganda.
Read the report from the session 'Digital Doesn’t Mean Dematerialised: Greening our online practices'
By Lian Bell
From video calls to streaming and from websites to cloud storage, our digital tools seem invisible - but they carry a heavy environmental footprint. The energy and water required to power the infrastructure behind our digital practices contributes to climate breakdown, with direct impacts on already-vulnerable regions and Indigenous lands, where extraction and data centres are often located. In this workshop at the IETM Berlin Plenary Meeting 2025, participants explored how to align their digital practices with their environmental and social values. Participants left with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions and adopt less impactful digital practices, from email habits to hosting choices, grounded in ecological awareness and aligned with their values.
Read the report from the session 'Perspectives on political approaches to the economics of the arts in Europe'
By Tina Hofman
At the IETM Berlin Plenary Meeting 2025, feminist activist and gender policy consultant Emma Holton opened this session with a critical reflection on the assigned role of the arts within our present economic system. She explored why governments easily attack sectors such as arts, care and education when introducing funding cuts. The panel, moderated by Elena Polivtseva, addressed the political nature of funding cuts within an authoritarian climate. The panellists will reflect on the subject from their practical expertise in cultural politics, drawing on their experiences as a former MEP and member of the Culture and Education Committee of the European Parliament (Julie Ward), Programme Director of Berlin’s Performing Arts Programme (Janina Benduski), and as President of the Slovenian advocacy NGO Asociacija, which supports cultural non-profit organisations and artists in Slovenia (Uroš Veber).