IETM Advocacy School
The IETM Advocacy School starts from the recognition that many performing arts professionals are already advocating through their everyday work. The challenge is to make these efforts more focused, strategic and sustainable. To help our participants to get there, we will focus on the following questions:
- How do we sharpen what we want to change?
- How do we choose the right arguments, interlocutors and alliances?
- How do we communicate with confidence in difficult environments?
- And how do we turn all of this into a realistic course of action?
The School approaches advocacy as a long-term practice of building relationships, influencing decisions and creating the conditions for change. Participants will work with their own advocacy issues throughout the programme, gradually developing them from broad ambitions into concrete strategies and actions.
The five sessions combine conceptual inputs, conversations with experienced advocates and former policymakers, practical tools, individual reflection, peer exchange and breakout-room exercises. The aim is not to provide a universal formula: advocacy always depends on political, institutional and cultural context. Instead, participants will build a toolbox that they can adapt to their own realities.
The journey moves from purpose to action:
- clarifying what needs to change,
- building the case for it,
- learning how to communicate with confidence,
- mapping the allies that can help move things forward,
- and turning these elements into a concrete advocacy roadmap.
By the end of the School, participants should leave with a sharper advocacy goal, stronger messages, a clearer understanding of who they need to engage, and a practical roadmap for action.
The School is developed and facilitated by IETM, with Ása Richardsdóttir, Elena Polivtseva, and Aniko Racz, accompanying participants throughout the trajectory.
Programme Breakdown:
- 23 November — Day 1: 13.00 - 15.00 CET - Why advocacy, and what do you want to change? with Alberto Alemanno
- 24 November — Day 2 13.00 - 15.00 CET - Building confidence and getting your message across with Katherine Heid
- 30 November — Day 3 13.00 - 17.30 CET - Communicating ideas others may not understand or share: storytelling for advocacy with Charlélie Jourdan
- 1 December — Day 4 13.00 - 15.00 CET - Power, relationships and alliances: who do you need to reach? with Rosa Meriläinen and Julie Ward
- 3 December — Day 5: 13.00 - 15.00 CET - From strategy to action: where do you begin?
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