The webinar ‘Cultural Mobility for Sustainable Cultural Cooperation’ was jointly organised on 18 September 2025 as an online side event leading to Mondiacult 2025 by the International Music Council, On the Move, Zone Franche, Pearle*, Culture et Développement, Africalia and MobiCulture.
It was co-funded by the European Union via On the Move’s network funding. The webinar aimed to facilitate the creation of more sustainable and fruitful frameworks for cultural cooperation and to address the recurring and complex visa issues that hinder cross-border artistic mobility between developed and developing countries, and between developing countries.
This webinar was conceived following a joint call by the International Music Council, Zone Franche, Culture et Développement, Africalia and Pearle* at the last Intergovernmental Committee meeting of the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the promotion and the protection of the diversity of cultural expressions, in February 2025. The webinar in English with French and Spanish interpretation, available here, was facilitated by Silja Fischer, Secretary General of the International Music Council, together with the following speakers: Pierre Claver Mabiala, Director, Espace Culturel Yaro, Republic of Congo, Kellie Magnus, Executive Director, Caribbean Cultural Fund, Jamaica and Nguyen Tu Hang, Founder, AirVine artists’ residency network, Vietnam. 175 people registered for this online event, including representatives from national and public governments, as well as culture professionals and artists from all over the world.
Among some key areas of solutions were particularly mentioned:
- at governmental level, at regional and continental levels:
- There is a need to facilitate the visa application process online,
- In general, there is a need to encourage South-South mobility and reciprocal agreements, for example in the Asian and Caribbean regions. This would facilitate visa applications, provide funding for mobility and grant access to these resources.
- at the level of the Schengen code of visas: There is a need to recognise the specific working conditions of artists and culture professionals more clearly, while placing greater emphasis on letters of invitation and funding guarantees from host organisations, and the legal status of the respective hosting organisations and scope of activities. In this regard, better recognition would also require a better understanding of the sector by ministerial or consular administrators, such as through the Lexicon co-produced by On the Move.
Furthermore, the introduction of longer-term visas (covering periods that reflect the duration of artistic residencies, multi-country tours, or recurring projects) should be considered. This would better accommodate the sector’s mobility patterns. Such visas should also allow for temporary returns to the country of residence between engagements, without invalidating the visa or requiring a new application. - at the level of the sector: Encourage and support regular dialogue and the sharing of information between networks of artists and organisations (including residencies), in order to keep track of challenges and advocate for change. Key strategies identified to build trust include collaborative advocacy, data collection on mobility barriers, and information and training for artists and culture professionals, following the model of Mobility Information Points. Building alliances with policymakers was also identified as a key strategy.
