Distribution: limited SHC/ASTACULE/9 PARIS, 31 August 1973 Original: English-French UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION INTERGOVERNVENTAL CONFERENCE ON CULTURAL POLICIES IN ASIA Yogyakarta (Indonesia), 10-20 Decenber 1973 Item 12 of the Provisional Agenda TRAINING OF SPECIALISTS IN CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT ‘SUMMARY. Specialists in cultural development are, the necessary means whereby any activity forming part of a State's cultural policy can be scaled down to local commnity level. The organization and methodology of cultural planning mst be based on an evaluation of the requirements of people and an assess- ment of the material and human resources available ~ data which will enable States to determine priority targets and the means to be em ployed. These operations call for highly specialized staff. Moreover, the great variety of activities covered by cultural action and the urgent need to decentralize such action make it ne- cessary to provide training for an increasingly large number of administrators, organizers and socio-cultural educators, as well as for that new type of agent, the cultural activities organizer ("animateur culturel"). This training mist also be provided for natural organizers ("animateurs naturels"), who are the authentic representatives of the cultures and aspirations of their communities, particularly in regions with strong traditions. Following on from the Venice and Helsinki Conferences, which recognized in the réle of these different specialists one of the essential factors in cultural developrent, there 1s every reason to SHC.73/CONF.201/9SHC/ASIACULT/9 - page 2 think thet the Yogyakerta Conference will give fresh impetus to the comparatively recent concepts of cultural policy and cultural pro- motion (the organization of cultural activities), taking into account the diversity and the particular nature of the problems obtaining in Asia.SHC/ASIACULT/9 - page 3 Cultural development 1. The Intergovernmental Conference on Institutional, Administrative and Finan- cial Aspects of Cultural Policies, held by Unesco in Venice in 1970, resulted in an awareness, at the international level, of the nature and importance of cul- tural problems in the modern world and of the réle which falls to States in this connexion. By considering cultural development to be an integral part of general deve~ sopment, the Conference gave concrete tenor to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which proclaims that "everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community", deducing from it that the public autho rities are duty-bound to provide each person with the means of effectively exer- cising this right and that "everything possible should be done to create the economic and social conditions that permit free democratic access to culture, (1) 3. In fact, although culturel development depends on economic and sceial con- ditions, it is nevertheless one of the major components of general development, both as'a factor in national identity and as a dynamic instrunent of soctal change, in so far as it ensures the participation and the integration of the greatest number in the life of the community, culture being bound up with the actual practice of social life. (2) 4, Cultural development should even go beyond the traditional activities of preservation and dissemination and give rise to genuine promotion. For this, new relationships at all levels mist be sought by fostering situations which enble people to express themselves and to communicate, that is to say, to have something in common. By means of action continually adapted to reality, they will, then, be in a position to give a fresh dimension to the cultural heritage and to assimilate the values of the messages perceived in order, in their turn, according to their own sensitivity and creativity, to use these as the raw ma- terials in the collective formilation of new values. They will thus be able to take an active part in the advent of a living culture in which they will feel fully involved. 5. But this participation presupposes a long period of apprenticeship, at the end of which people will be in a position to recognize the creative enterprise for what it 1s. The prime réle of cultural promotion 1s to get this process of apprenticeship under way, to ensure this mediation. All action aimed at pro- viding greater access to culture and participation therein involves these new (i) Venice Conference, Resolution No. 1. (2) Item 7 of the provisional agenda of the Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policy in Asia (Yogyakarta, 1973).SHC/ASTACULT/9 ~ page types of intermediary, the cultural activities organizers, whose Job it is to mediate between works and people - end first of all between people - to promote interactions and to reveal the potentialities of the community. They constitute the necessary means whereby any national cultural policy can be scaled down to the level of the local community, of which the natural organizers, on whom its professional activity mst be based, remain the authentic representatives of the culture and aspirations: the ultimate aim of cultural promotion is to get people to organize their own cultural activities. This pcint is of particular importance in regions with strong cultural traditions, particularly in rural areas, where community structures are still preserved. Cultural policy 6. All cultural action involves the defining of the objectives of cultural policy and the drawing up of a national cultural development plan, for which de- centralization seems generally acknowledged to be the guiding principle (parti- cularly in States of the federal type or in which there is great ethnic, reli- gious or linguistic variety, as in those whose geography calls for administra- tive deconcentration on a vast scale). 7. As in other public sectors, the organization and methodology of cultural planning mist be based on en evaluation of the cultural requirements of the peoples and an assessment of the material and human resources available - data which will make it possible to determine priority targets and the means to be employed. These basic operations call for staff who are highly specialized in the many different areas in which they are called upon to take action. Cultural institutions 8. The setting up of infrastructures, the reinforcement and extension of net~ works of cultural or artistic institutions, establishments or amenities - at ‘the national, regional and local levels - turn on the principle that, as in the matter of decentralization, people should be able to have access to, and parti- cipate in, culture at their places of work and within the framework of their daily lives. 9. The number and variety of activities covered by cultural action at the levels of promotion, preservation or dissemination, as in the different areas of the expressive arts, provide eloquent testimony to the great need for specialized staff, whether they be cultural administrators, socio-cultural educators or organizers of cultural activities, whose functions may in fact vary according ‘to the character and the objectives of the institutions, although having a common denominator. Training 10, The need to train such staff featured amongst the major objectives assigned by the Venice Conference to cultural development: "It is true that there isSHC/ASIACULT/9 - page 5 almost everywhere a shortage of the specialized personnel required for cultural action, particularly at the level of the public authorities. Whether we are concerned with civil servants or with outside experts whose work none the less forms an extension, or sometimes even the starting point, of governmental action in relation to local government departments or privately sponsored enterprises, everywhere there is an undoubted shortage of specialists. We shall have to de- fine the various categories of these specialists and examine how they should be trained at national and international level". (1) li. The Conference therefore recommended that Unesco "study and evaluate the systems of training of specialists, organizers, administrators and others re- sponsible for carrying out cultural policy programmes in a number of Member States". (2) 12, Whilst noting that "there is a trend in many countries for the total staff of cultural administrators to be rather small but for a very large number of volunteers, working in associations, to form the main body who encourage cul- tural activities", the Conference was to conclude that "nevertheless, the days are over when enthusiasm can make up for lack of skill; personal involvement ds always essential, but a certain amount of professional knowledge, both ad- ministrative and in the relevant field of culture, is indispensable. The impor- ‘tance of training cultural workers and administrators was therefore stressed"... It recognized, however, that "vigorous amateur movements in all the branches of the arts are vital, both for making culture more widely available, and for ré- cruiting new talents; they also guarantee the continuity and renovation of the cultural tradition". (3) Cultural activities organizers 13. At the Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policies in Europe organized by Unesco at Helsinki in June 1972, the recently formated concept of cultural promotion (the organization of cultural activities) was elaborated more fully and the réle of cultural activities organizers was considered to be one of the essential elements in cultural development. 14, Moreover, the Conference was to note that "most of the aims of cultural action could in fact be considered as belonging also to the sphere of life-long education and could therefore be achieved either by speeding up the changes in the institutionalized school system, or by encouraging a different use of school staff. By abandoning their function as disbursers of information and their Ti) Venice Conference, Address by the Director-General of Unesco at the closing session. (2) Venice Conference, Resolution No. 13. Studies are being carried out at the present time in different Member States and will be circulated in due course. Such is the case with regard to the study recently addressed by the USSR to the Secretariat in which, in particular, the experience of the Republics of Central Asia and of Kazakistan is stressed. (3) Id. Report of the First Commission.SHC/ASIACULT/9 - page 6 position of authority, the latter could help best in setting free the creative abilities of the groups for which they catered. From this point of view...rather than being regarded as a new profession, cultural promotion shovld be conceived, at least in the first stage, as a different method of procedure for a series of professions which should henceforth be organized on the basis of institutions (teachers, librarians, theatre directors, etc.). In addition...a policy for cultural action ought to take into account the relationship between creative artists and the public and envisage ways and means of using creative artists in cultural action. But the problem of training, whether for cultural acti- vitdes organizers or for artists, was present at all levels of cultural action... (according to several criteria): training should assist the emergence of born organizers; it should give training in the organization of cultural activities and arts administration to people with a diversity of qualifications though attaching importance to practical experience as well as to theory; and it should promote the co-operation of people from different social strata". (1) 15. It 4s true that the complex and diverse nature of their functions makes it difficult for these people to be absorbed into traditional corporate bodies and, a fortiori, for courses of training to be specially designed for them. Still, ‘there are grounds for considering that the conditions and aims of this training, which caters specifically for those with a particular vocation, will be deter mined by the capacity for constant reappraisal and total receptivity in the face of the perpetual renewal of the creative enterprise and the speeding up of social changes, whilst calling at the same time for mastery of commmication and evalu- ation techniques. ‘The situation in As: 16, The foregoing considerations are of a general nature and lay no claim to proposing models, still less to exhausting a debate opened by the Venice Con- ference at the international level. And there is every reason to think that, following on the Helsinki Conference, the Yogyakarta Conference will in its turn give fresh impetus to the comparatively recent concepts of cultural policy and cultural promotion. At all events, it may be hoped that these considera- tions will provide useful points of reference and even, in some cases, guide- lines for research. For, despite the diversity of regions and countries, there are a certain number of problems of conmon interest in the sphere of cultural development, 17. To be sure, training will vary from one country to another according to the historical or geographic conditions, the political, economic, social and educa- tional systems, the level of general development and, perhaps above all, accor- ding to the socio-cultural traditions and the ethnic, religious or linguistic diversity of the peoples, ete. 18, This goes to show how hard it is to tackle the problem and how important it ig to train the necessary people. As far as cultural development is concerned, (i) Helsinki Conference, Report of Commission II.SHC/ASIACULT/9 - page 7 it will not merely be a question of drawing up curricula for a new category of civil servants entrusted with the responsibility of directing cultural institu- tions and, at best, of disseminating or bestowing cultural wealth in the dif- ferent spheres of the arts and letters. It will, rather, in pursuance of the aims of cultural promotion, be a question of creating intermediaries who are capable of facilitating the active participation of individuals in the life of their communities and of fostering national cultural awareness, even if it en- tails providing these new types of intermediary, who will preferably be dravn from the area in which they are i> operate, with general training ranging from the management of cultural affairs to the use of mass media and including a certain number of commmication techniques. 19. The paradox here lies in the fact that, although most people live in rural areas, the definition of such cultural action is based on ways of thinking which lay stress, for instance, on the structures of large cities which are the most marked by foreign influence and the least in touch with the grass roots. 20. But doubtless the concept of cultural promotion, difficult to grasp as it still is in the present state of research, will come into its own at such time as it 1s seen to be the driving force of an integrated system of life-long edu- cation which corresponds to national goals in terms of the overall development of individuals and societies. ‘Trends and prospects 21, In order to facilitate the discussions, the Secretariat submits herewith to ‘the Conference the report of a consultation, organized in Tokyo in March 1973 by ‘the Japanese National Commission for Unesco, in which the representatives of six Asian countries took part: India, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal and the Philip- pines. 22, ‘The questions raised by this document, and the trends and prospects for concerted action to which it points, are brought here to the attention of the Conference which, in its decision-making capacity, will, it 1s hoped, provide guidelines and formulate recommendations for future work, at both the practical and the theoretical levels. REPORT OF THE CONSULTATION ON THE TRAINING OF CULIVRAL ACTIVITIES ORGANIZERS IN ASIA ARRANGED BY THE JAPANESE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR UNESCO (Tokyo, 2 March, 1973) 23. In Asia, there were many ancient cultures, the traditions of which still survive in the daily lives of the people. Lyrics, epios, new thoughts and arts were born within the people and fostered by them. And it has been a long tra- dition that the common people have participated in creating and developing the culture in their lives. This trend is one of the major reasons why illiteracy does not necessarily mean lack of culture.SHO/ASTACULT/9 - page 8 2k. Festivals are most popular in the communities of farming nations in Asie, and such social events provide the people with numerous chances to appreciate, participate in and create their own dances, music and other performing arts. Not only for these festivals, but for various other kinds of cultural communica- tion, simple open spaces in villages have played an important réle in Asian countries. This does not indicate a lack of physical facilities. On the con- ‘trary, these open spaces have been the best places for free access to culture and, in most cases, they are eminently suitable for the activities of people living in tropical or semi-tropicel zones. Challenges of heterogeneous cultures 25. In most Asian countries, there are serious discrepancies between urban areas and rural areas, and between some cultural lites and ordinary people. This 4s a common phenomenon all over the world, but the problem becomes more serious when such discrepancies are closely related to the heterogeneity of both cultures. In some countries, cultural 6lites usually mean those who have a backbone of Western culture and are apt to make light of their native tra- ditions. Urban culture in some countries is deeply coloured with that of the West, which seems quite strange to the people in rural areas. 26. ‘The cultural conflicts caused by these discrepencies should be seriously considered when we discuss cultural development and the training of "animateurs" for it. Should an "animateur" have a prejudice against his own cultural tradi- tion, he will not only fail to work with people but he may also influence people towards accepting different cultural concepts, thus negating "national culture". ‘The policy maker now faces a difficult situation in making a wise policy deci- sion which permits the acceptance of new cultural values on the basis of a full appreciation of the traditional culture. 27. The expansion of general education and the qualitative improvement of its content, especially for the development of art, literature and physical educa- tion, are a fundamental basis for the cultural awakening of the people. Such education and training will be indispensable to younger pupils in schools, An example was given which showed that educational reform was launched in one of the countries to strengthen the treining in traditional arts, thus changing the conventional pattern of school education inherited from the days of foreign do- mination. 28. Culture evolves slowly but steadily, like the stream of a great river. Cultural poldey mist be designed with a long perspective. The cultural anima- tion of society should be an integral part of the cultural policy of that society. Some examples of new attempts by governments 29. One type of renewed endeavour by: governments is to strengthen administra ‘tive measures for encouraging spontaneous oultural events among the people. Drama contests, festivals and some traditional social events are given govern- ment subsidies in some countries. This policy is also aimed at supporting theSHC/ASIACULT/9 - pase 9 works of voluntary "animateurs", One country has begun to provide artists with finencial assistance. Another country has prepared @ special budget for sending ‘teams of amateur drama groups around the country to present plays in the dialect of the local people. In this case, the government emphasizes the importance of the r8le of amateur players rather then that of professionals, because the latter used to exert undesirable pressure on amateurs. And the government plans to establish more facilities for these activities, appealing to the conmon people to "come in and do it". 30. An interesting exemple of encouraging voluntary activity: the spinning top has been a traditional game populer with the older generation in one of the countries and the younger generation peid little attention to it. However, ter the participation of youths, who successfully revised the rules of the ‘top spinning game, large numbers of people, young and old, throughout the coun ‘try began to enjoy the game together. Joint work by different generations of "animateurs" was proved to be a most effective way to stimulate the activities of both younger and older people. Dl. Another type of government endeavour is to organize special workshops for artists and seminars for training potential officers and part-time experts for cultural animation, and to devise special programmes using mass media in order to reach the majority of the people. In this way, some governments hope to help the people of the younger generation to rediscover their own cultural traditions: this might become a common basis for concerted efforts of national development. Prospects for future training of cultural "animateurs" 32. Improvement of the activities of cultural "animateurs" at various levels is of vital importance for the cultural development of the people as a whole. How- ever, the recognition of the importance of their fimctions does not necessarily meen the creation of a new profession - namely "animateur". Too mich emphasis on their professionalism might lead to the creation of a new stratum in society, which would raise again the difficult problem of a cultural élite which might spoil the grass-roots cultures of the people. 33. An important factor to be taken into consideration when governments launch a training programme for the "animateur", is the discrepancies between cities and villages and between élites and ordinary people. This presents one of the most difficult problems. 3h. Sometimes active young "animateurs", who are well trained and ambitious enough to carry out their mission in rural areas, fail to reach the people in spite of their serious application to their work. The situation of those ani- mateurs in villages is rather tragic, since they fail to establish warm rela- tionships or true commmication with the people. 35. Culture is a sort of living entity which claims its own integrity and may react against an intruder. Therefore, "animateurs" chosen from those with the same cultural backgrounds as those with whom they work are more likely to be successful,SHC/ASIACULT/9 - page 10 36. Another important point is that democratization of culture should not be misunderstood as allowing the degeneration of culture by popularization. It is a mistake for the "animateur" to presume that his flattering attitude will be welcomed by the people and useful for the spread of culture. On the contrary, once he inspires mistrust or suspicion, any knowledge end skills he may have do not benefit the people. 3T. In brief, the most significant qualification of successful "animateur" is his personality; he mst be a generalist with common sense, and humane; he has to be willing to devote himself to his mission, but flexible enough to adapt himself to a given situation. 38. On the basis of common requirements for those personal qualifications, some technical training should be considered for different types of "animateurs" as follows: (a) potential officers in civil services for cultural activities, (b) part-time experts participating in cultural programmes, (ce) spontaneous “animateurs" within voluntary groups. 39. Considering the wide variety of leaders and organizers of cultural activi~ thes, it seems desirable to develop future programmes for training "animateurs" as follows: (a) dnstitutionalized systematic courses of training, (b) occasional seminars for in-service training of part-time experts, (c) revised universal education for youths and adults in art and culture. 40. As a means of effectively promoting training programmes, a follow-up study of trained "animateurs" utilizing a system of monitors in society will help the identification of the major problems they encounter and the designing of revised programmes for their future training. 41, Finally, it was proposed, as an example of international co-operation, that ‘the exchange of “animateurs" between different countries within the region would be profitable to both, since the observation of the actual practices of “anima- ‘teurs" who are working in different oultural contexts will help them to identi- fy the characteristics of their own working situations.