Reinventing Cultural Mobility with the Parcours d’Accompagnement et de Réflexion à l’International! (PARI!)
Marie Le Sourd, an expert in the field of cultural mobility and coordinator of On the Move, an international network supporting artistic exchanges, shares her thoughts on the PARI! programme. The support programme PARI! was launched in 2018, co-constructed by the Institut Français and the Ministry for Culture. It offers artists and production teams strategic support in tackling the challenges of international development. By bringing together thoughts on professional practices, ethical commitment and the development of new distribution strategies, PARI! invites its participants to rethink their relationship with the international scene, integrating key issues such as sustainability, equity and cultural diversity.
Marie le Sourd, you specialise in international mobility in the cultural sector. Can you introduce yourself?
I have been coordinating the international information network on cultural mobility, On the Move, since 2012. The network is co-funded by the European Union and the French Ministry for Culture, and currently has 79 members in 29 countries.
The primary mission of On the Move is to provide free, regular and accessible information on funded mobility opportunities (residencies, participation in festivals, workshops, grants, training, etc.) in Europe and abroad. The data we collect via our website also contributes to our advocacy actions and reports, promoting fairer, more responsible and more diverse cultural mobility. In particular, we work on the issues surrounding cultural mobility: visas, parenthood, well-being and mental health, accessibility, environmental sustainability, etc. The idea is to reflect and act on the complex world of cultural mobility and to give visibility to the multiplicity of contexts in which artists and cultural professionals operate.
Resources in English: https://on-the-move.org/resources
The PARI! programme aims to support cultural organisations in their international development. What are the main challenges faced by these organisations when they embark on international development?
The PARI! programme (Parcours d’Accompagnement et de Réflexion à l’International - International Support and Reflection Programme) was initiated in 2018 by the Ministry for Culture, and was subsequently joined by the Institut Français as a partner. Since 2022, the programme has been coordinated by On the Move in close collaboration with Isabel Andreen. It aims to support 17 performing arts and music teams (companies, collectives, ensembles, etc.) over one year in their international development.
The challenges facing project leaders looking to develop internationally include:
- The difficulty of embracing the necessary long-term perspective, while at the same time dealing with the short-term visibility of the resources available for development;
- Contradictions between expansion and sustainable, responsible development.
The PARI! programme collaborates closely with the artistic teams and programme partners in two major areas:
- Using international issues as a tool for reflection and exchange, enabling teams to think differently about their professional practices in a fast-changing environment (in political, economic, environmental and societal terms, etc.)
- Providing teams with tools for networking, access to resources on countries/regions of the world, communication (particularly in English), activating thoughts on issues and opportunities accessible in Europe, etc.
See the latest call online: http://www.on-the-move.org/news/pari-parcours-daccompagnement-et-de-reflexion-sur-linternational-appel-candidatures-2024-2025
PARI! focuses on reflection and changing professional practices. Can you give us some concrete examples of the changes you have seen in participants over the course of the programme?
Support is provided for partnerships between artists and production/outreach/administration managers, the idea being to encourage spaces for reflection within and alongside the organisation being supported, in order to think collectively about how to work through this international prism.
The artistic teams applying to PARI! have an intuitive desire to take a different approach to their relationship with the international scene. For example, transforming their partnership relationships to make them more sustainable and less focused solely on outreach. We invite them to explore their specific qualities and their desire to share and work together. They all recognise that rethinking the way they produce, collaborating internally and externally (with other teams) is essential if they are to propose new models and innovate. The issue of time (or lack thereof) is crucial. For this reason, PARI! offers a dedicated and circumscribed schedule, setting a framework for the stages of transformation and deployment.
These group and individual sessions can, for example, be used to redefine the way in which international business is managed internally (writing specifications defining what is meant by “international”, redefining job descriptions, even recruitment, setting up regular discussion sessions within teams after the PARI! support period, depending on the progress of certain projects, etc.)
For some teams, a more thorough knowledge of European cultural networks and support mechanisms has enabled them to confirm partnerships or support (in particular via Perform Europe and Culture Moves Europe).
Generally speaking, there is a more general acceptance of the international dimension of the team and its projects, which goes beyond international outreach and can be deployed in terms of cooperation, transmission and even co-creation.
The programme addresses cross-cutting issues such as ethics, ecology and diversity. How do these issues tie in with an international development strategy for the performing arts and music?
We work on these issues in different and adapted ways:
- The group of 17 teams supported, selected via a call for applications, the final choice of which is made by the Ministry for Culture and the Institut Français, embodies different forms of diversity: geographical, including overseas France with at least 2 to 3 teams, gender, artistic approach and connections with cross-cutting issues such as inclusion, collaborations with other sectors, climate change, and so on.
- Reflection on these issues is at the heart of the (only) day of collective work in Paris with the teams, which also includes exchanges with representatives of the Ministry for Culture and the Institut Français. For example, at the September 2024 session, the topics proposed for discussion on the basis of needs assessments were as follows:
- Periphery, centre, insularity - What is my perspective? What is my starting point? My geographical context has an impact on my international outlook. A space for sharing information about your context:
- shaping your projects and your international development,
- guiding your mobility options,
- defining constraints and opportunities, etc.
- Commitment lies at the heart of projects; a space for sharing ideas on how political, social, ecological, human and other forms of commitment can be harnessed.
- Commitment is the driving force behind your approach and the implementation of your projects. Discuss together how this commitment translates into and can fuel your international development.
- Lastly, individual support enables some of these aspects (which usually already belong to the values held by the teams) to be formalised by working on a particular aspect (a roadmap on the challenges of mobility and environmental sustainability, a protocol for setting up projects in the Global South, etc.)
PARI! offers support over 12 months, alternating between group and individual sessions. What are the advantages of this mixed approach for the participating organisations?
The 16-hour programme consists of a diagnostic phase, a group session in Paris (the only face-to-face session), two or three individual sessions per team, and two group sessions at the middle and end of the course.
This mixed approach allows artistic teams to share resources and experiences collectively, creating links and encouraging dialogue between them as well as with officials from the Ministry for Culture and the Institut Français.
Personalised individual sessions are also available to help teams explore specific topics and areas of work in greater depth, in conjunction with resource specialists identified through the On the Move network. Within this framework, Pierre Brini from Laba is regularly involved in issues relating to international structuring and development, and the implementation of a European approach to project development.
By alternating between group and individual sessions, participants can reflect on new ways of positioning themselves internationally, while putting them into practice in their own projects. Over 12 months we can start to take new directions, and see new opportunities emerge. However, the effects of putting these ideas into practice are generally felt in the second or third year.
See the list of resources specialists for 2024:
What major developments has the PARI! programme undergone since its launch in 2018? What are the next steps?
The first major change was the introduction of a call for applications in 2022 (the first call was set to be introduced in 2020 but was postponed because of COVID, even though support work continued on the basis of internal proposals from the Ministry for Culture and the Institut Français), after several years of experimentation with the programme. The call for applications will enable companies to position themselves more clearly, particularly with regard to the issues at stake in the programme.
Isabel Andreen’s coordination of PARI! has taken a particularly in-depth approach to the “reflection” aspect of the project. The idea is to start from a simple but important premise via these three questions: What are we talking about? What do you want to share, with whom and how? What is essential? This matrix of questions creates a link between reflection and action, defining what we mean by “international”, connecting the values laid out in our projects and mapping out our path via a set of specifications. Identifying resources is a key part of this process and is an integral part of the programme proposed by On the Move.
The collective approach to support has been strengthened, in particular with a group session halfway through the project to share experiences, progress and problems encountered by the teams. This session not only allows us to continue working on the connections between the teams, but also to fine-tune the final individualised sessions, in particular to respond to the problems encountered.
In terms of prospects, we are planning an evaluation at the end of 2024 of the last three editions of PARI! which were developed on the basis of calls for applications. Ideas for changes can be put forward, such as strengthening the collective approach to support, working towards a potential alumni and creating further links between the theatre/dance and associated arts teams and music. We are also going to carry out a more detailed evaluation of support for the visual arts sector, which is another sector covered by support.
Answers written by Marie Le Sourd and Isabel Andreen
[ Translation : NSS EPALE France ]
