On 22 July 2025, Culture Action Europe hosted a digital session on the newly planned Satellite formats. As part of this initiative, committed CAE members will in future host (inter)regional member gatherings – as well as events open to a wider interested audience – to debate key cultural policy issues across borders. This new format is part of a strategy to anchor European cultural debates more firmly at the regional level while making local perspectives more visible.
The BEYOND Satellites complement the biennial central BEYOND conference of Culture Action Europe, which brings together cultural and political actors from across Europe, through a series of local and regional events taking place between September 2025 and August 2026.
Member organisations and local networks – for example in the Nordic and Baltic countries, in South-Western, Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe – will host these gatherings, reflecting the diversity of Europe’s cultural landscape.
Shared themes within the BEYOND framework, such as culture and democracy, fair working conditions, inclusion, and sustainability, will be translated into their respective regional contexts. Formats will range from open discussion spaces and co-creation labs to experimental mediation and engagement approaches. Hosts will be supported by Culture Action Europe in organising the events, including through resources, access to networks, communication support, and seed funding contributions.
Through the interplay between the central BEYOND conference and the decentralised Satellites, a multi-layered European dialogue is intended to emerge. While the central BEYOND gathering serves as a forum for pan-European debates and strategic orientation, the Satellites create space for concrete, context-specific exchanges. They enable local challenges, strategies, and creative responses to feed directly into the broader European discourse.
In times when democratic participation and structural justice are key issues for the cultural sector, the Satellites send a strong signal in favour of dialogical and decentralised cultural exchange in Europe. The planned Satellites are expected to be announced on the Culture Action Europe website at the beginning of 2026.