The 105 participants from 17 countries*, attending the joint conference organised by AMI/Incubinc and the Roberto Cimetta Fund (16-17 March last in Marseilles), took part in six workshops addressing the six thematic debates and defined 18 recommendations. These recommendations are as follows:

Conversation 1 – European and Arab capitals of culture as drivers of freedom of speech
1 – Freedom of speech and cultural rights should be one of the major criteria for the selection of candidate cities to the title of European and Arab capitals of culture; respecting these rights should be seen in the implementation of the capital of culture programmes.
2 – The general aims of the capital of culture candidacies should be debated in forums of independent deliberation and exchange between citizens and cultural actors representing the cultural diversity of each city
3 – Solid and sustainable links should be strengthened between all the Arab and European capitals of culture (and elsewhere if relevant) to foster common traits, reveal diversity, exchange experiences and develop know-how.

Conversation 2 – Allow artists to remain audible and authentic
1 – It appears urgent to set up a support and advocacy group whose main objective is to help artists continue living and working in their region of origin with the independence, liberty and dignity they aspire to.
2 –Donors that support arts and culture, should have long term visions and support the consolidation of professional production teams.
3 – Mobility between the countries of the South is more than ever a priority. Similarly, exchange between North and South is all the more necessary in times of crisis.

Conversation 3 – Protecting and transforming intangible cultural heritage
1 – Governments, international organisations and opinion leaders should take joint immediate action to safeguard (by maintaining, fostering and regenerating) intangible and tangible cultural heritage of communities and groups in the conflict zones, especially those who are victims of violent attacks on their culture, their identity and their diversity.
2 – Participants recommend that legal status and economic viability should be given to individuals and groups who possess knowledge of their heritage and are capable of transmitting it through educational skills and reactivating the concept of “living treasures”.
3 – Similarly they recommend to make as wide a use as possible of modern and freely accessible technology that guarantees the greatest visibility of intangible heritage so as to protect and preserve it, transmit and regenerate it.

Conversation 4 – Promote incubators for cultural and creative industries (CCIs)
1 – Incubators of cultural and creative industries (CCIs) should be understood transversally as combining activities, aims and values related to the public interest, professional sectors, competencies, profiles of projects and persons without being reduced to simply providing services and goods.
2 – Identifying and responding to the public interest as well as actively contributing to the structuring of a given territory are key to the mission of any cultural business incubator. In this regard, public governing bodies should constantly be optimizing the legal and fiscal working environment of cultural business incubators.
3 – Cultural incubators should be obliged to guarantee the independence, relevance and sustainability of the projects they incubate.

Conversation 5 – Promote a corporate social responsibility of cultural business incubators
1 – In practice, CCI business incubators should be permanently investigating and adapting to the political context of the territory they work in.
2 – CCI business incubators should develop methodologies within longterm strategic impact-based strategies and respect ethical values previously integrated into their statutes.
3 – Cultural business incubators should strive to evenly balance the social as well as entrepreneurial dimensions of their impact by increasing local partnerships with the educational or social sector of their territory.

Conversation 6 – Inventing new cultural markets in a fair, sustainable and autonomous mode
1 – The concept and promotion of local and regional territories of culture should be fostered and efforts to enhance and implement cultural decentralization should be pursued and strengthened in order to reach a balance between metropolis and periphery.
2 – Public intervention for local and regional economic development should be redistributed evenly and directly to civil society, should favour the development of public-private models of practice, should temper monopolistic tendencies, and should revise and monitor criteria of support.
3 – In order to favour the diversity of cultural markets, cultural and artistic education should be provided in the school curricula, particularly at primary level, not only through classic teaching methods but also through mediation, relating professional experiences and intercultural exchanges.