CONNECTING CULTURES A non profit cultural association Mission The name Connecting Cultures indicates not only a common ground or meeting place between cultures and disciplines, but also an area of reflection where methodologies of knowledge construction can be confronted. The aim is to create new awareness and new forms of culture. The definition of culture that here prevails is not one pertaining to the refinement of the sensibilities through individual erudition but rather a more widespread awareness generating a sense of belonging, a necessary humus of understanding and participation. If this is missing there can only be isolation and exclusion. Aims and Activities 1. The Association has the aim of developing and transforming people's ability to relate to the context in which they live, maintaining a sense of identity and self respect and favouring the development of a more widespread sensibility for human rights and civic liberties and responsibilities. With the help of artists, new angles and openings on the world and on everyday life can be encouraged with the aim of rendering a fast changing world more livable and comprehensible. 2. Publications, editorial and educational initiatives to favour a modern awareness of complexity in cultural management, promoting a better understanding of cultural and social contexts. 3. Building up a body of data on cultural policies and projects financed by administrations and other institutions with the aim of directing financing towards more efficient synergetic policies. 4. Research on specific cultural themes, cultural policy and heritage. Research projects (especially linked to contemporary art and cultural heritage) carried out with university research groups, administrators, foundations and other institutions. Clients and partners The information from the data banks, the exhibitions, the seminars, the documentation on-line and the publications are directed at a wider public composed of university students and researchers, artists, curators, cultural operators and all those interested in administering cultural policy. Plans, models of intervention and programmes in cultural policy are directed at the Public Administration, cultural institutions, museums, universities, education centres, pedagogical institutions in the field of the arts, history and private companies and corporations that invest in culture.