The Association Marcel Hicter is the organizer and manager of the course.
The objective is threefold:

• To strengthen the knowledge of cultural managers about European, national and regional cultural policies;
• To improve cultural managers skills to run cultural co-operation projects;
• To develop a network of European cultural managers.

Each year, several professionals from different countries and different sectors are taking part in the European Diploma. Since 1989, more than 600 cultural managers from 50 European and world countries followed this course. The programme is supported by the Council of Europe.

Who is the training for?

Cultural managers from public and private organizations who are actively involved in the management of cultural and artistic projects in their region, with at least 2 years experience. The training language being English, applicants must be fluent in English.

Content and Organization

The European Diploma is organized so that the participants carry on with their professional activities. The programme lasts one year and is organized in 3 phases: 2 residential sessions, a comparative study and an evaluation + seminar phase.

The residential sessions

Two sessions of a 9 days take place in two different countries each year. The next training session, will be organised in Ireland in May 2023 (11-20), and in Poland (Krakow) in November 2023 (3-12). The themes, which will be discussed, are: Europe and culture; project management, cultural cooperation, operational management of cultural projects, fund raising etc.

Back to the field

Between the residential sessions and the evaluation phase, the trainees return to their jobs in their countries, and in parallel work on their own project. They also have to do a comparative study visit in another region of Europe.

The evaluation/seminar phase

This 5 days phase includes the presentation of the participants projects and the organization of a thematic seminar. It will take place in June 2024.

Financial participation

Most of the expenses for this training programme are covered by the organizer and the partners. Each participant or the organisation he/she works for, will pay a fee of 4.000 €.

Next deadline for application: 7th March 2023

Specific methodology

The European Diploma has been training, over the years, more than 600 cultural managers mainly from Europe, but also from African, Asian and American countries. Most of them hold now key positions in cultural cooperation projects and programmes.

The European Diploma is not an academic programme. It is a training tailor-made for young experienced professionals active or ready to embark in cultural cooperation projects .

The programme is nomadic ; it is composed of two residential phases of 9 days each and a closing seminar of 5 days. It streches over one year and enables participants to carry on with their professional activities.

It consists of a few interactive lectures, given by experts both strong on theory and linked to the field. A big chunk of the residential phases consists of workshops. We specially focus on the « peer to peer » methodology with a very strong interaction between participants.
The cultural cooperation projects are at the center of this process.
Other workshops are centered around cultural strategy seminars. We also interact with cultural operators of the countries/regions/cities where we hold the residential phases.

• The programme aims to achieve:
  skills and competences building
•  destabilization of the constructed references
• develop evolutive identities open to real cooperation and «otherness»
• empowerment of the participants