ENCATC announces winner of the 2017 ENCATC Research Award on Cultural Policy and Cultural Management

Brussels, 27 September 2017 – Dr. Rebecca Amsellem from France was announced as the winner of the 4th ENCATC Research Award on Cultural Policy and Cultural Management.

Dr. Rebecca Amsellem from France, has won the 4th ENCATC Research Award for her PhD thesis,“The international strategies of museums and their new business models” defended at University Paris1 Panthéon Sorbonne.

The Award winner was revealed at the ENCATC Research Award Ceremony held in Brussels during the 25th ENCATC Congress “Click, Connect and Collaborate! New directions in sustaining cultural networks.”

Addressing an international audience of leading academics and renowned researchers, representatives from the European Commission, policy makers, cultural practitioners, and artists, and speaking on behalf of the Award’s international jury, Annick SchrammePresident of ENCATC said: “The variety and quality of the selected finalists were very high. One was an excellent, theoretical and original reflection about the concept of audience development in relation with cultural policy and democracy; another used an innovative and mixed qualitative and quantitative methodology to measure the high perceived success of small-sized creative organisations; finally, a well-written and elaborated empirical analysis of the international strategies of museums and their business models. The jury decided to give the Award to the latter because it met the most of the ENCATC Award’s criteria. The jury strongly believes that Rebecca’s sound comparative and empirical research will have high relevance for the practice in different parts of the world.”

ENCATC was honoured to have Catherine MagnantAdvisor, Head of the 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage task force at the European Commission, deliver the highly anticipated Award announcement. Speaking of the Award’s role in promoting important research and stimulating new thinking, Ms. Magnant said: “I am delighted to hand out ENCATC’s Research Award for the third time.It is always so moving to see bright young cultural researchers have their efforts rewarded! Both the academic world and policy makers need fresh, rigorous and independent thinking and ENCATC’s Award is promoting exactly that.”

The winner, Dr. Rebecca Amsellem expressed her esteemed gratitude for this international recognition: “I would like to thank deeply the members of the jury for this honour. I would like to thank Professor Greffe for believing in this research from the beginning and accompanying me through the whole PhD. The ENCATC organisation has been a true ally to cultural researchers throughout its existence and I am truly grateful that my research is a part of it.” The winner will have her PhD thesis

published in the ENCATC Book Series on Cultural Management and Cultural Policy Education by the international publishing house, PIE Peter Lang.

Launched in 2014, the ENCATC Award exists to stimulate academic research in the field of cultural policy and management, to explore contemporary issues at stake and possibly anticipate new cultural policy orientations through comparative and cross-cultural research. Moreover, it contributes to the process of creating an infrastructure, a network of researchers who are doing comparative research projects in cultural policy and management issues. “The Award ceremony this year occurs on the celebration of ENCATC’s 25th anniversary. I’m very proud the Award winner’s research is published in our book series. This is an important contribution to the careers of emerging researchers and to the greater research community, the cultural sector, and policy making in Europe and beyond. As we move into our next 25 years, I see us continuing to bridge innovative research with education in cultural management and cultural policy. As the only network at the crossroads of culture, education, research and training, once more ENCATC demonstrates its capacity to recognise innovative applied research that policy makers can use to design new policy scenarios,” said ENCATC Secretary General, GiannaLia Cogliandro Beyens.

Alongside the 2017 winner, the finalists were applauded for their relevant contributions to the field of cultural management and policy research: Dr. Steven Hadley from the United Kingdom for his PhD thesis “Clothed in an inclusive ethic: Discourses of Democracy and the Role of Audience Development in English Cultural Policy” and Dr. Sofie Jacobs from Belgium for her PhD thesis “A configurational perspective on success in small-sized creative organisations.”

On this occasion, two previous winners presented their newly published work in the ENCATC Book Series on Cultural Management and Cultural Policy Education: 2015 winner ex aequo Dr. Annika Hampel from the Institute of Technology in Germany and author of “Fair Cooperation. A New Paradigm for Cultural Diplomacy and Arts Management“; and the 2016 winner Dr. Elena Borin from the Burgundy School of Business and author of “Public-Private Partnership in the Cultural Sector: A Comparative Approach to European Models.”

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