2022 Edinburgh International Culture SummitCulture and a Sustainable Future

Sir Jonathan Mills

Programme Director,

Edinburgh International Culture Summit

Welcome to the 2022 Edinburgh

International Culture Summit.

The Summit is a distinctive event, in an

exceptional city, supported by a unique

partnership.

Summit 2022 coincides with the 75th

anniversary of the Edinburgh International

Festival – an event that owes its origins to

a profound desire to rebuild a sense of

community, in a continent that had been

torn apart by the tragedy of World War II;

to offer an alternative ideal of hope and

optimism to shattered lives, through the

potent example of engaging with music,

opera, drama, dance, literature, painting;

and to pick up the fragments of a civilisation

shaken to its core by atrocities such as

Auschwitz or Leningrad.

On behalf of its other founding partners –

the British Council, the Scottish Parliament

and the Scottish and UK Governments –

the Summit offers its heartfelt congratulations

to the Festival on its success and resilience

over so many decades.

Like the Festival, the Summit exists to

make the case for culture as an essential

enlargement of the circumstances in which

the citizens of every nation can imagine their

lives; and to advocate for the inestimable

impact of the arts on the vibrancy of the

world we create now and bequeath for

the future.

The Summit seeks to emphasise the

importance of artistic exchange in a world

that is both multifaceted and multi-lateral.

It tries to connect the opportunities of the

cultural sector to important innovations

in areas such as education, health, heritage,

human rights, sustainability, and urban

planning.

The Summit invites you to contribute to a

wide-ranging conversation across three

interlinked topics: Culture & Freedom, Culture

& Education, and Culture & Sustainability.

In choosing these topics, we encourage you

to think about how art and culture can help

us all to find common ground in a world that

seems increasingly polarised; to consider

the role of creativity in the education of every

individual; and to reflect on the various ways

in which the perspectives of artists can

enhance our appreciation of the uniqueness

of the diverse urban and natural environments

in which we live and dream.

The work of the Edinburgh International

Culture Summit is supported by the

Edinburgh International Culture Summit

Foundation, an independent charity.

On behalf of the Summit partners, I would

like to thank the trustees of the Summit

Foundation, alongside all our corporate,

philanthropic, and individual supporters,

for their contributions to Summit 2022.

We all wish you well in your deliberations at

the Edinburgh International Culture Summit

and hope that your time in Scotland is

inspiring and rewarding.