The think tank

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Created in March 2007, the Forum d’Avignon is a think tank and also an international meeting place in the service of culture and its dialogue with the economic and digital fields. Its mission is to re-emphasize that culture is simultaneously a financial, collective, and individual investment and not a cost, and through its basic characteristics — artistic, economic, and social — culture participates directly in the development of economy and territories.

As the only organizational opportunity for all the cultural and creative sectors in Europe to link up and hold discussions, it brings together an important network of artists and creators, entrepreneurs and institutions, politicians and academics, international consultancy firms, and students from about 15 European schools and universities, thanks to the support of some 50 private partners, businesses and individuals.

Bringing concrete proposals to meet the artistic, economic and social stakes of culture. The think tank gathers all year long partners and experts in working sessions and public interventions several times a month to develop the future of the cultural and creative sector around three fields of research:

  • Innovation and digital
  • Financing, economic models and tax policy
  • Territorial attractiveness and social cohesion

Fostering the public debate. Since its creation, the think tank has:

  • Popularized the impact of the cultural and creative sector in economy with 6% of GDP and 8 million direct jobs in Europe, and the multiplier effects of cultural investments for growth;
  • Drafted a “Preliminary declaration of digital human rights” (www.ddhn.org) claiming personal data is a cultural stake;
  • Launched the first comparative analyses on tax policy for creation in European countries and G20;
  • Analyzed every year the cultural practices of Internet users and the economic models in more than 10 countries or promoted by concrete proposals the emergence of a new generation of cultural and creative entrepreneurs…

Key figures

  • More than 40 nationalities developing the debate of ideas
  • 12 partner universities
  • More than 1000 participants a year
  • More than 35 studies and proposals in both French and English
  • 500 videos and interviews
  • 50 sectors represented

Collective work to feed the public debate

Every area of work is the subject of studies, interviews, argued and quantified proposals and op-eds. Its Scientific board allows to link these working sessions to academic research.

Working sessions

The think tank creates every year thematic working sessions involving personalities from all horizons of its community, with the mission of generating innovative reflections and to make programmatic proposals at the attention of cultural leaders as well as of the general public.

The international studies and surveys

Its exclusive international studies or surveys rely on hundreds of interviews, comparisons and cartographies, intended to encourage the public debate on topical issues or prospective societal questions, relayed at the national and international levels.

The indicators

  • Cultural footprint: establishment of the first international barometer on cultural territorial attractiveness, as a tool for quantitative and qualitative appreciation of cultural investment
  • Tax policy in favor of culture: an international comparison between tax policies in the cultural field.

Consumer surveys: every year, the Forum d’Avignon produces consumer surveys that allow determining trends in the field of culture and cultural industries.

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