The Prince Claus Fund is launching its first Biennial Symposium –– Collaborating with partners within various localities, the event facilitates South-to-South knowledge exchange and harnesses the potential of culture for fostering solidarity and positive societal change.

In our interconnected world, fostering dialogue and collaboration is essential for us to embrace our unique lifestyles while coexisting harmoniously. The Prince Claus Fund Biennial Symposium 2023 focuses on building sustainable and enduring relationships among cultural innovators with the ultimate aim of showcasing the transformative power of culture.

The first Prince Claus Fund Biennial Symposium takes us to Colombo, Sri Lanka, where in collaboration with the Geoffrey Bawa Trust for a three-day programme of keynotes, performances, tours, and more. Titled “Legacies of Care, Failures and Emerging Solidarities” and curated in collaboration with renowned artistic director Keng Sen Ong, the Symposium aims to facilitate conversation and reflection on how arts and culture can address urgent societal challenges and stimulate international solidarity across global issues of climate, equity, and freedom. Beyond the global, the Symposium focuses on local research and employs a trans local lens, to delve deeper into the urgencies of action and collaboration.

The 2023 Prince Claus Fund Symposium takes the practice of care as a departure point for activating a sustainable and inclusive future co-existence. Resilience and regeneration will be at the heart of the programme, with emerging and established cultural changemakers collectively investigating the ways of acting sustainably and responsibly, to create inhabitable societies in various local contexts. Taking failures as a driving force for new beginnings, the Symposium aims to create long-lasting connections between cultural practitioners from Southeast Asia and advocate for the transformative power of culture. 

Programme

• Public Opening |  3 December, 18:00-20:00 (UTC+5:30) at Kamatha Arena, BMICH in Colombo, Sri Lanka
• Legacies of Care, Failures, Emerging Solidarities | 4 December, 09:30–17:00 (UTC+5:30) at The Stables Venue, Park Street Mews in Colombo, Sri Lanka
• Lunuganga and Seeds for the Future | 5 December, 17:30–21:00 (UTC+5:30) at the Lunuganga Estate in Bentota, Sri Lanka