There are a number of policy issues and debates worth addressing. They include the following:
- The gap identified in a collection of innovative qualitative and quantitative research exercises may lead to the identification and evaluation of cultural projects and processes that could support further and more effective measures abetting inclusivity. Subsequently, a concise best practice guide to research and evaluation at national, regional and local level may be assembled. This may include a clear statement of principles to underpin practice and case studies.
- Reliable and replicable methodologies for monitoring and evaluation may be developed and piloted through collaborative means while more practical toolkits for cultural operators may be assembled to illustrate positive approaches and methods, identifying their strengths and weaknesses in relation to different types of socially engaging practices.
- The dissemination of good practice in research and evaluation may be introduced across programmes that address socially inclusion community arts practice and mainstreamed into project design processes. It may be important to challenge exclusionary and discriminatory attitudes and to make the values of inclusiveness and solidarity a priority in cultural policy on the basis of solid research. The cultural, social and educational sectors can contribute significantly to this task, as have Maltese partners with their European counterparts.
- Inclusive policy making needs to go beyond drawing attention to unitary categories like race discrimination, class or gender. Rather, it acknowledges the wide range of power dynamics that make for a more intersectional analysis of social, political and even historical contexts. This inclusivity will only be possible if strategies adopted by cultural institutions promote a transversal and intersectional approach. Sectors that may have not received sufficient attention till now, including the elderly, and the benefits of social prescribing of the arts, may be addressed through this holistic approach. Indeed, social prescribing and civic engagement are now being practised.
- There is a need to support cultural inclusion actions that are transdisciplinary, transgenerational, transcultural and transnational. Cultural actors in Malta need to acknowledge that a significant degree of cultural activity that has had social impact has not always been supported through funding sources that are dedicated specifically to arts and culture. Therefore, a review of the impact of the cultural contribution to sustainability across different sectors may inform improved programme and project funding design in the future. This perspective is key to the cyclical funding reviews Arts Council Malta engages in regularly.
- Cross-sectoral collaboration is a major challenge when trying to adopt a reciprocal approach wherein each sector actively participates in the various steps of the working process. Addressing this challenge calls for training, capacity building and professional development. It needs to involve different NGOs in the field of culture and social work, including ethnic minority groups, religious minority groups, migrants, people with reduced mobility and children, amongst other groups.
- Providing access to a broad cultural education may contribute to raising awareness and learning about differences and commonalities between cultures. It is especially important to reach persons whose circumstances make them a target for those who adopt exclusionary attitudes through various interconnecting discriminatory modes. The recognition that persons belong to various social groups may assist policy makers to avoid generalisations about power relations when developing strategies. It is not a matter of creating new hierarchies in which dominant and oppressed identities are merely reversed. Only by promoting more nuanced understandings of identities can policy begin to reflect a truly participatory attitude towards cultural access.
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