The 2nd European Meeting for WIMUST
The 2nd European Meeting for WIMUST - Women In Music Uniting Strategies for Talent took place in Fiuggi (Italy) on 6 & 7 July 2012.The Plenary Session determined on a number of activities to be undertaken in 2013, in order to endorse the 2009 European Parliamentary Resolution insisting on Equal Opportunities for women working in the arts and culture sectors, and to ensure that this Resolution is finally put into force by all European Governments.
Patricia Adkins Chiti, President of the Foundation Donne in Musica and Scientific Director of the WIMUST project, stressed in her speech during the meeting that "the status of contemporary European women composers is constantly under threat. In most countries, they are equal in number to male composers, and in some countries more, however, only 1 % of their music (traditional, popular, classical, contemporary) is programmed by public funded institutions and 89 % of public arts and culture institutions are directed by men."
Italian MEP Silvia Costa, who has recently been designated rapporteur for the programme "Creative Europe", has expressed her commitment, underlining that "women composers and creators should be recognised and supported at all levels, as cultural industries lead the European economic development, influencing the GNP in each country".
WIMUST will focus in 2012 and 2013 on orchestras, youth orchestras and jazz festivals and a petition will be shortly sent to every single Culture Ministry in the EU, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey and to all members of national parliaments country by country.
WIMUST is supported by the Culture Programme of the European Commission and administrated by EACEA. The project is undertaken by the Fondazione Adkins Chiti: Donne in Musica in collaboration with Women in/for/and Music organisations, Conservatories and Universities in: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom.
WIMUST objectives are:
- Advocacy, information, communication and promotion of slogan:"Culture development needs women and music" to European media and stakeholders about the presence and ongoing activities of women composers;
- Updating of existing archives in preparation for publication of a European Yearbook of Women Composers and Creators of Music;
-Increase in trans-national mobility for women composers and practitioners to amplify professional skills, life-long creativity and facilitate dissemination of knowledge and strategies in their own countries;
-Investigation of mechanisms producing inequalities with production of statistics for works by women programmed by EU public institutions and discussion of national benchmarking for gender audits in the arts;
-Advocacy for 2009 European Parliament Resolution to reinforce official recognition of the presence and value in public and cultural sectors of women making music.
- Formulation of cross-culture approach for arts training policies to be presented to European Parliament.