On 31 May, the Casa da Criatividade in São João da Madeira (Porto) hosted the international conference promoted by the Metropolitan Area of Porto, entitled "On the Road to a Metropolitan Charter of Culture." The keynote speaker was Dr Nicolas Barbieri, lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities and Director of the University Master’s Degree in Arts and Cultural Management at UIC Barcelona.

Decision-makers, technicians, institutions, researchers and professionals from the cultural sector attended the meeting and discussed the place culture has in the scope of local policies. The objective of the conference was the creation of a common commitment, which would lead to a future Metropolitan Charter of Culture, sharing the results of relevant metropolitan projects and working sessions for technicians and professionals in the sector.

Barbieri's speech focused on the scope of local cultural policies and their relationship to cities, which usually “have been effected by the evolution of great paradigms of public intervention, from cultural democratisation to proximity policies”, the lecturer commented before an international audience.

According to Barbieri, one of the great challenges of this situation has been to develop comprehensive cultural policies beyond the construction of great cultural infrastructures. “This is especially relevant in view of the existing inequalities in the right to participate in the cultural life of the city. To address these challenges, it is essential to develop cultural policy initiatives at the metropolitan level and not just in one city,” he said.

The Metropolitan Area of Porto reported that version zero of the Metropolitan Charter of Culture, which is expected to come out of this meeting, must be discussed, reflected on and studied in more detail over the coming months in each municipality.