Turntables
- Projects
- Turntables
Turntables helps creative practitioners across the globe through building future skills, fostering networks and supporting artistic collaboration.
Many artists from Africa, Latin America, Southeast and Southwest Asia, Eastern Europe and those with migrant experience face systemic barriers which prevent them from gaining visibility and recognition as well as accessing markets and resources. At the same time, digital and social transformations are changing the nature of work in the cultural and creative industries. Being an artist or creative professional now relies heavily on entrepreneurship, global connectedness and digital skills, competencies often best learned outside classrooms – in communities of practice.
Turntables is a programme that responds to such a context. It fosters a transcultural community of practice among artists, civil society organizations, cultural professionals and educational institutions through new training sessions, knowledge sharing and cultural mobility.
WHY IS TURNTABLES UNIQUE?
- It focuses on skills development. Artists learn to ‘cook’ instead of being served a meal.
- It fosters peer to peer instead of top-down exchange.
- It is co-creative and collaborative instead of prescriptive. It works with and not for artists.
- It uses digital connectivity to strengthen inclusion, accessibility, and evidence-based reporting.
- It encourages systemic change by engaging diverse stakeholders
Check out our different opportunities and join Turntables!
LEARN! 'Turntables: Learn - Fostering transcultural communities of practice' offers sustainable ways of learning to qualify young cultural practitioners to make a living in the arts. It enables mutual learning on the challenges and approaches to training young creatives across different contexts and brings together civil society and higher education institutions from different countries.
What are our goals?
- Strengthening Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to create lasting programmes that support the growth and mobility of creative professionals.
- Enhancing collaboration between the creative sector and academia through shared learning and peer-to-peer exchanges.
- Increasing job and opportunities for cultural practitioners by building communities of practice.
- Creating a network of CSOs and HEIs focused on sustainable learning in the cultural and creative industries.
Co-funded by Movetia, the project is a partnership between artlink (Bern), ZHDK (Zurich), Mekong Cultural Hub (Southeast Asia), Black Rhino VR (Kenya) and Meta Arts (India).
Stay tuned for more information!
The Creative Skills Roundtable series has come to a close for now. We will update this page soon with the key learnings.
Events
-
#4 & 5 ONLINE - Roundtable on Digital Archiving in Performing Arts: A South Asian Context
18.09.2025 | 10:30South Asia, home to nearly 2 billion people across eight countries, is one of the world’s largest emerging regions — marked by a young population, vibrant cultural traditions, and rapidly expanding digital economies.
This two-day online roundtable explores how digital archiving can become a platform for learning, resilience and employment opportunity in South Asia’s performing arts sector.
It will focus on the South Asian context, with Day 1 examining how archiving skills can strengthen career pathways and sector growth, and Day 2 offering practical guidance for independent artists, students, and educators on starting and running archiving projects.
Speakers include academics, artists, producers, policymakers, and culture managers from institutions such as Presidency University, Jadavpur University, Littlei (Calcutta), and the Embassy of Switzerland in India.
The event is hosted by Meta Arts, a Calcutta-based production company who works with artists and cultural agencies across India and internationally to curate, co-produce, and tour events and festivals, in collaboration with Presidency University to bridge cultural practice with academic perspectives on archiving and creative skills.When: 18 September 2025, 10:30 - 12:00 CET (14:00 - 15:30 IST) // 19 September 2025, 7:30 - 12:00 CET (11:00 - 15:30 CET)
Language: English
Location: Online, via Zoom.
T he workshop is free of charge. The number of places in the group is limited. Register here.
-
#3 ONLINE - From creative industries to creative skills: A hype or a paradigm shift?
12.09.2025 | 10:00Our understanding of creativity’s role in the global economy is shifting. The focus has moved from industries to occupations, and now to the skills that drive innovation. But is this turn to “creative skills” a fleeting trend — or a paradigm shift?
This roundtable, organised by the Zurich Centre for Creative Economies (ZCCE) at Zurich University of the Arts, explores the debates on creative skills and their future role in work, policy, and society. Whether you’re working in the arts, education, tech, or policy, we invite you to explore the debates on creative skills and their future role in work, policy, and society.
The wide angle: creative industries – early efforts mapped sectors like film and music to foster clusters, but overlooked individuals working creatively in other fields.
The medium shot: creative occupations – focusing on “embedded creatives” (designers in banks, writers in tech firms) revealed a broader workforce.
The close-up: creative skills – today, the spotlight is on transferable skills such as collaboration and problem-solving. In the age of AI, these skills are in demand across all sectors, positioning creativity as a universal capacity for innovation.Speakers:
Introduction & overview – Christoph Weckerle, Director ZCCE (Introduction & overview), Barbara Revelli, ELIA (The European perspective), Malaya del Rosario, artlink (The ASEAN/Southeast Asia perspective), Marc Burkhalter, Scrambl (The technology approach)
When: 12 September 2025, 10:00 - 01:00 CET
Language: English
Location: Online, via Zoom
The workshop is free of charge. Register here by 10 Sept – slots are limited.
-
#2 ONLINE - AI’s Quiet Influence on Creativity and Culture
29.08.2025 | 10:00Discover how AI is shaping Africa’s next creative generation – and how you can take part. AI is reshaping creativity and culture in Africa in profound but often invisible ways. This session, hosted by Black Rhino VR, asks how these shifts impact cultural authenticity, ownership of creative IP, and equitable access. Together, we’ll examine how AI and creativity can become forces of liberation — shaping a future where African creators have agency, authenticity, and opportunity.
When: 29 August, 10:00 CET
Language: English
Location: Online, via Zoom
The workshop is free of charge. The number of places in the group is limited. Register by 28 August here.
-
#1 ONLINE - Future Skills: Creating New Opportunities in the Mekong Region
19.06.2025 | 10:30The Creative Economy currently represents approximately 3% of global GDP, with predictions suggesting this share could triple by 2030. With a young population and a strong and vibrant legacy of cultural heritage and creativity, the Mekong Region should be in a position to benefit from this trend. However, in reality there are significant skills gaps, and systemic issues to be addressed before we can do so. What are the skills that young people need today in order to navigate tomorrow? How can creativity, technology and culture be integrated into the future of the Mekong Region?
Join Sopheap Im, Chief People Officer, Digital Divide Data a social enterprise working across Cambodia, Laos and Kenya, and Souliya Phoumivong, New Media Artist & university lecturer in Laos, for a dynamic discussion on experiences facing young people entering employment, and their perspectives on what skills need to be nurtured if we want to see a vibrant creative economy flourish in the region.
This event is co-hosted by Mekong Cultural Hub and Helvetas Laos.
When: 19 June, 10:30 CET (Zurich) | 15:30 GMT+7 (Bangkok), 1.5 hours.
Language: English
Location: Online, via Zoom
The workshop is free of charge. The number of places in the group is limited.
Register by 17 June here.
CONNECT! offers community members organised live and online encounters (like skill sharing, matchmaking sessions, artist talks, etc.) in which they can gain access to opportunities, introduce themselves and meet new contacts.
The artlink Directory is a digital gateway for artists and cultural practitioners who took part in our programmes.
The artlink Directory is for you! As an artist, it helps you:
- Showcase your work to relevant audiences
- Expand social and professional networks through a community of support
- Connect with peers and potential collaborators
- Keep in touch with contacts you may have met through artlink
- Gain access to professional development opportunities
How can I join the artlink Directory, you might ask? All you need to do is submit an application. Sign up today, it’s free!
'Fostering Transcultural Communities of Practice: a Report on Diversity and Collaboration' is an account of our learnings and reflections since Turntables started, addressed to cultural practitioners and peer organizations. It is also an invitation to think about other questions that occupy us: Is virtual mobility an alternative with the same value as physical mobility, or does it represent a fundamentally different kind of collaboration? When does a virtual encounter contribute? What are the implications and conditions that come with it? This report sets out to approach these questions, knowing that their answers are complex and continually evolving.
October 2025