Welcome to the first New Horizons podcast episode, on the theme Empathy.

The New Horizons Leadership Programme is a Baltic-Nordic collaboration with European dimension which is led by Cirkus Syd (SE), Rigas Cirks (LV), and DYNAMO (DK).

The vision for NHLP-EU is to strengthen the position of the circus field in Europe by supporting future leaders to acquire and develop skills and competencies for strong leadership. The program responds to a strong demand for the development of cultural managers, producers and artistic as well as executive directors as strong leaders. It brings together 10 visionary fellows and 10 experts as well as the wider open cultural field open to all, to engage in exchanges and events related to leadership.

The 10-month programme of events includes two national-level live forums, 10 digital online seminars, as well as 3-week transnational shadow experiences and peer learning. The programme is open to emergent leaders in the circus sector, based in a Nordic, Baltic, or European country. 

In each New Horizons Podcast episode you will hear 3 of the fellows discussing one theme of the digital events. The topic for this first episode is EMPATHY. 

In the first episode, fellows Elise Missall (IE/DE), Gaia Vimercati (IT) and Sophie Zoletnik (HU) pick up the conversation launched in the Digital Event on the theme of Empathy. 

They discuss empathy as a resource for cultural managers to understand their teams and create safer work environments, as well as the drawbacks of empathy and setting healthy boundaries. 

Empathy is discussed in relation to hierarchy and different cultural settings that decision making in organisations, particularly in grassroots projects. Too, recent changes to work models bring up the topic of empathy in remote contexts and staying connected despite physical distance

This project is Co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union