Nourishing the Future: Culture and Creativity as Catalysts

Constanze Itzel, Museum Director of the House of European History, contributed this article to the seminar "Europe & Culture: Back to the Future", which was organised by the European Cultural Foundation, held on the occasion of the official opening of its archives at the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence on 9–10 June 2026. 

Summary

In “Nourishing the Future: Culture and Creativity as Catalysts”, Constanze Itzel asks how culture can help Europeans imagine and create possible futures. Drawing on the links between memory and imagination, she argues that history, literature and art, combined with empathy and creative thinking, expand the futures people can envision.

Practical information

• In English
• Reference code: ISBN/EAN: 978-90-6282-000-9
• Image: First congress organised by the European Cultural Foundation on the theme, ‘Cultural and Intellectual Unity of Europe’, Amsterdam, 1967. Courtesy European Cultural Foundation