- event type:WOMEX 26 Special Session
- date:24 Oct 2026
- time:15:30 - 17:00
- city/area:Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
- venue:Conference Room 3
- country:Spain
- event posted by:Piranha Arts
Links
Facilitated by
Omar Barghouti (Palestine), BDS movement for Palestinian rights;
Inda Flo (UK), Musicians For Palestine UK;
Mauricio Lizarazo Prada (Colombia/Germany), Pachamama Culture•Music C•A•R•E•S;
Georgie Pope (UK), Marsm UK
We invite all Womex colleagues and delegates to gather in this special workshop session dedicated to discussing ethical dilemmas in a world where international law is being eroded and a might-makes-right era is setting in. How can the music industry safeguard institutional resilience while upholding human rights, refraining from doing undue harm, and ensuring basic ethical standards? What does ‘decolonisation’ look like in the context of the music industry?
Participants will engage in discussion sessions around three key areas: Sponsorship, Ethical programming vs. Artwashing, Ethical policies.
The session aims to:
- increase understanding of ethics in a variety of cultural contexts
- provide a space for sharing approaches, examples and resources
- build a transnational network of cultural producers committed to ethical conduct
The workshop itself is an exercise in perspective-taking: participants and moderators will have the opportunity to (de-)construct and debate arguments for a variety of viewpoints, in the interest of fostering understanding across the cultural sector.
Please arrive on time: As this is an interactive session, arriving from the start ensures the full context and “rules of play” are clear.
‘Do No Harm: Ethical Responsibility in the Global Music Scene’ is a special workshop session that emerged through dialogue with WOMEX community members. As we reported in January, WOMEX is committed to engaging in the topic of ethics within our ecosystem, and created space for this session to be presented by The Collective of Artists & Cultural Workers for Justice in Music and Arts and Marsm UK.