The Ultimate Cookbooks for Cultural Managers

What began as an inside joke soon became the title for this series: the Ultimate Cookbooks for Cultural Managers. These booklets aim to present complex topics in a clear, accessible and easy-to-read format. In other words, they offer both the ingredients and the recipe—along with a few helpful tips—for cultural professionals to cook up great performances.

The series started with the aim of providing cultural professionals with legal, administrative and managerial issues that came with cross-border cultural cooperation. A big part of artists, festivals, venues, touring and production companies in the live music and performing arts sector is about working internationally. This means that understanding European legislation and procedures is necessary for the collaboration to take place smoothly.

Under the auspices of legal experts with an in-depth understanding and knowledge of the sector, a first series of booklets was designed as part of the EFA Rise projects (2014-2017 and 2018-2021) to help navigate important procedures.

• Visas for Third-Country National Artists Travelling to the Schengen Area (Original version, 2018 / Updated version, 2020)
• Social Security in an International Context (Original version, 2016 / Updated version, 2021)
• Artist Taxation in an International Context (Original version, 2016 / Updated version, 2021)
• Copyright Clearing for Live Events in an International Context (Original version, 2017 / Updated version, 2021)
• VAT in an International Context (Original version, 2016 / Updated version, 2021)

In a second series of cookbooks, we drew on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis. Four key areas were identified for deeper exploration: sustainability, digital, resilience, and mobility.

The pandemic required cultural actors to become more flexible and acquire a greater range of skills to be able to navigate the new ways of creation, production, and emerging opportunities. Performing arts professionals strived to learn new technical skills, many related to the digital environment, and continued to critically think about long-term issues such as sustainability. The next Cookbooks aimed to steer the sector towards a more sustainable practice and help reduce the impact of a global crisis if it were to hit. As part of the EFA Revealing the Alliance project (2022-2024), three more editions were produced on:

• The EU Green Deal and Live Performance Organisations (March 2023)
• Connecting the EU Digital strategy with live performance organisations (December 2023)
• Third-Country National Artists Working in the EU (December 2024)

We are currently in the third series of cookbooks, which widens its scope and aims to address broader social and societal issues that impact the day-to-day practice of cultural professionals, beginning with a focus on artistic freedom.

The Ultimate Cookbooks for Cultural Managers

- The Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers: The Artistic Freedom Regulatory Framework in the EU. December 2025.

- The Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers: Third-Country National Artists Working in the EU. December 2024.

- The Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers: Connecting the EU Digital strategy with live performance organisations. December 2023.

- The Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers: The EU Green Deal and Live Performance Organisations. March 2023.
For Pearle* members only, this publication is associated to timeline of EU Green Deal legislation of relevance to our sector. 

- The Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers: Social Security in an International Context. Original version (2016): EN. Updated version (2021): EN

- The Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers: Artist Taxation in an International Context. Original version (2016): EN. Updated version (2021): EN - CZ

- The Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers: VAT in an International Context. Original version (2016): EN. Updated version (2021): EN - CZ

- The Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers: Copyright Clearing for Live Events in an International Context. Original version (2017): EN. Updated version (2021): EN - CZ - FR

- The Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers: Visas for Third Country National Artists Traveling to the Schengen Area. Original version (2018): EN. Updated version (2020): EN - CZ

Infographics for Cultural Managers

For a more visual and summarised version of the Cookbooks, we have also published infographics that provide the essential information at a glance.

- The infographic for the "Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers: Social Security in an international context" presents the steps to be taken and questions to be answered to understand the functioning of social security coordination rules in Europe. Download the infographic here.

- The infographic for the "Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers: Artist Taxation in an international context" presents the steps to be taken and questions to be answered to understand how artist taxation happens when performing abroad. Download the infographic here.

- The infographic for the "Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers: VAT in an international context" presents the consequences of VAT in an international context with a special focus on the EU live performance sector. Download the infographic here.

- The infographic for the "Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers: The EU Green Deal and Live Performance Organisations" presents how to best apply the Green Deal and integrate environmental sustainability in day-to-day activities of live performance organisations. Download the infographic here.

- The infographic for the "Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers: Visas for Third Country National Artists Travelling to the Schengen Area" details the steps to follow when a third-country national has to apply for a Schengen visa. Download the infographic here.

- The infographic for the "Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers: Connecting the EU Digital strategy with live performance organisations" helps navigate the new digital innovations and their impact on live performance organisations, from the production phase to the diffusion. Download the infographic here.

- The infographic for the "Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers: Copyright Clearing for Live Events" is designed to give live performance and cultural professionals a quick, clear understanding of the copyright clearance process when working internationally. Download the infographic here.

- The infographic for the "Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers: The Artistic Freedom Regulatory Framework in the EU" is designed to give live performance and cultural professionals a visual summary of the essential legal framework protecting artistic freedom in Europe, as well as the risks and challenges that live performance organisations can face, and tips for daily practice. Download the infographic here.

Collaboration between Pearle* and EFA

Care for Share alliance - 2025-2028

Care for and Share the Alliance is the Creative Europe Network programme 2025-2028 of the European Festivals Association (EFA). It will explore the guiding question: “How do the arts, arts festivals, cities and regions specifically contribute to better living conditions of people and of the planet?” The project focuses on two priorities: to increase accessibility to and of the festival sector for participation and interaction in the Alliance; to deepen Alliance stakeholders’ capacities and expand their impact.

EFA aims to develop and improve the awareness, responsibility and critical thinking of festivals and festival cities and regions to play an active role within our societies. Besides networking and capacity building, EFA's activities contribute to the social and cultural development of localities, nations, and international communities within the EU and beyond, equipping festivals and their stakeholders with new models of trans-sectoral work.

Initiatives focusing on the arts and the communities at the core of EFA's work, developing a language tailored to their needs while engaging colleague networks and audiences in activities and policy dialogue to share this language and create a meaningful impact. For that, EFA teams up with The Festival Academy, Pearle* and A Soul for Europe.

Revealing the Alliance – Step 1 2 3 2022-2024

Revealing the Alliance – Step 1 2 3 was the European Festivals Association (EFA)’s Creative Europe Network programme that ran from 2021 to 2024. Festivals are a strong feature of Europe’s cultural DNA and the continent’s artistic landscape, and this project will encourage the scaling up of Europe’s cultural sector.

It aimed to initiate, consolidate and disseminate a trans-sectorial and interactive European Festivals Alliance by, for and through festivals. Building on its work in the past seventy years, the project offers a platform for festivals’ development and interaction with cities and businesses to implement the “European Festivals Alliance 70-Years-On Agenda”. During EFA’s annual Arts Festivals Summit and other meetings, festivals and their stakeholders organised in sub-communities will reflect and act jointly, equipping festivals with new models for intersectoral work. Each year will focus on a new thematic priority: Environmental sustainability; Innovation, co-creation and the use of public spaces; Access to culture, inclusion, gender balance, audience development. The ultimate aim of Revealing the Alliance is to grow sub-communities, identified with and owned/run by the Alliance through networking, capacity building, collecting and disseminating knowledge and practice, advocacy and communication. For this project EFA has teamed up with The Festival Academy, Pearle* and A Soul for Europe.

This capacity building partnership encompassed workshops, booklets, infographics, and recorded sessions in the context of internationalisation, cross-border cooperation, mobility and as a consequence of international developments.

EFA Rise II 2017-2021

The EFA RISE 2 project from 2017-2021 aimed to build an engaged, cross-generational, multidisciplinary and cross-sectorial community through ongoing activities such as the Festival Knowledge Centre, the Festival Places Portraits videos, the EFA Festival in Focus interviews, the Culture Commissioner Round Table and the annual Arts Festivals Summit. Events specifically targeted at young professionals include the Ateliers for Young Festival Managers and Production Managers and workshops with Pearle on European legislation. To encourage cooperation in the community EFA will work with the Future Heritage Ambassadors, the In Situ Insight delegations to festivals and the Arts Festivals Council. The focus will go from the human capital at the centre of festivals to their connection with audiences and places, and will culminate with the connection between festivals and artists to build dialogue, empowerment and empathy. By acting on the quality of long term engagement EFA will have a long-term impact on society.

EFA Rise I 2014-2017

The EFA RISE project ran from 2014-2017 with activities which acted on exchange of expertise on audiences, management models, artistic and policy making choices (working groups, think tanks, conferences), development of skills (atelier and technical workshops with Pearle*), incentive to cooperation (Artistic Collaborations WG) and engagement in policy making (Round Table with Culture Commissioner, Conferences).