AFTER sharing her cultural expertise and plans for an arts centre in Halton with her European counterparts, the borough's arts development manager, Christina Christou, has been awarded a major diploma.

Christina is one of a very small number of people in this country to achieve the European Diploma in Cultural Project Management, which is awarded by the Council of Europe.

During the two-year course, which is done bilingually, she spent time in France learning about how the country approaches culture and had to make a presentation to an international jury on her project, A New Arts Centre for Halton.

The centre is currently the subject of a revised lottery bid for the original proposal was turned down.

Christina explained how she was chosen: "A person is selected every year from each country.

"You have to submit a project idea and also a strong application about yourself, your background and your current work."

She continued: "There were 21 delegates in all and it was truly European with people from all over, such as Finland and Sweden, Milan, Gothenberg, Russia and Belgrade.

"It is a very highly regarded course in Europe.

"The idea is to take managers from different backgrounds with strong projects and to use their expertise to compare and contrast different styles and trends in cultural management and how culture is funded."

Each delegate had to do a case study in another country and Christina went to an established arts centre near Lille.

The cultural officer from Gothenberg came to England during which time he visited Norton Priory Museum in Runcorn.

"In France there are more artists involved in cultural development, whereas here it is mainly administrators.

"Here we are very good at arts development and outreach because we have a lot of arts professionals in local authorities," said Christina.

The course was intense and included topics such as cultural tourism, funding structures, the role of the cultural manager and how culture can be used as a political tool.

"The workload was very heavy and challenging.

"You have to be versatile and come from an academic background," said Christina.

"It was a wonderful experience. It was useful to exchange ideas, find out about possible sources of funding and see cultural management at work in different countries.

"It will help me to manage the arts centre project and to have a qualification in cultural management is quite unusual.

"Halton Council was very keen for me to go on the course, which is very positive thinking because the development of the arts centres is so crucial."

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