Since its incorporation, the motto of Artemrede has been to build bridges between disparate realities and different views of the world, but with common goals of cultural development of territories and populations. The drastic change in economic, political and social conditions since 2005, parallel to the will and the need to respond to new expectations and explore other areas of intervention in the territory, boosted the launching of an internal strategic planning process. The full awareness of the difficulty to foresee the changing environment in which it operates did not dissuade Artemrede from paving its path. On the contrary, we invested in structured planning, to respond to far-reaching ambitions and cover their settling time needs. This planning was anchored from a long-term standpoint (2015-2020) and regarded as an internal challenge that would then culminate in the writing and public presentation, first, of the Strategic Guidelines of Artemrede and, later, of its Strategic and Operational Plan. This document is the result of intense reflection and discussion among all Artemrede's Associated Municipalities, from the different levels of responsibility in municipal management. This process was also based on the opening premise: a Strategic Reflection Meeting was held, for which stakeholders from across the country were invited, including mayors, programmers, artists, academics, social and cultural agents, producers, associative and municipal leaders, businessmen and cultural managers in a unique initiative in Artemrede's history (and fairly unusual, at least within the cultural sector): publicly discuss the challenges it faces, and appeal to the collective accountability in the construction of a strategic plan to effectively meet the needs of the population, organizations, businesses and institutions in the region. This opening and transparency attitude was an essential step to categorically assert Artemrede as a cultural cooperation project which sees itself - and is increasingly recognised - as pivotal for social innovation in the specific territories in which it operates. With this repositioning, we promoted an International Conference on February 12th, 2015, at the Joaquim Benite Municipal Theatre, in Almada, which marked our 10 years of activity, and presented the Strategic and Operational Plan for 2015-2020, while promoting reflection and debate on the two structural axes of our action: the cultural programme from a mediation standpoint and the cultural policies as public policies for the development of territories. THE STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL PLAN 2015-2020 Artemrede's Strategic Plan for 2015-2020 is based on six structural axes, which sustain the network's performance: Territory, Politics, Arts, Knowledge, Cooperation and Sustainability. To these keywords correspond 10 strategic priorities, 16 action proposals and 60 indicators to be analysed during the 2017 mid-term review. Strategic Priorities for 2015-2020: 1. Place culture at the heart of government policies 2. Integrate local territorial development strategies 3. Qualify the cultural activities of Artemrede's Members 4. Strengthen the bonds of culture and the arts with the territory and the population 5. Open Artemrede to the public and grow in a wise and governable manner 6. Ensure the economic sustainability of Artemrede 7. Improve governance and strategic planning 8. Implement a more agile communication strategy, also more accessible and effective 9. Develop specialized training and lifelong learning initiatives10. Initiate a process of internationalizationPlease consult here the full version of the Strategic and Operational Plan 2015-2020.