by Maria Elena Santagati | Feb 27, 2017 | The Urban Media Lab
On 7th and 8th February 2017 Marseille hosted the seminar “Patrimoines et biens communs au regard des droits culturels”, organized within the framework of the “Chaniter Patrimoine(s) et bien(s) commun(s)”, a research-action site devoted to analyse, debate and exchange knowledge about the phenomenon of heritage communities, defined by the Faro Convention on the value of cultural heritage for society (2005) as:
art.2.b.“Heritage community consists of people who value specific aspects of cultural heritage which they wish, within the framework of public action, to sustain and transmit to future generations.”
Building on this definition, many community-based initiatives have been developed so far, serving as the Faro good practices[1]: Heritage committee, Heritage walk, Residents’ co-operative, Urban revelation workshop, Metropolitan trail.
Among the case studies presented during the seminar was the experience of Hotel du Nord, a residents’ co-operative which offers hosting and touristic opportunities by enhancing local cultural heritage in the northern neighborhood of the city of Marseille. It began as an experimentation in 2009 and was officially founded in 2011, as a result of the mission expérimentale européenne de patrimoine intégré, an interesting project launched in 1995 by the city of Marseille, the Council of Europe, the University and the CNFPT (the National center for the territorial public service, in the framework of the national program of rehabilitation of the inner harbour of the city). This process was carried out as an intense research and action activity, which led to the foundation of 8 heritage communities. In 2009, the mayor of the northern district of Marseilles also signed the Faro Convention and a first experimentation of residents’ co-operation was carried out during the preparatory process of Marseille European Capital of Culture 2013.
Picture from Stories.com, available here: http://stories.coop/stories/hotel-du-nord-the-cooperative-hospitality/
Hotel du Nord now proposes a network of 70 hosts, mainly residents, 60 bedrooms and 50 heritage walks to discover the natural and cultural heritage of the area. It clearly pursues the main aim of the Faro Convention, that is recognizing and promoting the social value of cultural heritage. As a matter of fact, it aims to obtain economic benefits from local heritage, to be reinvested for its preservation and enhancement, while at the same time improving residents’ quality of life and visitors’ touristic experience, through their active participation. All that adopting an experimental approach which tries to mobilize the social and cooperative capital of the local community. A further step is the experimentation of Hotel du Nord practice at the national level, in partnership with different actors from the social tourism and cultural sectors, through the co-operative Les oiseaux du passage.
As Prosper Wanner, director of Hotel du Nord, affirms: “What we need is a new paradigm triggering changes at least on three levels: cultural, economic and institutional. We try to move from a public policy approach to a public service approach. In cultural heritage policies, many efforts are devoted to promote access to culture, while we are interested in promoting citizens’ participation in the policy process. To this end, a new relationship between civil servants and citizens should be developed. The roles of each actor should change in order to lay the foundations for a better cooperation, in which citizens become co-producers, also by having access to civil servants’ competences. With Hotel du Nord, we also experiment and produce new legal provisions and new knowledge which help the Council of Europe to make progress in the Faro Convention implementation”.
The creation of heritage communities and co-operatives deeply relies on the specific territorial context, thus requiring ad hoc supporting processes. According to Prosper Wanner, “There is not a one-size-fits-all solution. There are some principles and methodologies related to the Faro Convention, which mainly rise from ongoing processes. For instance, what we experimented with Hotel du Nord and later on in Pilsen, within the European Capital of Culture experience, and in Forlì, within the ATRIUM-Architecture of Totalitarian Regimes in Urban Managements project, is a process made up of different steps: a training phase, through “The school of hosts”, opened to residents and professionals, a programming phase to identify enhancement activities, for instance heritage walks, and a promotional activity. In this respect, a networking activity is useful to exchange experiences”.
The Council of Europe works at different levels in order to promote, facilitate and strengthen the implementation of the Faro Convention, with many initiatives included in the Faro Action Plan, like Faro Community, Faro in Action, Faro Spotlight and Faro research. As Wanner affirms: “With the Council of Europe, we are working at least in three directions: developing new narratives as regards cultural heritage, beyond the national one, promoting the approach of cultural heritage as a commons and enhancing citizens participation in public policies for an increased cooperation”.
“I am particularly interested in the perspective of commons as democracy spaces” says Wanner. In this direction, he identified a range of suggestions which could be useful for the elaboration of a cultural heritage as a commons policy[2]:
- create a heritage public service in which citizens co-manage culture heritage
- create a cultural heritage open data system
- elaborate a public regulation on cultural heritage commons
- make the European Heritage Days an opportunity to promote the Faro Convention implementation
- experiment participatory governance of culture according to the heritage committees model promoted by the Council of Europe
- develop an observatory of the Faro Convention implementation within the Council of Europe.
The Hotel du Nord experience and the inspiring ideas laying behind it definitely give us some food for thought!
[1] They are identified by the Faro Community and included in Faro in Action, an active learning platform gathering good practices and promoting exchange and dialogue among practitioners, facilitators and heritage actors.
[2] Published here: https://farovenezia.org/2016/02/17/proposte-per-una-politica-pubblica-patrimoniale-in-favore-del-diritto-al-patrimonio-culturale/
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Le comunità patrimoniali, nate nell’ambito della Convenzione di Faro sul valore del patrimonio culturale per la società, costituiscono un’opportunità importante per favorire un approccio al patrimonio culturale come bene comune. Tra queste, esemplare è l’esperienza di Hotel du Nord, cooperativa di abitanti della città di Marsiglia che propone ospitalità e interessanti modalità di fruizione turistica, in un’ottica di valorizzazione del patrimonio locale e di massima cooperazione tra cittadini e istituzioni.
by Maria Elena Santagati | Feb 3, 2017 | The Urban Media Lab
“…che la cultura, più che mai oggi, sia uno strumento irrinunciabile per scrivere il nostro futuro”[1].
It is becoming increasingly apparent that culture is an ever-present dimension in different debates, beyond the traditional artistic-cultural one: culture as a right, culture as wellbeing and welfare, culture as a commons, culture as a factor of social and economic development, culture as education, culture as a driving force for urban regeneration, culture as a resource for sustainable development, culture as citizenship.
Besides the emergence of a participatory and collaborative approach in conceiving and managing cultural projects, events and institutions, there is an ever-raising awareness of the intersectoral implications of culture as a process, also in terms of spillover effects. This is particularly enhanced and demonstrated by European and international policies, documents and initiatives as well as by the celebration of 2018 as the European Year of Cultural Heritage: documents such as “Council Conclusions on cultural heritage as a strategic resource for a sustainable Europe” (May 2014, available here), emphasizing the role and relevance of cultural heritage for a “smart, sustainable and inclusive growth”, “Commission Communication towards an integrated approach to cultural heritage for Europe” (July 2014, available here) and its related documents, or the final results of “Cultural Heritage counts for Europe” project (2013-2015), which deeply recommends the adoption of an holistic approach to cultural heritage.
As for the participatory issue, it is promoted by the EU with the “Council conclusions on the participatory governance of cultural heritage” (2014, available here) and the interesting “Mapping of practices in the EU Member States on Participatory governance of cultural heritage” (2015, to be found here), realized by the EENC-European Expert Network on Culture within the OMC Working group on cultural heritage.
Also UNESCO approved a specific project “Approaches to participatory governance of cultural institutions”, carried out by Kultura Nova Foundation in Croatia and supported by UNESCO’s Cultural Diversity Fund (June 2016-June 2018). Moreover, in its paper “Engaging local communities in Stewardship of World Heritage” (World Heritage, paper nr 40, November 2014, available here) it calls for community engagement at all stages of the World Heritage process, by learning experience from the Community Management of Protected Areas Conservation (COMPACT) methodology.
This collaborative and comprehensive trend is also emerging in many cooperatives, associations and organizations’ practices, both for international and local projects. For instance, the outstanding project and participatory process of Matera 2019 European Capital of Culture, or the experience of Hotel du Nord in Marseille, an inhabitants’ cooperative providing a network of accomodations and hosts and touring opportunities through heritage walks, or that of La Paranza in Naples, a cooperative of young people from the disadvantaged neighbourhood Rione Sanità managing the Paleochristian Catacombs.
The Commons Post, aware of the fundamental role played by culture, is committed to investigate this topic by proposing different cases and best practices, both international and local, throughout the year. The European and international policies and initiatives and the potential, the role, the effects of culture-driven processes led by different communities in different contexts will come under the spotlight.
Our purpose is to stress the leading role of culture in many changes under way. It’s time to overcome a short-sighted approach to culture and to acknowledge its long term sustainable contribution to the formulation of effective policies, processes and projects.
Because culture sounds future!
[1] Dal Pozzolo L., Garbarini A., Oltre la sindrome del Vilcoyote. Politiche culturali per disegnare il futuro. Luca Dal Pozzolo, Aldo Garbarini in conversazione con Francesco De Biase, FrancoAngeli, 2016, p.9
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La cultura come filo rosso che attraversa numerosi dibattiti e processi di sviluppo. La sua centralità in questa fase di cambiamento e l’esigenza di un approccio sempre più trasversale e di lungo termine non viene soltanto sottolineata da numerosi documenti europei, ma emerge anche dalle pratiche messe in atto da associazioni, cooperative e organizzazioni di varia natura a vari livelli. Per questo motivo, la cultura sarà tra le tematiche su cui andremo a concentrare la nostra attenzione nel 2017.
by Ieva Punyte | Jul 18, 2016 | The Urban Media Lab
On the 15th of July, Unipolis Foundation in collaboration with Fitzcarraldo Foundation and Make a Cube association organised a second mentoring workshop for the 15 finalists (the description of finalists see below, or at: http://culturability.org/notizie/finalisti-bando-culturability/) who have been selected from the “Culturability” call – an Italian national call to support innovative projects in cultural and creative fields to promote urban regeneration processes (see more about Culturability at: http://culturability.org/).
The third day of the workshop series was complemented by Urban Law professor at Fordham University Sheila Foster and LabGov coordinator, prof. Christian Iaione’s presentation as well as an interactive discussion with the audience. Scholars focused on bringing the attention of the 15 progressive cultural innovators to the idea of urban commons and, more specifically, addressing the collaborative governance of commons as the main target in the urban regeneration processes of today.
Coming from the school of thought on commons, Sheila Foster began with questions of what exactly an urban common is and what does it mean to the society and the city as a whole. “Urban commons are what city inhabitants share daily, in fact, these commons are of a deeply democratic nature, because they have an open access meaning that the usage of them is non-excludable”. From a property law perspective it is very important to distinguish urban commons from what is conventionally understood as common pool resources within the field of environmental law. Such distinction is necessary, because these commons differ in terms of their nature, characteristics and value that they create to the society, and hence this affects the character of their governance. “Urban commons are city spaces, such as squares, parks, abandoned or non-utilised buildings, streets, vacant lots, even cultural institutions, for instance, museums, and other urban open-access units – spaces of a truly common good nature”- addressed S. Foster. “These spaces are unique because they generate value, that is precisely of a social and cultural origin and a wide range of city actors have a stake or an interest in these urban commons. Thus, by preserving commons together, we can contribute to an inclusive and sustainable well-being co-creation by and for city inhabitants”.
On the other hand, scholar stressed that commons are not a simple concept in law or theory. “Commons are neither private nor public, it is something in between. Therefore, the question of governance of the commons is condemned to be a challenge from both practitioners and scholars’ viewpoints”. Having addressed the “Tragedy of Commons” (see H. Garrets), S. Foster emphasised that urban commons are not something that should be governed either by private or public, because these commons are not necessarily in threat of over-consumption or degradation like natural commons, as some scholars suggest. The opposite – open-access urban spaces, which increase multi-stakeholder usage, even enhance shared social, economic and environmental value and contribute to the so-called “Comedy of Commons” (see C. Rose). “The issue is that today every urban common is overly regulated, today nothing is an open access and non-excludable anymore and having mentioned the value of urban commons the re-opening and collaboratively governing urban commons is a highly valuable process for all stakeholders. The opening urban commons – contributes to the stimulation of a social value to the community. To add, the value of opening up the commons is directly linked to the production of culture, of housing. Commons are not about tragedy, rather about solidarity and shared value” – stressed S. Foster.
Christian Iaione took over the debate stressing that today there is a growing need to rethink economy, institutions and focus on the energy that the community possesses. “The community should recognise the value of commons. It is not the tangible commons that matter, it is the collaborative governance of commons and the value to the community that it produces”- said C. Iaione. Professor focusing on governance of commons stated that between the state and the market there is a room for experimentation and this is the space of commons that connect different stakeholders. So far, what the overly regulated cityscape has produced is scarcity and collaboration, or collective action, as stressed by E. Ostrom, yet in an urban context, is the way to introduce new approaches to governance and eliminate the problem of scarcity. Despite the fact that “[w]orking on commons requires constant experimentation, what we have accomplished thus far is writing the Regulation which is a strong step towards the recognition of urban commons at the city level and the introduction of collaborative urban governance”.
Lastly, by sharing experiences from the Parco Centocelle project in Rome and the project on #CollaboraToscana, C. Iaione emphasized that the governance of commons is an arrangement between 5 different actors (or “quintuple helix” model, see more about this in “City as a Commons“), where (1) the unorganized public (e.g. social innovators, active citizens, urban regenerators, urban innovators, etc.), (2) public authorities, (3) businesses, (4) civil society organisations, and (5) knowledge institutions (e.g. schools, universities, cultural institutions, etc.) work together to establish public-private-community partnerships and contribute to the preservation of the cultural heritage and the co-creation of the social as well as economic value.
Laboratory for Collaborative Governance of Urban Commons appreciates the energy and the ideas that 15 finalists of the Culturability Call possess. These finalists are promising examples of urban regeneration processes and therefore are strongly supported by LabGov.
The information about the finalists:
An initiative which regards culture in proposing a hybrid agricultural production system which creates a lively ecosystem. This, while restoring the role of not only agricultural production, but also of culture, contributes to the creation of welfare and strong community. This is a biological and social farmhouse of innovation and agriculture to improve the integration and employment, aggregation of space and the production of cultural places. It creates a sustainable local supply chain between farmers as well as it is a museum contributing to the regeneration of an area.
A non-profit organisation, founded by people who share a dream: to return the Cascina Sant’Ambrogio – an important place of agriculture and economy. This place regarded as poor and outdated due to the transformation of society is just an error of perspective. The Cascina is place rich in culture, memory and practices that need to be rethought by integrating them with the needs of present times. Citizens must not just be consumers and voters, but producers and active citizens able to concretely transform a portion of reality. This path does not come from nothing, but by a gradual emergence of the collective application that, with more and more insistently, asks sustainable and alternative lifestyles, as well as adequate opportunities.
- Caserma Archeologica + Art Sweet Art – San Sepolcro (Arezzo) | artsweetart.net
This is a platform of artists to display their works in private homes to visitants. A homeowner can choose an artist via the website artsweetart.it from those who have joined up to the initiative. After assessing the home, the artist decides what type of art work to display in the new location. The art has to fulfil both the customers’ needs (the house as a location, the artwork’s theme, etc.) as well as those of the artist (who is invited to carry out a piece of art which fully respects their artistic expression). The initial drafting phase is followed by the artist creating their work. The artist is hosted in the customers’ private home, an unprecedented experience which influences the creative process. During the artists’ stay, the organisers-together with the hosts’ family- promote the art in construction and facilitate workshops in schools, local cultural guides, gatherings with friends, etc.
The projects seeks to reform the system of support the cultural industry in Italy. It highlights the critical issues and illustrates the best solutions.
The project promotes different cultural tradition lines belonging to all Italian regions. Through musical concerts, plays, lectures and seminars, many of the popular culture heritages met within the framework of demonstrations made in Pisa, which due to its characteristics naturally prepares to host a dialogue between diverse communities and different cultures.
The project that seeks to create a network of people and spaces, such as, the abandoned buildings and underused of sites, with the objective of denunciation of situations of abandonment and then revaluation of the buildings by putting the spotlight on forgotten places, abandoned or fallen into disuse, showing its potential for reuse, it will foster a new collective interest in these spaces. This is a project that wants to revolutionise the way of seeing and understanding the assets disposed of a city, turning it into a resource.
This is a residence project that was born in a former industrial factory, able to provide hospitality for the whole year to travellers and tourists, and simultaneously transform into a school on urban regeneration: a “training of the mind” in the heart of central Italy, where two cities, Terni and Rieti meet. The idea is to experiment with new solutions and re-design territorial integration policy.
- LAB+: Piazza Gasparotto Urban Living Lab – Padova | copiu.it/lab
The project that focus on workers with different skills to meet, share ideas and expertise in urban regeneration practices. Gasparotto Square in a space of co-design living between citizens, private organisations and public institutions. To achieve this objective, the project makes the system a series of micro-actions of re-appropriation of public space: the urban expansion, construction of a weekly market of organic producers, involvement of local residents through the social theatre and community, realisation of works public art, use of storytelling and the creation of micro-community events.
- Mana Grika – Hub Culturale della Grecìa Salentina – Calimera (Lecce) | managrika.it
It is a Cultural Hub of the territory that will be made available to local communities to create initiatives with a strong cultural and social impact spaces. The main objectives are the territorial promotion and enhancement of the local culture through affiliated initiatives for social activation of communities and by creating a synergistic network among all organisations working in the area.
- MUFANT, MuseoLab del Fantastico e della Fantascienza di Torino – Torino | mufant.it
This is a project by a team of professionals and industry experts, academics, journalists and researchers who are aspired to imagine a world, in which people are aware that this is just one of the possible worlds. This is being accomplished by the multiple permanent or temporary exhibitions, performances, conferences, events, and such, in the MusueoLAB.
Piazza dei Colori is one of Co-Bologna “construction sites”, and the aim is to turn it into a collaborative district that could later include different realities from Croce dei Biacco and all the migrants that live there.
The project aims to put an end to the progressive abandonment and degradation of one of the most prestigious and representative testimonies of the assets of the industrial archaeology resulting from the old age epic mining of Sardinia, which UNESCO declared a universal value in 1997 . With the completion of the project they intend to preserve and make available the public buildings of great architectural value at the Sella Well located in the mining complex-Monteponi on the outskirts of the city of Iglesias. The work of protection and restoration of the industrial archaeological heritage will accompany the exhibition. The abundance and beauty of the available space will also allow to set up an area for conference activities with its audiovisual and multimedia equipment. With the completion of the project, as well as regeneration of the museum space, the site will be returned to the local community.
Station Chiaravalle project focuses on the regeneration of the unused gym of neighbourhood school and creation of a hybrid space in order to host a community hub: operational production based on cultural content, artistic home and an urban laboratory. Additionally, it reinterprets the disused railway line along the Vettabbia channel as space in transformation. Lastly, it activates a participatory observation with the local community and generates landscape projects and custody of places and common open spaces for the enjoyment of the area as a landscape for immersive experiences.
The project which has an aim to enter into the social and productive fabric of Rome and spread to further cities. It focuses to put in place cultural practices and job opportunities that would promote inclusion and integration of those individuals who are in need for help and solidarity. It is a job creation, but also the artistic expression, which can also become a source of income, are the ways in which we intend to intervene in the social and cultural fabric of Rome.
This is a non-profit organization active in the field of contemporary art and culture both at a local and international level. It produces and organises art exhibitions, theatre shows, publications, audio-visual works, training and residency programs with the aim to encourage artistic mobility and the promotion of artists on an international scale. It intends to invent original devices in order to promote projects and enable processes that mobilise unconventional strategies and plans of intervention in the artistic and cultural system. The members of the core working group are artists who chose not to limit their activities and their identities to “the creation of artworks”, but to work actively – and independently – for the activation of shared processes and the redefinition of the role of the artist in society. The project starts from an idea of hospitality and sharing to create a symbolic place where experience and the individual journey are set aside to make way for the development of a collective strategy. The network of people intertwined constitutes a network able to relate with institutions, questioning established practices and models, with the aim of generating concrete outcomes/results in the community.
LabGov congratulates all finalists and looks forward to new collaborations!
Secondary sources:
- Garrett, Hardin, (1968) The Tragedy of the Commons
- Iaione, Christian. (2016) “The CO-City: Sharing, Collaborating, Cooperating, and Commoning in the City.” American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 2: 415-55.
- Ostrom, E. (1990) “Governing The Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action”, Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research, Volume 6, Issue 4, 235-252
- Rose, C. (1986) The Comedy of the Commons: Custom, Commerce and Inherently Public Property, 53
by Chiara Fratalia | Jul 7, 2016 | The Urban Media Lab
Today, July 7, the Forum Terzo Settore held in Rome (in the Fondazione con il Sud headquarters) a seminar dedicated to the Council of Europe’s 2005 Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society, mainly known as the Faro Convention.
The main theme discussed in this seminar was the role of the Faro Convention as a fly-wheel for cultural policies, the value of cultural heritage to society, citizens’ role in this process and the “heritage communities“, defined by the Faro Convention (art. 2b) as “people who value specific aspects of cultural heritage which they wish, within the framework of public action, to sustain and transmit to future generations“.
Maurizio Mumolo, coordinator of the Culture board of Forum Terzo Settore, said: “we think it is particularly important to examine in depth the Convention, in order to pinpoint the opportunities that the Convention itself offers to the organizations involved in Forum Terzo Settore, with a specific attention to the role of citizens in the process of identification with the cultural heritage.”
“Forum Terzo Settore leads a long-term path of studies and proposals in the field of cultural policies” said spokesperson Pietro Vittorio Barbieri, “considering these subjects very relevant to local development, social inclusion and community wellness.”
The seminar was especially dedicated to associations members of the Forum Terzo Settore and also hosted some experts in the subject, in order to offer various points of view and to shed a clear and broad light on the subject. LabGov coordinator, professor Christian Iaione, was also there as a professional, to add his own expertise to the debate.
Here are some photos from the seminar.
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Oggi 7 luglio si è tenuto a Roma, organizzato dalla consulta Cultura di Forum Terzo Settore, un seminario che aveva come oggetto la Convenzione di Faro sul valore del patrimonio culturale per la società e le opportunità che essa genera per i cittadini e per le associazioni operanti nel settore culturale. Il seminario era dedicato alle organizzazione socie di Forum Terzo Settore e ha visto la partecipazione di alcuni esperti in materia, tra cui il coordinatore di LabGov Christian Iaione.
by Maria Elena Santagati | May 17, 2016 | The Urban Media Lab
On April 19th-20th Bruxelles hosted the European Culture Forum, the biennal flagship event organised by the European Commission, this year focused on “Talent and creativity for a stronger and more inclusive Europe”. Different sessions highlighted the role of culture and creativity in society. Three plenary sessions were devoted to these topics:
Plenary Session 1: Can culture help to overcome the fragmentation of society?
Plenary Session 2: Can culture help re-launching economic growth?
Plenary Session 3: Can culture improve Europe’s standing in the world?
In addition to these, other 15 sessions, among which the n.5 concerning “Our Future European Cultural Heritage: Engage, Share, Co-create”. The importance of the participatory issue is stressed also because the sustainability of cultural heritage “depends on our ability to adopt new cross-cutting approaches to unlock its economic and social potential, turning heritage sites into drivers of economic activity, centres of knowledge, focal points of creativity, culture and social innovation”. An important edition that of 2016, also thanks to the announcement of a European Year of cultural heritage by Tibor Navracsics, EU Commissioner for education, culture, youth and sport: “I’m delighted to announce that the Commission is proposing to make 2018 the European year of cultural heritage. It will be an opportunity to promote knowledge and understanding about cultural heritage”. The final decision will be taken by the European Parliament and the Council.
Concerning the impacts of culture, in October 2015 an important report was published on the topic of “Cultural and creative spillovers in Europe: Report on a preliminary evidence review”, authored by Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy (TFCC) and commissioned by an international research partnership made up of Arts Council England (ACE), Arts Council of Ireland, European centre for creative economy (ECCE), European Cultural Foundation, European Creative Business Network e Creative England. The project aims at elaborating an international evidence library, through the analysis of 100 case studies and their spillover effects, in order to identify conditions to enable spillovers and to list related indicators. In this report, cultural and creative spillovers are defined “as the process by which activity in the arts, culture and creative industries has a subsequent broader impact on places, society or the economy through the overflow of concepts, ideas, skills, knowledge and different types of capital”. They are classified into 3 categories: knowledge, industry and network spillovers, according to the different impacts, that can be of course interrelated.
On April 5th, the European Commission launched the creation of a European Network of Creative Hubs, in order to reinforce networks of creative hubs at European level, since “by facilitating co-creation, creative hubs can help to cope with the sharing economy”.
In December 2015, the Working Group of EU Member States’ Experts on the development of the Key Competence Cultural Awareness and Expression published an important document aimed at providing policy-makers with recommendations and inspiring practices: “Cultural awareness and expression handbook”. As a matter of fact, it is one of the eight key competence identified by the European Union in 2006[1], defined as the “appreciation of the importance of the creative expression of ideas, experiences and emotions in a range of media, including music, performing arts, literature, and the visual arts”. It acquires a great importance not only with regards to appreciation and expression skills, but above all because “a solid understanding of one’s own culture and a sense of identity can provide the basis for an open attitude towards and respect for diversity of cultural expression”.
On April 2016, Europa Nostra, a European network of 250 member organizations,150 associated organizations and around 1500 individual members, delivered its annual cultural heritage Awards, in partnership with the European Commission. Besides celebrating excellence, Europa Nostra constitutes an important lobby at the European level and it is active also in the field of endangered cultural heritage and landscape. The Awards are given from 2002 in different categories: 1.Conservation, 2.Research, 3. Dedicated service by individuals or organizations, 4. Education, Training and Awareness-Raising. The fourth one rewards “outstanding initiatives related to education, training and awareness-raising in the field of tangible and/or intangible cultural heritage, to promote and/or to contribute to the sustainable development of the environment”. In 2016, the winners in this last category are:
- “The Great War through the eyes of a child”, Roeselare, Belgium
- “Star in School”, Karlovac, Croatia
- “Adopt a Monument”, Tampere, Finland
- Preserving and promoting dance heritage, Berlin, Germany
- “The Little Museum of Dublin”, Dublin, Ireland
- Cultural Heritage Education Programme: “Apprendisti Ciceroni”, Milan, Italy
- Sustainable Development of Mourela Plateau, Peneda-Gerês National Park, Portugal
- “Heritage Schools”, Bristol, United Kingdom
At the European level, there is evidence of an increasing awareness of the role of culture in overall society, of how pervasive cultural spillovers are. We just need effective policies giving priority to these long-term objectives both at the national and at the local level.
[1] The other 7 key competences are: 1.Communication in the mother tongue, 2. Communication in foreign languages, 3. Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology, 4. Digital competence, 5. Learning to learn, 6. Social and civic competences and 7.Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship.
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Cultura&Società, tema ormai al centro del dibattito a livello europeo. Aggiornamenti su progetti e studi recenti, dallo European Culture Forum ai premi di Europa Nostra, dagli studi sui cultural spillovers a quelli sull’ottava competenza chiave “consapevolezza ed espressione culturale”.
