The European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018 : projects funded then & since.
Date: 2025-09-05
Institutions: European Education and Culture Executive Agency
Subjects: EU programme, EU sponsorship, European cultural event, European identity, cultural event, cultural heritage, cultural policy, cultural promotion, heritage protection, project funding

European Education and Culture 
Executive Agency

THE EUROPEAN 
YEAR OF 
CULTURAL HERITAGE
2018

Projects
funded
then & since

#CreativeEurope

THE EUROPEAN 
YEAR OF CULTURAL 
HERITAGE 
2018
Projects  
funded  
then & since

#CreativeEurope

Acknowledgements

This brochure is the result of contributions from the selected projects, 
the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) and the 
European Commission services (Directorate-General for Education, Youth, 
Sport and Culture). 

Coordination: Vincent Roels (EACEA), Nathalie Ducher (EACEA)

Editorial team: Gillian McLaughlin (EACEA), Vincent Roels (EACEA), 
Megan Black (EACEA), Ilias Stathopoulos (EACEA), Franciska Papp (EACEA), 
Vlad Vieru (EACEA) and Anne Grady (EAC)

Layout and graphic design: Michela Mizzi (EACEA), Georgia Soldatou 
(Publications Office of the European Union), Beatrice Pacioni (Publications Office 
of the European Union)

Manuscript completed in February 2025

This document should not be considered as representative of the European 
Commission’s official position. 

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2025

© European Union, 2025

The Commission’s reuse policy is implemented under Commission Decision 
2011/833/EU of 12 December 2011 on the reuse of Commission documents 
(OJ L 330, 14.12.2011, p. 39, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/ dec/2011/833/oj).

Unless otherwise noted, the reuse of this document is authorised under 
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence 
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). This means that reuse is allowed, 
provided appropriate credit is given and any changes are indicated.

For any use or reproduction of elements that are not owned by the European Union, 
permission may need to be sought directly from the respective rightholders.

PRINT 
PDF 

ISBN 978-92-9488-754-2 
ISBN 978-92-9488-755-9 

doi:10.2797/83549 
doi:10.2797/90502 

EC-05-24-608-EN-C
EC-05-24-608-EN-N

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Contents

Foreword 
Introduction 

SECTION I
Sectors covered 

1 Performing heritage
Music 

2 Staging heritage
Dance, theatre, opera 

3 Interpreting heritage
Visual arts and interdisciplinary 

4 Weaving heritage
Textiles and craft 

5 Culinary heritage
Gastronomy 

6 Building heritage
Heritage sites and architecture 

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6

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11

19

29

35

41

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SECTION II
Themes covered  59

7 Placing heritage
Routes and tours 

8 Remembering heritage
Untold/undertold stories 

9 Contested heritage
War 

10 Connecting heritage
Education 

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Foreword

Sophie Beernaerts 
EACEA Director

The European Year of Cultural Heritage in 2018 was a watershed year; it was a turning 
point for the cultural heritage of Europe. It was a year in which cultural heritage 
and creativity were celebrated, highlighted and promoted. With a wide range of 
activities, programmes and events, people were encouraged to discover and engage 
with Europe’s cultural heritage, and this in turn reinforced a sense of belonging to 
a common European space. ‘Our heritage: where the past meets the future’ was a 
powerful and inspiration slogan for the year, which is still in use today.

Policy relating to culture is primarily the responsibility of Member States and, in some 
instances, rests with regional and local authorities. The EU is, however, committed to 
promoting, protecting and safeguarding Europe’s rich and diverse cultural heritage with 
a number of EU programmes, actions and prizes. 

One such programme is Creative Europe, the EU’s flagship programme that supports 
the cultural and audiovisual sectors. Marking the importance of the European Year 
of Cultural Heritage, the Commission launched a dedicated call for proposals under 
the programme. As a result, 29 transnational cooperation projects took advantage of 
a total of EUR 4.8 million. They could choose between two objectives: reinforcing a 
sense of belonging to a common European space (12 projects) and promoting cultural 
heritage as a source of inspiration for contemporary artistic creation and innovation 
(17 projects).

The European Year of Cultural Heritage was an unprecedented opportunity. It paid 
tribute to museums, monuments, artworks, historic cities, literature, music, audiovisual 
works, and natural, built and archaeological sites of interest. In doing so, it also 
recognised the intangible dimension of cultural heritage. As defined by the 2003 
UNESCO convention, intangible cultural heritage is:

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the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – 
as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural 
spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in 
some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage. … 

[It] is manifested inter alia in the following domains: 

(a) oral traditions and expressions, including language as a vehicle of 

the intangible cultural heritage;

(b) performing arts;

(c) social practices, rituals and festive events;

(d) knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe;

(e) traditional craftsmanship.

The importance of this intangible dimension and how it interacts both with the other 
heritage dimensions, which we usually call tangible heritage, and with the different 
cultural sectors has guided the writing of this publication and the organisation of its 
content.

Following the European Year of Cultural Heritage, cooperation projects willing to 
continue working within the cultural heritage could do so by selecting the specific 
priority ‘Legacy of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018’ under the 2019 
and 2020 Support to European Cooperation Projects calls. This priority focused on 
reinforcing a sense of belonging to a common European space. All in all, a further 
29 projects were selected to receive a total of EUR 14.5 million. The two heritage 
sectors most represented both for the specific call for the European Year of Cultural 
Heritage and for the Support to European Cooperation Projects calls were intangible 
cultural heritage, and historical sites and buildings.

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Introduction

The publication is structured in two main sections: 
‘Sectors covered’ and ‘Themes covered’, which are 
then divided further, with each subsection title in the 
continuous present tense. The former section clusters 
projects together, answering the question: how? The 
latter section also clusters projects, exploring instead the 
question: what? These sections are then divided further, 
with each subsection title in the continuous present 
tense. This choice acts as a reminder that cultural 
heritage is something that is a living and dynamic. While 
cultural heritage may seem focused on preservation, 
it is in fact an ongoing process of interpretation and 
adaption. And this is a two-way process: cultural 
heritage is continuously recreated by communities, while 
also shaping our identities and societies. Thus, cultural 
heritage is not confined to the past but is rather a 
vibrant and ongoing part of our present and future.

Section I delves into different cultural sectors. 
Subsection 1 ‘Performing heritage – music’ focuses 
on the links between music and cultural heritage, 
spanning various periods from contemporary music to 
historical types such as early music and the baroque. 
This is followed by ‘Staging heritage – dance, theatre, 
opera’, which explores how the performing arts serve 
as platforms for storytelling, conveying and preserving 
cultural narratives on stage. Subsection 3 ‘Interpreting 
heritage – visual arts and interdisciplinary’ examines 
how artists interpret, translate and create cultural 
heritage across a range of artistic formats, from 
virtual reality to digital arts and other interdisciplinary 
mediums. Subsection 4 ‘Weaving heritage – textiles 
and craft’ highlights the tangible aspects of cultural 
heritage that can be woven into everyday life. It 
showcases how costume, fashion, craftwork and 
pottery carry cultural significance. Then ‘Culinary 

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heritage – gastronomy’ delves into the rich tapestry of 
culinary traditions, emphasising how food is not only 
nourishment but also an essential element of cultural 
identity and community bonding. Finally, ‘Building 
heritage – heritage sites and architecture’ focuses 
on tangible cultural heritage, particularly the physical 
spaces represented by heritage sites, cities, urban 
spaces and buildings.

The second, content-based, section explores heritage 
from thematic perspectives. ‘Placing heritage – routes 
and tours’ focuses on cultural heritage through 
geography and location, zooming in on locally 
grounded cultural heritage while also connecting it 
to broader European cultural exchanges. Subsection 
8 ‘Remembering heritage – untold/undertold stories’ 
highlights projects that challenge dominant narratives 
of cultural heritage by bringing to light stories that 
have been told insufficiently or marginalised by 
prevailing power structures. The projects remember 
and acknowledge how these stories, often from 
minority voices, have always been part of our shared 
cultural heritage and have contributed to shaping it. 
Subsection 9 ‘Contested heritage – war’ focuses on 
the complex and difficult heritage of war. It examines 
how the suffering, crimes and atrocities associated 
with wars are both remembered and forgotten as part 
of cultural heritage. This subsection investigates the 
challenges of acknowledging and interpreting war-
related heritage, exploring how societies grapple with 
preserving and presenting this painful aspect of their 
history. The final subsection, ‘Connecting heritage – 
education’, looks at the role of education in linking the 
past and the present, emphasising the importance of 
understanding and interpreting cultural heritage for 
future generations.

 
 
 
 
OBJECTIVES
AND
PRIORITIES

Support for small and large 
European cooperation 
projects in 2019

• 14 projects selected
• €6 581 540

Support for small and large 
European cooperation 
projects in 2020

• 15 projects selected
• €7 967 557

Speciﬁc priority for the legacy 
of the European Year of Cultural 
Heritage 2018

• 29 projects selected
• €14 549 097

PROJECTS

Speciﬁc cooperation call 
Infographic
for the European Year of 
Cultural Heritage 2018
PROJECT
• 29 projects selected
Specific cooperation call for the European Year 
• €4 759 648
of Cultural Heritage 2018: 29 projects selected, 
4759648 euro.

OBJECTIVE 1
OBJECTIVE 1
Reinforcing a sense of belonging to a common 
Reinforcing a sense 
European space: 12 projects selected, 2150285 euro.
of belonging to a common 
European space:

OBJECTIVE 2
Promoting cultural heritage as a source of inspiration 
for creation and innovation: 17 projects selected, 
• 12 projects selected
2609363 euro.
• €2 150 285

PROJECTs
•  Support for small and large European cooperation 
projects in 2019: 14 projects selected, 6581540 
euro.

OBJECTIVE 2
Promoting cultural heritage as a source 
•  Support for small and large European cooperation 
of inspiration for creation and innovation:
projects in 2020: 15 projects selected, 7967557 
euro.
• 17 projects selected
OBJECTIVE 
• €2 609 363
Specific priority for the legacy of the European Year 
of Cultural Heritage 2018: 29 projects selected, 
14549097 euro.

MAIN SECTORS
FINANCED

MAIN SECTORS FINANCED
•  Intangible Heritage, 22 projects selected.
•  Tangible culture - Historical Sites and Buildings,10 

projects selected.

Intangible heritage
22 projects selected

•  Music, 6 projects selected.
•  Theatre, 5 projects selected.

Tangible heritage – historical sites and buildings
10 projects selected

Total number of projects in 
the heritage sector financed 
by cooperation calls between 
2018 and 2020
75 projects selected, 25708376 euro.

TOTAL NUMBER 
OF PROJECTS IN 
THE HERITAGE 
SECTOR FINANCED 
BY COOPERATION 
CALLS BETWEEN 
2018 AND 2020 

Music
6 projects selected

Theatre
5 projects selected

75 projects selected
€25 708 376

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SECTION I 
Sectors covered

 
 
 
 
1  
Performing heritage  
Music

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Unearthing the music: 
Sound and creative 
experimentation 
in non-democratic 
Europe

Field/Sector
Music, contested heritage, intangible culture

Partners
OUT.RA – Associação Cultural (Portugal, coordinator), 
Skaņu Mežs (Latvia), Jumătatea plină (Romania), 
Javna Medijska Ustanova Radio-Televizija Srbije (Serbia), 
Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont (Hungary)

Contact us
Culture and Creativity database – 
Unearthing the music: Sound and creative 
experimentation in non-democratic Europe

Who we are

‘Unearthing the music’ is a collaborative project that 
unites five organisations from five European countries. 
All organisations are actively interested in the history 
surrounding experimental music in Europe, particularly 
in countries where the conditions for creative freedom 
were barely met throughout the second part of the 
20th century. The coordinator, OUT.RA, is a non-profit 
cultural association in Portugal that celebrates music 
that transcends genres and styles through live shows, 
movie screenings, workshops and residencies. It joined 
together with the non-profit organisation Jumătatea 
plină from Bucharest; the public broadcaster 
Javna Medijska Ustanova Radio-Televizija Srbije; 
Skaņu Mežs, an annual festival for innovative and 
experimental music in Riga, Latvia; and the research 
centre Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont from 
Budapest, Hungary.

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Our project

The project aimed to shed a new light on creative and 
forward-thinking music made under non-democratic 
regimes in the latter half of the 20th century in 
Europe. The research tackled fundamental European 
values such as freedom of expression and movement 
(both of people and of ideas / artistic works), at a time 
when roughly half of what is now the EU, and of the 
whole European continent, was bereft of such basic 
rights. Through 16 concerts, 3 conferences, 6 talks 
and 6 radio broadcasts, the project revisited important 
artistic and cultural legacies while raising awareness 
of the sociopolitical realities of the dictatorships. The 
events also spotlighted shared historical experiences, 
with performances in a range of European cities: 
Barreiro, Riga, Leipzig, Berlin, Budapest, Bucharest, 
London, Brussels and Belgrade. By collecting music, 
videos, articles, testimonies, opinions and investigative 
studies, the project also developed an online database 
and print publication dedicated to experimental music 
in European countries under dictatorships. Besides 
the consortium, more than 200 citizens from Europe 
and across the globe directly contributed to the 
project, including archive directors, personal collectors, 
musicians, journalists, academic researchers, and 
people from record labels, media companies and 
publishing houses. This diversity in contributions also 
strengthened the interaction between the artistic 
and cultural heritage, education, research and media 
sectors in Europe.

 
 
 
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GOfBaroque

Field/sector
Music, early music, intangible culture, puppetry

Our project

Partners
AMUZ (Festival van Vlaanderen Antwerpen) 
(Belgium, coordinator), Osaühing ERP (Estonia), 
Kulturstiftung Sachsen-Anhalt (Germany), 
EUBO Development Trust (United Kingdom)

Contact us
Culture and Creativity database –  
GOfBaroque

Who we are

AMUZ, a venue for historically informed performance 
in Antwerp, led the ‘GOfBaroque’ project with music 
organisations from Germany, Estonia and the 
United Kingdom and with international associate 
partners pre-eminent in the baroque music field. 
The organisations all had significant experience 
in the music field, such as in concert promotion, 
festival organisation, education, orchestral activities, 
international touring, digital dissemination and 
musicology, among other areas.

The baroque era gave rise to one of the most 
significant artistic movements to have encompassed 
Europe, permeating a range of art forms during the 
17th and 18th centuries. GOfBaroque set out to 
safeguard, reimagine and revitalise baroque music 
techniques and skills while communicating the vitality 
and excitement of baroque music performance to 
21st-century Europeans. Many GOfBaroque activities 
were in the field of baroque orchestral music: the 
project launched an orchestra to give opportunities 
to emerging talented musicians from across the EU to 
acquire technical skills and essential live performance 
experience. This included a co-production of 
Concertatio in Silva in the centuries-old German 
puppet theatre tradition, and explored themes of 
conflict and resolution. Set to the music of Antonio 
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, with scenography by the 
Figurentheater Favoletta and music performed by 
GOfBaroque’s orchestra, the show was conceived 
for children aged 8 and over. The production toured 
with both live music and digital sound and was 
ultimately recorded for online distribution. Under the 
banner ‘1618 – Before & Beyond’, the project also 
organised public events to help people understand 
baroque music better. Taking a holistic approach, the 
activities first looked at what baroque music inherited 
from earlier years, and then explored how baroque 
music influenced future generations of musicians. 
Through modern technologies, the baroque style 
was then transported into the 21st century, with 
the aim of ensuring that knowledge and skills are 
transmitted from one generation to the next. In doing 
so, GOfBaroque contributed to building Europe-wide 
awareness of baroque identity, providing a link from 
the past, through the present, to the future.

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Our project

The project aimed to promote the professional 
integration of young musicians, while at the same 
time enhancing Mediterranean musical heritage. 
In doing so, Medinea supported intercultural 
exchange and collaboration to enhance dialogue, 
transmission of culture and mobility around the 
Mediterranean basin. During this 2-year project, 
Medinea implemented four Medinea sessions and 
four outreach skills sessions. Medinea sessions were 
residencies each bringing together 12 young and 
talented musicians from the Mediterranean basin to 
support their journey to become professional artists. 
Together they co-created a public concert programme, 
which was inspired by various musical aesthetics 
and styles such as jazz and traditional music. The 
skills sessions gave young artists the opportunity 
to develop their professional skills outside the 
concert hall to reach and benefit wider audiences. By 
reflecting on the contributions that artists can make 
to society, the sessions helped each artist to design 
and implement their own outreach action to support 
local communities. In total, 114 beneficiaries put 
into practice what they learned through 22 outreach 
actions reaching out to 692 people from different 
backgrounds in six countries.

Medinea

Field/sector
Music, intangible culture, emerging artists, 
capacity building

Partners
Association pour le Festival international 
d’art lyrique (France, coordinator), 
Ente Musicale di Nuoro (Italy),  
International Cultural Centre of Hammamet  
(Tunisia)

Contact us
•  Culture and Creativity database – Medinea

Who we are

All three institutions are part of the ‘Mediterranean 
incubator of emerging artists’ (Medinea), a 
professional network connecting emerging artists 
and professionals from higher education institutions, 
cultural centres, festivals and the music industry. It 
was founded in 2014 by the coordinator, Festival 
d’Aix-en-Provence, a music festival in France that 
has been bringing together young musicians from 
the Mediterranean region each year since 1984. It 
was joined by the Italian non-profit organisation Ente 
Musicale di Nuoro, which focuses on rediscovering 
and preserving traditional music from around the 
Mediterranean. The International Cultural Centre 
of Hammamet occupies a listed cultural heritage 
site in Tunisia and also has expertise in musical 
performances, theatrical works, ballets and art 
exhibitions.

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Awakening European 
sleeping Instruments 

Field/sector
Music, early music, historical sites and buildings, 
capacity building

Partners
Ajuntament de Ripoll (Spain, coordinator), 
Associació Musica Módal a Cardedeu (Spain), 
Trob’Art Productions (France), Associazione  
Culturale Labyrinth Italia (Italy), Paraplevros  
Paragoges ED Ltd (Cyprus)

Contact us
•  Dossier-Awakening-Catala
•  Culture and Creativity database – 

Awakening European sleeping instruments

Who we are

The public institution the Ajuntament de Ripoll 
in Catalonia brought together four organisations 
specialised in medieval and modal music. One was 
Trob’Art Productions in France, which has expertise 
in medieval music and poetry in Occitan, a Romance 
language spoken in parts of southern France, 
Monaco, Italy and Spain. They joined with two 
cultural associations, Labyrinth Italia and Paraplevros 
in Cyprus, which both lead educational workshops 
focusing on modal musical performance, composition 
and instrument building. They all partnered with 
Associació Musica Módal a Cardedeu, whose aim 
was to bring together and support local musicians 
in Catalonia.

Our project 

‘Awakening European sleeping instruments’ aimed 
to recover, recreate and promote musical instruments 
from the Middle Ages. This involved recreating 
medieval wooden instruments and researching 
the music composed in the Middle Ages in the four 
participating countries. By doing this, the project 
connected the common musical past of Catalonia 
with the medieval music of Occitania, Italy and 
Cyprus. Bringing together professional musicians from 
four countries, the project produced an immersive 
exhibition on medieval musical instruments, 
50 workshops and seminars, 6 documentaries, 
a CD-book and conferences. On top of this, 45 live 
concerts and 30 online concerts were performed 
in 25 historic places of European heritage such 
as abbeys, churches, monasteries, castles and 
cathedrals. Leading international musicians 
specialising in medieval music played recovered 
medieval melodies, weaving together medieval 
sounds from around the world. The project also 
developed new ways of making, distributing and 
listening to medieval music to broaden audience 
participation. Thus, the project aimed to reconnect 
European citizens to their common heritage of 
medieval Europe through the magic of music and 
its instruments.

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Moving classics 
sonic flux

Field/sector
Music, digital, visual arts, remembering heritage

Partners
Curated Place Ltd (United Kingdom, 
coordinator), Einkofi Productions Ehf (Iceland), 
G. G. Culturetones (Cyprus), Blekksprut Productions AS 
(Norway)

Contact us
•  Moving classics: Sonic flux
•  Culture and Creativity database – 

Moving classics sonic flux

Who we are

‘Moving classics sonic flux’ brought together four 
partner organisations from Cyprus, Iceland, Norway 
and the United Kingdom, who are all leaders in the 
field of music innovation, production and presentation. 
The coordinator, Curated Place, is a cultural production 
agency focusing on creative interventions and 
professional development. They were joined by 
Culturtones in Cyprus and two Nordic organisations: 
the factory light festival Blekksprut Productions and 
Einkofi Productions, an independent arts collective 
that works internationally connecting music, art, 
design, technology, literature, performance and 
education.

Our project 

‘Moving classics sonic flux’ was a 33-month project 
that creatively explored the condition of displacement 
through personal testimony, original music and 

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audiovisual/film installations. The project connected 
musicians and audiovisual/film artists with displaced 
people to explore stories of flux that have shaped 
European identity. By both representing the stories of 
displaced people and including them in the creative 
process, the project aimed to bring new voices 
into the creation of music and to redefine what 
contemporary music can be in a socially engaged 
setting. Through collaborations with communities, 
musicians, artists, diverse ethnographers of cultural 
heritage, film-makers and visual storytellers, six 
original artworks were created. These hybrid sonic 
and visual experiences started with stories of 
internal displacement within countries before then 
zooming out to regional and transcontinental stories, 
highlighting displacement as a human condition 
rather than a national one. These digital and music 
installations aimed to remove accessibility barriers 
by taking the artworks out of the concert hall and 
into new areas through technology. This was also 
achieved through artist residencies with an embedded 
community focus and by presenting the works in more 
accessible forms at festivals. The music, new media 
and live events resulting from the residencies were 
also documented and published to create an added 
layer of engagement with the audience and ensure 
inclusivity. This served to open up new dialogues 
around shared experiences, musical expression and 
expertise, to create a collaborative production that 
blended creative practices and heritage.

 
 
 
EEEmerging+

Field/sector
Music, early music, capacity building

Partners
Association Art et Musique d’Ambronay (France, 
coordinator), Ghislierimusica (Italy), Internationale 
Händel-Festspiele Göttingen (Germany), Rīgas 
Senās Mūsikas Centrs (Latvia), National Centre 
for Early Music (United Kingdom), Joventuts 
Musicals de Torroella de Montgrí (Spain), Festival 
Kvarner (Croatia), National Forum of Music 
(Poland), Music and Drama Association, Athens 
Conservatoire (Greece)

Contact us
•  EEEmerging+
•  Culture and Creativity database – EEEmerging+

Who we are

‘Emerging European ensembles’ (EEEmerging+) 
was a large-scale European cooperation project 
involving nine managing partners from Croatia, 
France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Poland, 
Spain and the United Kingdom as well as several 
supporting partners from Czechia, Romania and 
Slovenia and international networks such as the 
European Early Music Network and A Soul for Europe. 
The pan-European partnership involved two cultural 
organisations, Association Art et Musique d’Ambronay 
and Ghislierimusica; two festivals, Internationale 
Händel-Festspiele Göttingen and Joventuts Musicals 
de Torroella de Montgrí; the higher education 
institution Music and Drama Association, 
Athens Conservatoire; and the concert venue the 
National Forum of Music.

Our project 

EEEmerging+ promoted the emergence of new 
talent in early music, a broad musical era, which 
includes medieval, renaissance and early baroque 
music. The project was based on three objectives: 
to empower young early music ensembles and 
individual artists, to foster innovation in the early 
music sector, and finally to nurture and encourage 
the expansion of an early music community. More 
concretely, the project supported the professional 
development of 24 ensembles (about 138 musicians) 
and 33 individual musicians through the organisation 
of 82 residencies, 571 creative activities, 4 festivals, 
9 CD recordings and publications, and 3 competitions. 
The project also established an innovation community 
through three EEEmerging+ assemblies, bringing 
together professionals from the sector, and a dozen 
innovation labs (inspirational meetings) conducted 
online with peer-to-peer learning. All results and 
outputs from the activities were shared with the 
online community, which ensured long-term impact 
beyond the sector.

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Musique 
est une femme

Field/sector
Music, intangible culture

Partners
Fundacja TAK – Temat Aktualny Kultura (Poland, 
coordinator), Noordstarfonds vzw (Belgium), Molyvos 
International Music Festival (Greece), Vidzemes 
Koncertzāle (Latvia)

Contact us
•  Composed by women
•  Culture and Creativity database – 

Musique est une femme

Who we are

The aims of ‘Musique est une femme’ are to highlight 
the richness of women’s legacy in the history of 
European music, especially music created at the times 
when women’s rights were disregarded; to reach a 
wider audience, especially aiming at younger people, 
engaging them through a video competition and a 
questionnaire at concerts; to foster cultural organisers’ 
interest in programming concerts with historical music 
composed by women; and to consolidate the digital 
presence of compositions written by women.

Our project

Our project focused on the promotion of music 
composed by women before the Second World 
War, reflecting on the absence of their works in 
concert programmes and on stereotypes about the 
composing capacities of women. In our short video 
competition, we invited a broad audience to question 
the stereotypes about the composing capacities of 

18

women. ‘Musique est une femme’ was the answer 
to the need to give the forgotten heritage of female 
composers more space in the history of music and 
culture. Thanks to our video competition and concerts 
containing music composed by women, we raised 
awareness of the fact that – despite all the barriers – 
women have always tried to compose. Thanks to the 
videos of our concerts, we increased the presence 
of music composed by women on the internet and 
proved its potential as fresh inspiration for concert 
programmes. Thanks to these diverse actions, we 
hope to have contributed to diminishing the absolute 
domination of culture by the repertoire composed 
by male composers. The YouTube channel started in 
the project is an open and active platform to further 
promote existing and new recordings of music by 
female composers.

I think that this competition 
is very important because at 
school we learn only about male 
composers’ lives and works. When I was 
12, I wanted to learn piano, and I can’t 
imagine that I couldn’t play piano just 
because I’m a girl. I’m so glad that I live 
in the 21st century because now 
we can be equal.

 
2  
Staging heritage  
Dance, theatre, 
opera

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Ghent Altarpiece

Field/sector
Theatre, intangible culture, film and video

Our project

The Ghent Altarpiece, a masterpiece by Hubert and 
Jan van Eyck, was brought to life on stage, with a re-
enactment of the spiritual, mythological and historic 
stories that accompany this 15th-century painting, 
showing the naked Adam and Eve and about 60 
biblical characters. The painting was transposed into 
today’s society. The Van Eycks’ use of real people to 
portray biblical characters was a bold statement. The 
project partners built on that to manifest intangible 
culture and create a new, contemporary narrative. 
Using a multidisciplinary approach, the painting 
led to a new, contemporary theatre art form. The 
project resulted in a publication and an international 
education programme. In the dissemination of results 
that goes beyond the work programme of this project, 
a documentary film was created (released in 2020). 
The artistic objective of the project was to create a 
shared awareness of the Ghent Altarpiece, an icon 
of western European tangible and movable culture 
heritage. The Ghent audience was an essential part in 
the realisation of the production. Citizens were invited 
to tell their personal stories, linked to the painting; 
more than 50 citizens participated in the production. 
This participatory approach of audience development 
was further extended in close collaboration with the 
partners in Amsterdam and Stuttgart.

Partners
NTGent (Belgium, coordinator), Stichting 
Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam (Netherlands), 
Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und 
Kunst Baden-Württemberg (Germany)

Contact us
•  Culture and Creativity database –  

Ghent Altarpiece

Who we are

In September 2018, Milo Rau created ‘Ghent 
Altarpiece – Lam gods’ at the city theatre NTGent 
(Ghent, Belgium) in close collaboration with 
Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam (Netherlands) and 
Schauspiel Stuttgart (Germany). The objectives 
of this partnership were to enhance transnational 
mobility (touring) and to reinforce a sense of sharing 
a common European space and culture, supported 
by a substantially developed communication and 
dissemination strategy. The activities of the project 
inspired the younger generations, by reflecting on 
common values, histories and traditions we shared.

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Legend of great birth

Field/sector
Theatre, intangible culture, mythology

Partners
Aeroplio Theatre – Topos Allou (Greece, coordinator), 
Smashing Times (Ireland), Fondazione Aida (Italy), 
Stella Polaris (Norway), Stowarzyszenie Teatr 
Krzyk (Poland), Fusion of Arts – FOA (Romania), 
Action Synergy SA (Greece)

Contact us
•  The legend of the great birth
•  Culture and Creativity database –  

Legend of great birth

Who we are

‘Legend of great birth’ (LeGreBi) has managed to 
use myths of creation in order to promote a common 
sense of European belonging though the cooperation 
of cultural organisations in six countries.

Our project

The project has used myths of creation from Greek, 
Latin, Dacian, Slavic, Nordic and Celtic traditions and 
developed a common scenario through which six 
different performances were born, each one using 
its own artistic and expressive means (shadow 
theatre, circus, video projection, etc.). It presented 60 
performances, both live and online, through a variety 
of different methods and techniques. The structure 
of LeGreBi is built around a central event, which 
was a theatre performance based on the intangible 
cultural heritage of mythology, together with many 
other activities. These parallel activities aimed to 
familiarise the audience with different myths through 
workshops, public readings, laboratories, etc. LeGreBi 
also developed an online game and a brochure in 
order to raise awareness of the myths of creation and 
how they can connect different cultures and create 
a common European sense of belonging. The project 
also developed an e-learning course to encourage 
the transfer of the experience gained through the 
project to other professionals in the sector. Through 
these activities, the project managed to reach an 
audience of 3 000 people through the face-to-face 
activities and about 20 000 people through the online 
activities. Thanks to its cooperation with education 
institutions and schools, the project ensured that its 
resources will be used as an educational tool that will 
gradually raise the awareness of mythology, not as a 
national issue that divides nations but as a European 
issue that connects us all.

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Someone from 
home – In the sense 
of belonging  
to Europe

Field/sector
Intangible culture, dance, film and video, music

Partners
Ustanova Studentski Kulturni Centar (Serbia, coordinator), 
Silk Fluegge – Verein zur Förderung von urbanem 
und zeitgenössischem Tanz und Kunst (Austria), 
Teatrul Maghiar de Stat Csiky Gergely (Romania), 
Fondatsiya Art Link (Bulgaria)

Contact us
•  Someone from home
•  Culture and Creativity database – 

Someone from home – In the sense of belonging 
to Europe

Who we are

The partner network on the project was new and 
consisted of two public cultural institutions – 
Ustanova Studentski Kulturni Centar, Novi Sad, and 
Teatrul Maghiar de Stat Csiky Gergely, Timișoara – 
and two independent dance companies – Silk 
Fluegge, Linz, and Fondatsiya Art Link, Sofia.

Our project

The ‘Someone from home’ project was conceived 
and realised as creative research on contemporary 
interpretations of traditional dances and 
intangible cultural heritage; above all, those of 
the Danube Swabians, south-east Europe and the 
Balkans. The main activity was the international 
co-production of a dance performance by the 
choreographer Silke Grabinger from Austria, with 

22

eight young dancers and actors, two from each 
partner organisation. The group of performers 
comprised traditional and contemporary dancers 
and actors. The performance was created through 
four residencies, which ran through spring 2019, 
one in each partner city (Linz, Timișoara, Sofia, Novi 
Sad). During summer 2019, the dance performance 
premiered in all four partner cities. The music for 
the performance was composed by famous young 
composers: Ljubomir Nikolic from Serbia and Ivan 
Shopov from Bulgaria. The music composed reflects 
a mixture of traditional folk and contemporary 
electronic music and was performed live by three 
local musicians at each final event. The final dance 
events were mostly organised in open-air venues as 
a part of different festivals. The dance performance, 
lasting 60 minutes, was created as a participatory 
and interactive event involving the audience. During 
the performance, the audience joined the dancers 
on the stage three times to dance with them. The 
performance ended with a free dance involving 
both the audience and artists. All final dance events 
were very well attended, and the audiences in each 
city participated actively in the dance. These were 
intergenerational events involving everyone from 
children to the oldest citizens, who danced together 
with the dancers on stage. Each final event was 
attended by an audience of 500 people.

 
 
 
 
Store the future – 
Artists, memoirs 
and civil rights for 
Europe in the third 
millennium

Field/sector
Tangible culture, libraries and archives, theatre, music

Partners
Archivio Diaristico Nazionale (Italy, coordinator), 
Bandalena (France), Associazione Culturale Compagnia 
Teatro Stabile di Anghiari (Italy), OpenCom (Italy), 
Associação Arquivo dos Diários (Portugal), Državni archiv 
u Pazinu (Croatia)

Contact us
•  Store the future
•  Culture and Creativity database –

Store the future – Artists, memoirs and 
civil rights for Europe in the third millennium

Who we are
The partnership brought together three archives from 
Croatia, Italy and Portugal, two cultural organisations 
from Italy and France, and one research centre, in 
which the specific skills of each sector could provide 
answers to the needs of the others. The archives 
Archivio Diaristico Nazionale, Arquivo dos Diarios and 
Državni arhiv u Pazinu are different in terms of year 
of foundation (1984, 2003 and 1958, respectively), 
geographical context, and type of materials 
preserved. Yet all the archives want to enhance 
their stored cultural heritage through contemporary 
formats. This is where the cultural organisations come 
in: the theatre Teatro Stabile di Anghiari has been 
working for years in the field of artistic enhancement 
of individual and community memories. Bandalena is 
an art association that often collaborates with high-
level professionals in the world of theatre, music and 
dance. Both sectors collaborated with the research 
centre OpenCom, an expert in the systematisation 
and standardisation of operational models and 
profiles of expertise for new types of professionals.

Our project

‘Store the future’ brings cultural heritage to life by 
creating original artworks based on autobiographical 
stories preserved in archives. A series of artistic 
residencies brought together the knowledge of 
archival and creative organisations to write and 
produce an original play, Butterflies on Flowers. This 
multi-language drama told the story of the protests 
of 1968 through real, personal experiences from the 
archives, portraying a crucial period that contributed 
to women’s emancipation, labour rights and sexual 
liberation. The four performances in three European 
locations (Arezzo in Italy, Sigonce in France and 
Lisbon in Portugal) brought the archival stories to a 
wider audience. This aimed to make people aware of 
the importance of cultural heritage and the role of the 
organisations that preserve archives.

Through this innovative collaboration between 
archival organisations and cultural workers, 
the project showed the need for a new type of 
professional: an expert who connects the universe 
of archives to the creative worlds of theatre, 
music and dance. Throughout the project, the 
partners defined and drafted guidelines for an 
‘expert in archive research aimed at artistic and 
cultural production’. With the support of OpenCom, 
the partners formalised this into a profile: an 
interdisciplinary role that can understand and search 
archives to inspire new original artworks, while 
bearing in mind the sensitivity of the sources and 
the facts contained in them.

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Future epics

Field/sector
Theatre, intangible culture, dance

Partners
Hartefakt Fond (Serbia, coordinator), TASCA 
Serveis d’Animació SL (Spain), Vitlycke – Centre 
for Performing Arts Ekonomisk Forening (Sweden), 
Javna Ustanova U Kulturi Dubrovačke Ljetne Igre 
Dubrovnik (Croatia)

Contact us
•  Future epics
•  Culture and Creativity database – Future epics

Who we are

Partners from Croatia, Serbia, Spain and Sweden 
were brought together by a shared desire to create 
new spaces for young professionals and audiences 
to use performing arts as a means to rethink and 
reuse specific local cultural heritage. The coordinator, 
Hartefakt Fond, an independent foundation dealing 
with socially engaged theatre, came together 
with Javna Ustanova U Kulturi Dubrovačke Ljetne 
Igre Dubrovnik, a public institution in Dubrovnik 
responsible for running one of the most prominent 
theatre festivals in the Balkans. They partnered with 
Vitlycke – Centre for Performing Arts Ekonomisk 
Forening, an art residency centre in Tanumshede, 
and TASCA Serveis d’Animació SL, a sociocultural 
activist organisation in Barcelona. In this way, ‘Future 
epics’ integrated already active and familiar fields 
into the activities of the partner organisations while 
developing an assemblage of new and interrelated 
interdisciplinary activities.

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Our project

The purpose of ‘Future epics’ was to concisely unfold 
the issues concerning the tangible and intangible local 
cultural heritage in the various European countries 
participating in the project, while pointing out the 
opportunities and new trends in the performing arts 
field. Workshops, creative labs, symposia and thematic 
gatherings encouraged theatre professionals and 
the wider audience to explore contemporary heritage 
research and methodologies. Additionally, ‘Future epics’ 
focused on international exchange, and also on creating 
new artworks and promoting young artists who, in 
the spirit of exchange, tolerance and cooperation, 
radically contemplate the European theatre language. 
‘Future epics’ created an opportunity for exploring new 
perspectives on the diverse European cultural and 
social heritage through deconstructing metanarratives 
of specific periods of various European local histories 
by using contemporary performative arts. By focusing 
on reassessing and re-evaluating heritage addressing 
different historical and forgotten narratives through 
performing arts, ‘Future epics’ has increased awareness 
of historical themes that are often marginalised and 
ignored. ‘Future epics’ has also shed light on new ways 
in which performing arts, as an artistic medium, can 
allow the creators to discuss complex historical themes 
in an open and enlightening way. Through creative 
discussions, the interaction between the cultural 
heritage sector and the performing arts field has 
been strengthened. ‘Future epics’ focused on reaching 
out and involving young audiences, fostering the 
establishment of new collaborations between young 
artists who come from different fields of interest.

 
 
 
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Genius loci – 
Performing arts 
between heritage 
and future

Field/sector
Theatre, dance, intangible culture

Partners
Eufonia Società Cooperativa (Italy, coordinator), 
Fundación de la Danza Alicia Alonso (Spain), Institut 
International du Théâtre (France), Università del 
Salento (Italy), Teatrul de Stat Constanța (Romania), 
Theatro Tsi Zakynthos Epangelmatiki Skini (Greece), 
Dimos Zakynthou (Greece)

Contact us
•  Genius loci
•  Culture and Creativity database –  

Genius loci – Performing arts between heritage 
and future

Our aim

The project aimed to promote cultural cooperation 
and intercultural dialogue by connecting artists 
with people, cultural heritage, places and social 
contexts, through the implementation of international 
artistic residencies in four different locations: 
Zakynthos, Segovia, Constanța and Lecce. It included 
collaboration between European artists, concluding in 
an international coproduction; audience engagement 
activities; and research on European performing arts.

Our project

The production The Wind of Genius Loci featured the 
involvement of more than 30 artists. The partnership 
was able to develop new modalities, to change habits 
and to increase the development of new audiences 
and accessibility to the audience. The online activities 
on YouTube, Facebook and other social media 
platforms had around 20 000 views. The international 
artistic residencies in Zakynthos, Segovia, Constanța 
and Lecce (one offline and three online) gave a 
glimpse of the depth of European cultural richness 
and diversity. They included the realisation of an 
international coproduction, audience engagement 
activities and research on European performing 
arts. For young artists, and for masters in their arts, 
established professionals and other cultural workers, 
this was an extraordinary opportunity to resist, to 
realise artistic activities and enhance the creative 
exchange of best practices and the partners’ skills, 
to fertilise artistic creation through this exchange, 
involving hundreds of artists and cultural workers.

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TV free Europe – 
One and a half 
million steps over 
borders

Field/sector
Theatre, intangible culture, film, video

Partners
Kulturális Örökség Menedzserek Egyesülete 
(Hungary, coordinator), OHO – Offenes Haus 
Oberwart (Austria), Civil Sector (Denmark), Közmű 
Egyesület (Hungary), Univerza v Novi Gorici 
(Slovenia), UT Connewitz e.V. (Germany)

Contact us
•  TV free Europe
•  Culture and Creativity database –  

TV free Europe – One and a half million steps 
over borders

Our aim

‘TV free Europe’ is a tele-theatre vision, an 
international collaboration encompassing the 
fields of performance and multimedia art, cultural 
heritage and art education. The project explores the 
possibilities of freedom, especially the non-freedom 
of speech and the ‘free market’ by connecting 
voices, locations, times and stories to each other, 
and connecting historical topics with today’s and 
tomorrow’s facts and fictions.

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Our project

The main aim of ‘TV free Europe’ is to reinterpret 
the achievements of what we call system change 
or the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the hopes and 
visions that emerged in its wake. The project has 
brought methods and formats from the field of 
performing arts together with visual arts and heritage 
interpretation. An important aim is to merge these 
knowledges and approaches and find new ways of 
dealing with our shared situations and remembering 
our recent history in Europe. ‘TV free Europe’ has 
become a rich platform of interconnectivity despite 
physical distance. An online TV channel was launched 
with a jointly curated weekly programme as a satirical 
counterpart to today’s mass media. By means of 
collaborative art production, university seminars and 
workshops with young people, the project partners 
founded their own local studios and produced video 
materials, music clips, TV talk shows, etc. A theatrical 
late-night show ‘coming freshly from ’89’ was 
developed as an adaptable format.

 
 
 
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Dance on, pass on, 
dream on

Field/sector
Dance, intangible culture, other (creative ageing)

Partners
Diehl+Ritter (Germany, coordinator), Sadler’s 
Wells (United Kingdom), Holland Dance Festival 
(Netherlands), STUK – House for Dance, Image 
and Sound (Belgium), Nomad Dance Academy 
Slovenija (Slovenia), Mercat de les Flors (Spain), 
Station Service for Contemporary Dance (Serbia), 
Compagnie Jus de la Vie (Sweden), Codarts 
Rotterdam (Netherlands), Kumquat Productions 
(France), Onassis Stegi (Greece)

Contact us
•  Dance On – Pass On – Dream On
•  Culture and Creativity database – 

Dance on, pass on, dream on

Who we are

‘Dance on, pass on, dream on’ is a large-scale 
cooperation project addressing ageism in the dance 
sector and society. Eleven renowned European dance 
institutions are working towards a Europe where older 
dancers are valued for their experience and charisma, 
where our common European dance heritage is 
cherished and serves to inspire younger artists, and 
where older people are respected and engage in 
meaningful, creative activities.

Our project

We are working to make dance a sustainable career 
choice in Europe. We are drawing attention to the 
fragility and intangible nature of dance history 
and practice by restaging lost dance works and 
commissioning contemporary artists to ‘respond’ 
to them. By offering participatory dance projects 
and creative ageing initiatives, we are revealing the 
wealth of experience and competence of this age 
group. The project is providing long-term artistic and 
employment opportunities for professional dancers 
in their 40s, 50s and 60s, all of whom are continuing 
to thrive in their careers as a consequence of taking 
part in the project. It is also reaching large numbers 
of over-60s, both in person and digitally, offering 
much-needed opportunities to come together and 
explore dance and movement. New productions 
and intergenerational collaborations are opening up 
new perspectives on iconic and lesser-known dance 
works from our European dance heritage, while 
also revealing the important role of older dancers 
as carriers and guardians of intangible cultural and 
embodied knowledge.

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Bravo bravissimo

Field/sector
Intangible culture, opera, music

Partners
Società Musicale Orchestra e Coro San Marco 
(Italy, coordinator), Município de Lousada 
(Portugal), Cultural Centre Nikola Ðjurković, Kotor 
(Montenegro), Aeroplio Theatre – Ena Theatro Gia 
Paidia (Greece), Association des Agences de la 
Démocratie Locale (France)

Contact us
•  Associazione Musicale Orchestra e Coro San Marco
•  Culture and Creativity database –  

Bravo bravissimo

Our aim

The aim of ‘Bravo bravissimo’ is twofold. On the 
one hand, it strives to reinforce a general sense of 
belonging to a common European space through 
Rossini’s life and artistic heritage. On the other, it 
promotes cultural heritage as a source of inspiration 
for artistic co-creation and innovation, targeting young 
talents in the field of performing arts.

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Our project

‘Bravo bravissimo’ focuses on transnational mobility 
and audience development in terms of an accessible 
and inclusive culture. The project has (1) launched 
and managed an artistic contest in order to select 
young artists to be involved in the activities of 
the project; (2) gathered the selected performers, 
who undertook the writing, scenic design and 
performance of an opera based on Rossini’s arias; 
(3) implemented the co-production of the final 
performance; (4) promoted an audience development 
strategy with the help of the selected artists together 
with local schools and civil society organisations 
in all the partner countries (except France) through 
specific activities and workshops based on Rossini’s 
works, and addressed to different groups of civil 
society; (5) arranged an open rehearsal, two open 
artistic residencies and a performance for children; 
(6) overseen a final performance in Pordenone, 
web-streamed Europe-wide; and (7) benefited young 
emerging artists by providing them with a unique 
opportunity for professional take-off, and benefited 
local communities as a whole, with special emphasis 
on children’s and young people’s active involvement.

 
 
 
 
3  
Interpreting heritage  
 Visual arts and 
interdisciplinary

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Eastern sugar

Field/sector
Intangible culture, other, publishing

Partners
Slovenská národná galéria (Slovakia, coordinator), 
Rotor Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst 
(Austria), École nationale superieure d’art de 
Bourges (Frances), T-Tudok Tudásmenedzsment 
és Oktatáskutató Központ Zártkörűen Működő 
Részvénytársaság (Hungary), Futura O.S. (Czechia), 
Bezirk Oberbayern (Germany)

Contact us
•  Eastern sugar
•  Culture and Creativity database –  

Eastern sugar

Our aim

‘Eastern sugar’ is a European, interdisciplinary, 
contemporary visual art project with an educational 
mission, which intends to investigate, through artistic 
research, curatorial cooperation, the creation of new 
artworks, international collective exhibitions, audience 
engagement and educational programmes, and 
a comprehensive interdisciplinary publication, the 
‘clearing’ process of European sugar production. Sugar 
is understood as a metaphor for the notion of Europe 
under constant transformation.

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Our project

Taking the sugar industry in Slovakia as a starting 
point, a case study or a metaphor, the ‘Eastern sugar’ 
project invited curators, artists and experts from 
various fields to expand the discussion and critical 
reflection of the impact of socialist and neoliberal 
economics in the countries of central Europe and 
beyond. Partners embarked on a journey of curatorial 
and artistic research, commissioning new artworks, 
organising five international collective exhibitions, 
audience development and educational programmes, 
and publishing a comprehensive interdisciplinary 
publication in two language versions. Through critical 
texts, conversations and artistic interventions, the 
book restores complexity to the history of the rapid 
decline of the Slovak sugar industry, and by extension 
the wider social and economic infrastructure of 
transition in central Europe, while at the same time 
opening up planetary trajectories for post-capitalist 
alternatives.

 
 
 
Beyond matter – 
Cultural heritage on 
the verge of virtual 
reality

Field/sector
Tangible culture, museums, other (digital arts, 
painting, drawing, graphic arts, sculpture, 
film, video), photography (art and technology, 
extended reality, virtual reality, augmented reality)

Partners
ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe 
(Germany, coordinator), Centre national d’art et 
de culture Georges Pompidou (France), Ludwig 
Museum (Hungary), Tallinna Kunstihoone (Estonia), 
Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art 
(Albania), Aalto University School of Arts, Design 
and Architecture (Finland)

Contact us
•  Culture and Creativity database –  

Beyond matter – Cultural heritage on the verge of 
virtual reality

Who we are

‘Beyond matter’ is an international, collaborative, 
practice-based research project that takes cultural 
heritage and culture in development to the verge of 
virtual reality. It does this by reflecting on the virtual 
condition with a specific emphasis on its spatial 
aspects in art production, curating and mediation 
through numerous activities and formats, including art 
and archival exhibitions, conferences, artist residency 
programmes, an online platform, publications and the 
digital revival of selected past landmark exhibitions.

Our project

‘Beyond matter’ aims to develop novel solutions for 
the accessible digital documentation and networked 
presentation of exhibitions that currently exist, or 
previously existed, in physical space. In the long 
run, the goal is for these methods of virtualising 
exhibitions to be used by museums and galleries to 
document and revive their exhibitions in new ways. 
With our experiential, research-based methodology, 
we provided a basis for developing museological 
and technological aspects simultaneously. The 
short-term impact involves the digitisation and 
dissemination of cultural content. The exhibitions 
and symposia have focused on computer-generated 
artificial environments. The project contributes to 
the capacities of cultural practitioners and museum 
professionals. With digitisation, computer-generated 
and real exhibition spaces are ever more entangled 
with each other. ‘Beyond matter’ aims to reap the 
benefits of this tendency by exploring ways to revive 
and perpetuate access to cultural heritage.

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They: live – Student 
lives revealed through 
context-based art 
practices

Field/sector
Photography, other, intangible culture

Partners
Dom kulture “Studentski grad” (Serbia, coordinator), 
Akademija primijenjenih umjetnosti Sveucilista u 
Rijeci (Croatia), Icarus Hrvatska (Croatia), Institut za 
Savremenu Umjetnost (Montenegro), Universidad 
Rey Juan Carlos (Spain)

Contact us
•  They Live, Student lives revealed through context-based 

art practices

•  Culture and Creativity database –  

They: live – Student lives revealed through context-
based art practices

Our aim

The project ‘They: live – Student lives revealed 
through context-based art practices’ aims to engage 
the student population to participate in the production 
of contemporary art by using the tools of community 
archiving and artist residencies on campuses.

Our project

Our main goal is to create an effective 
interdisciplinary methodology that involves digital 
archives as a resource for context-based and 
participatory art practices. The outcomes of our 
project serve as guidelines for managers of cultural 
institutions and art galleries, curators and artists for 
the further improvement of innovative approaches to 
the development of young audiences.

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The objectives of the project are the following.

1.  Participatory and context-based art. By organising 
context-based and participative artist in residence 
programmes on campuses, we provided resident 
students with the opportunity to participate, 
through working with an artist, in the collaborative 
creation of artworks,

2.  Common history and values. By collecting photo 
and audio material about student population 
life from 1945 on, we contributed to the under-
represented aspects of the European heritage, 
raised awareness of common history and values, 
and reinforced a sense of belonging to a common 
European space,

3.  Digitising of data. By creating a pan-European 

digital archive of student life, we documented the 
memory and the knowledge of student life on the 
European continent and opened up the possibility 
for interdisciplinary interpretation of vernacular 
intangible culture relating to student life in the 
European cultural space,

4.  Methodology. We focused on student life in 

relation to the following topics: everyday student 
life, campus-related life, cultural habits and free 
time, interpersonal relations, gender relations and 
sociopolitical engagement. The time ranged from 
the end of the Second World War until the present 
day, at the European level.

 
 
 
 
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ECHO II – Traditions 
in transition

Field/sector
Sculpture, intangible culture, painting, drawing

Our project

Partners
Inter Alia (Greece, coordinator), SFERA International, 
Bitola (North Macedonia), Pro Progressione 
Kulturalis Nonprofit Kozhasznu Kft (Hungary), 
Open Space Foundation (Bulgaria), Balkania Pera 
Apo Ta Synora (Greece), Postscriptum Pliroforiki 
Epikoinonias Epe (Greece)

Contact us
•  ECHO II
•  Culture and Creativity database – 
ECHO II – Traditions in transition

Our aim

ECHO II was an international project in the field of 
arts, culture and heritage. Its focus was on traditions 
in transition, and it maintained that re-exploring and 
revisiting traditions through a new lens can benefit 
communities and mobilise them to reconsider existing 
perceptions of static traditions that need to be 
protected and re-introduce these traditions into their 
group life.

The project strengthened the capacity of the 
European cultural and creative sectors to operate 
transnationally and internationally. Furthermore, 
it promoted the transnational circulation of creative 
works (artworks) and creative players (artists). It 
contributed to audience development by revisiting 
(un)familiar local tradition and heritage through new, 
original artworks. Moreover, it improved access to 
cultural and creative works through the digitisation 
of artworks and by offering open-access content 
to online users. ECHO II fostered a combination of 
exploration and production whereby artists and local 
communities were immersed in a creative process. 
Locals were the bridge between past and present as 
the transmitters and receivers of traditions. Artists 
researched traditions, expressed the dynamic nature 
and ever-changing realities of those traditions and 
produced original artworks that have been exhibited 
at local art exhibitions. Five art residencies and six 
local art exhibitions were implemented, including 
extra outreach activities organised at the Gala of 
Curiosities, a networking and audience development 
event at the 12th BBB Short Film Festival, which 
took place in Pristina, Kosovo. Four extra audience 
development activities were organised, targeting 
schools nationwide in each participating country, 
and resulted in the creation of eight original artistic 
outputs by some of the students.

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Weaving heritage  
Textiles and craft

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Make it new

Field/sector
Craftwork

Partners
Ustanova za kulturu i obrazovanje, Kulturni centar 
“Mladost” Futog (Serbia, coordinator), Omladinska 
Udruga Axiom (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Kulturni 
centar Travno (Croatia)

Contact us
Culture and Creativity database – Make it new

Who are we

The ‘Make it new’ project is a partnership between 
two cultural organisations from Serbia (Kulturni centar 
“Mladost”, Futog) and Croatia (Kulturni centar Travno, 
Zagreb) and one youth association (Axiom) from 
East Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Our project

The main idea of the project is to preserve and 
promote the traditional elements of cultural heritage 
through the production of exquisite traditional 
dress using authentic techniques that are no longer 
used today. In this way, the project aims to raise 
awareness of the importance of cultural heritage 
and the protection of folk art and old crafts, and 
educate and train individuals on various handcraft 
skills and techniques, in order to revive them. 
‘Make it new’ targets its activities at audiences 
of different ages. The idea behind the project is 
to educate people and disseminate knowledge 
about similarities and differences between cultural 

36

heritage in the participating countries, in order to 
overcome prejudices and connect our people. The 
project implemented several parallel activities in 
partner countries: 5-day educational workshops 
in three countries, the creation of an educational 
memory game for children, and an Android 
application for teenagers designed to educate 
them and raise their awareness of cultural wealth 
and heritage. The key result of the project was 
the production of 12 traditional costumes, 4 from 
each partner country, handmade using exclusively 
traditional techniques to preserve originality and 
authenticity. Folk dress plays a significant part 
in the cultural heritage of each nation, and the 
opportunity to create examples has generated very 
positive feedback from all participants, who had the 
opportunity to use their knowledge and experience.

 
 
 
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Crafting Europe 
in the Bronze Age 
and today

Field/sector
Craftwork, tangible culture, museums, film, video

Partners
Asociación de Amigos del Yacimiento Arqueológico 
La Bastida (Spain, coordinator), Zavičajni 
muzej Paraćin (Serbia), Ayuntamiento de Mula 
(Spain), Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona 
(Spain), EXARC (Netherlands), Déri Múzeum 
(Hungary), Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont 
(Hungary), Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und 
Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt – Landesmuseum für 
Vorgeschichte (Germany)

Contact us
•  Ruta Argárica de Sierra Espuña
•  Culture and Creativity database – 

Crafting Europe in the Bronze Age and today

Our aim

‘Crafting Europe in the Bronze Age and today’ (Crafter) 
aimed to revive modern-day artisanship by drawing 
inspiration from pottery traditions of four of the 
most remarkable Bronze Age societies of Europe: 
El Argar (south-eastern Spain), Únětice (central 
Europe), Füzesabony (eastern Hungary) and Vatin 
(southern Serbia).

Our project

The first event of Crafter was an international 
meeting between potters, archaeologists and other 
cultural heritage professionals. There they shared 
knowledge, perspectives and experiences, intending 
to generate a set of synergetic skills and strategies. 
This meeting propelled the second stage of Crafter, 
in which four potters from Germany, Hungary, Serbia 
and Spain drew on their skills and experience to (re)
create ceramic vessels representative of some of 
the most remarkable Bronze Age societies of Europe. 
The third line of action consisted of capturing the 
process of recreating the Bronze Age ceramic vessels 
in four documentary films. The results of the three 
actions described thus far were shared with the 
public in the fourth event. This was a gathering that 
took place simultaneously in four museums in four 
of the countries participating in Crafter. To turn the 
experiences acquired by the potters in the project into 
an opportunity to revive their trade, the project’s final 
commitment was to make the ceramic reproductions 
available at museums and online shops, in an effort 
to open a market for these new creations.

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Textile heritage 
inspiring creatives

Field/sector
Tangible culture, libraries and archives, fashion design, 
intangible culture

Partners
Fondazione Museo del Tessuto di Prato (Italy, 
coordinator), Ajuntament de Gironella (Spain), 
Município de Santo Tirso (Portugal), Stiftelsen 
Produktionstekniskt Centrum i Borås for Tekoindustrin 
(Sweden), Akademia Sztuk Pięknych im. Władysława 
Strzemińskiego w Łodzi (Poland)

Contact us
•  Createx project – Textile heritage inspiring creatives
•  Culture and Creativity database – 
Textile heritage inspiring creatives

Our aim

‘Textile heritage inspiring creatives’ (Createx) aims 
to promote the cultural heritage of the textile sector 
as a driver of creativity and a significant source of 
inspiration for new generations of designers to design 
new products and collections based on an innovative 
heritage-based approach and using contemporary 
production processes.

Our project

Createx arose from the awareness that exploiting 
the textile heritage of industrial districts is an 
important factor in competitiveness and growth 
for the textile and fashion sectors. This significant 
heritage has to be preserved, shared and enhanced 
in the context of contemporary productive processes 
and new technologies for digitisation. The project 

38

was born within the European Textile Collectivities 
Association, which fostered collaboration among 
textile cities, museums and enterprises. The main 
goal of the project is to promote the cultural heritage 
of the textile sector as a source of inspiration 
for contemporary artistic creation, including 
through new tools for the digitisation of archives. 
Specific goals are boosting the creativity in textile 
design through the preservation, highlighting and 
digitisation of European textile heritage; offering an 
innovative approach to the development of future 
textile and fashion collections; and highlighting the 
creative potential of new designers. The project 
has strengthened skills in archive enhancement by 
sharing tools and new methodologies developed for 
the digitalisation of the local textile heritage. Thus it 
has raised awareness of textile archive preservation 
among creative professionals, artists and other 
practitioners. The project’s activities have been fully 
focused on highlighting the creative potential of new 
generations of textile and fashion designers through 
the organisation of the Createx creative residencies 
cycle, an innovative experience of in-depth study 
comprising workshops and study visits, involving 
14 young European designers and artists who have 
been called on to develop small-scale collections 
of textile, fashion and design objects inspired by 
textile and clothing heritage made available on the 
Heritage Manager database. This working phase led 
to the organisation of an exhibition dedicated to the 
14 heritage-based capsule collections developed by 
the designers, whose creative path has also been 
illustrated inside the Createx project catalogue.

 
 
 
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Arts, rediscovery, 
traditions, eclectic, 
contemporary, heritage

Field/sector
Tangible culture, historical sites and buildings, 
digital arts, craftwork

Partners
Fundația Transilvania Trust (Romania, coordinator), 
Comarca del Maestrazgo (Spain), Civic Organization 
Archikidz (Ukraine), Gjirokastra Conservation and 
Development Organisation (Albania)

Contact us
Culture and Creativity database – Arts, rediscovery, 
traditions, eclectic, contemporary, heritage

Our aim

‘Arts, rediscovery, traditions, eclectic, contemporary, 
heritage’ was influenced, and indeed inspired, by 
historic locations – a vital community resource, a 
creative power for social and economic development. 
The aim of the project was to develop and promote 
European heritage and cultural diversity in a creative 
and collaborative way through cross-sector and 
innovative practices.

Our project

This project embraced the concept that the 
transnational circulation of cultural and creative 
works, combined with the mobility of cultural workers, 
performers and artists, has an immeasurable 
capacity for promoting understanding and diversity 
within Europe. It also focused on combining artistic 
innovation, craft skills, and traditional and new 
technologies, and strongly reinforced the ability 
and capability of cultural/creative players (artists, 
creators, tech-savvy people, makers with different 
disciplinary backgrounds) to operate internationally 
by understanding new skills / artistic techniques 
and being given the opportunity to transpose them 
to culturally varied situations. Finally, it offered 
opportunities to young and innovative artists/creators/
craftspeople/performers/makers to enhance their 
personal abilities and international networking / 
professional career development, and it engaged 
children, young audiences and their families in 
heritage-related activities.

The project outputs include 4 workshops for cultural 
operators and a handbook containing strategies for 
the valorisation of cultural heritage; 5 international 
creative residencies organised in 3 countries; 
1 creative workshop on setting up an experience 
room; 58 artistic creations and a catalogue featuring 
them; 15 creative and interactive activities involving 
children, on the topic of cultural heritage and 
architecture; and 8 European heritage days and 
open days to celebrate with the general public.

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Culinary heritage  
Gastronomy

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A place at 
the royal table

Field/sector
Tangible culture, historical sites and buildings, museums, 
intangible culture

Partners
Association des Résidences Royales Européennes 
(France, coordinator), Schloss Schönbrunn Kultur- und 
Betriebsgesellschaft mbH (Austria), Palais de Charles 
Quint (Belgium), De Danske Kongers Kronologiske Samling 
på Rosenborg (Denmark), Patrimonio Nacional (Spain), 
Domaine national de Chambord (France), Établissement 
public du château, du musée et du domaine national de 
Versailles (France), Ministère de la Culture (France), Reggia 
di Caserta (Italy), Direção-Geral do Património Cultural 
(Portugal), Gödöllői Királyi Kastély Közhasznu Nonprofit 
Korlátolt Felelősségű Társaság (Hungary), Muzeum 
Łazienki Królewskie w Warszawie (Poland), Zamek 
Królewski w Warszawie-Muzeum. Rezydencja Królów i 
Rzeczypospolitej (Poland), Muzeum Pałacu Króla Jana III 
w Wilanowie (Poland), Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und 
Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg (Germany)

Contact us
Culture and Creativity database – 
A place at the royal table

Who we are

The Association of European Royal Residences is a 
unique network created in 2001 by the Château de 
Versailles, which assumes the presidency. It currently 
brings together 30 institutions that manage more 
than 100 castle museums in 15 European countries, 
in order to promote the sharing of good practices and 
the exchange of experiences.

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Our project

The aim of the project was to translate the 
opportunities offered by the European Year of Cultural 
Heritage into objectives. In this case, they consisted 
of discussing history to reinforce a sense of European 
identity. Such cooperation allowed the participants 
to achieve network-wide objectives: (1) to create a 
common knowledge space, (2) to experiment with a 
new story, (3) to test a new way of working together, 
(4) to exploit the principle of solidarity of the network 
and (5) to ensure that its smallest members are more 
visible. The project brought together 21 institutions 
under the same motto: ‘in 2018 we invite our public 
to share and cultivate our future’. The aim was to 
share knowledge of culinary traditions in Europe with 
the 43 million visitors that these institutions welcome 
annually. Creative Europe funding, allocated to the 
network with its 14 partners from 10 countries, 
made it possible to develop a total of 52 cultural 
activities for 444 000 visitors, ranging from activities 
for the general public concerted between the 
partners (European picnic) to innovative participatory 
activities on the theme of culinary culture (12 562 
participants). The development of the capacity to use 
digital tools, reinforced in particular by organising a 
masterclass, has enabled us to considerably increase 
the international visibility of the network and its 
members (more than 70 million impressions of 
#PalaceDay). An international conference was also 
organised at the Maison de l’Histoire de l’Europe in 
Brussels to evaluate the results of this project and to 
pursue scientific research on the theme of the culinary 
influences on Europe today.

 
 
 
 
 
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SKREI convention

Field/sector
Gastronomy, tourist routes, stories, historical sites 
and buildings

Partners
Stiftelsen Museum Nord (Norway, coordinator),  
Cers Italia Associazione No Profit (Italy),  
Município de Ílhavo (Portugal)

Contact us
•  SKREI
•  Culture and Creativity database –  

SKREI convention

Who we are

‘SKREI convention’ reimagined the historic trade 
routes of dried and salted codfish from the north 
of Norway to the Baltic Sea as far as Germany, 
Italy, Portugal and the United Kingdom. The 
coordinator, Museum Nord in Norway, is a network 
of museum units in northern Nordland with the 
aim of researching, disseminating and promoting 
the cultural and natural history of the area. Cers 
Italia is a non-profit association that specialises in 
historical re-enactments. The maritime museum in 
the Município de Ílhavo, Portugal, provides an insight 
into the cultural heritage of cod fisheries and coastal 
populations.

Our project

The 2-year project explored the cultural heritage of 
dried and salted cod from the Iron Age through the 
Hanseatic League to today. A body of knowledge was 
created and shared through a new map-based digital 
archive and through an engagement programme for 
local communities. An international artists’ residency 
programme investigated salted and dried cod as a 
natural resource and valuable foodstuff for the future 
within its social, economic, political and historical 
context. The project culminated in an international 
multidisciplinary seminar, a publication and a new 
international network. ‘SKREI convention’ rooted 
contemporary uses of cod in the rich traditions 
of different European regional cuisines that have 
emerged around this international trading good 
over centuries. Artists, digital experts, cod-cooking 
communities, museum professionals, and small 
and medium-sized enterprises were involved in 
researching, creating and curating exhibits, mapping 
of cultural tourist routes, and collating historical 
records, multimedia content, recipes and stories. This 
knowledge is of transnational value, as it contributes 
to the understanding of a shared European story 
deeply ingrained in our culture.

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Food is culture

Field/sector
Intangible culture, film and video

Partners
Slow Food (Italy, coordinator), Nova Iskra (Serbia),  
Europa Nostra (Netherlands), Transpond AB (Sweden), 
Udruga Kinookus (Croatia)

Contact us
•  Food is culture
•  Culture and Creativity database –  

Food is culture

Who we are

The artwork concept sprang from the collaboration 
between Slow Food (cultural sector), Europa Nostra 
(cultural heritage sector), Transpond AB, Nova Iskra 
and Udruga Kinookus (both creative sector), together 
with the food experience designer Josefin Vargö, and 
its realisation included contributions from various 
artists and creative professionals. All project partners 
had the opportunity to deal with new topics and 
fields, to experience innovative ways to communicate 
the cultural importance of food heritage, and to reach 
new and wider audiences. The creative players and 
the whole sector in general benefited from better 
knowledge of food, its origin, how it is produced and 
by whom. Sharing the stories linked to food heritage 
in many different forms will contribute in the long 
term to changing people’s attitude towards food 
heritage and reinforcing their sense of belonging 
to Europe.

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Our project

The project conveys the message that food has a 
crucial link to cultural heritage. The project aimed 
to promote Europe’s cultural heritage of food as 
a source of inspiration for innovative art, to make 
citizens understand the richness of this heritage 
and to give value to it through the active involvement 
of different target groups. The partnership 
co-designed and co-created a multimedia artwork 
dedicated to Europe’s food heritage, composed 
of photos, audiovisual materials and interactive 
elements, and largely based on the contents of 
Slow Food’s Ark of Taste catalogue, an online archive 
of foods at risk of extinction that belong to the 
culture, history and traditions of the whole world. The 
artwork What You Didn’t Know Existed – Endangered 
food from around the world was exhibited in cultural 
spaces in Europe, spreading the cultural value of food 
diversity and communicating the value of thousands 
of traditions connected to food. The partnership 
designed four specific activities to engage different 
audiences in the valorisation and protection of EU 
food heritage in the target countries. The contents 
of the multimedia artwork were updated during the 
project’s lifetime and enriched with contributions 
received from the target audience through dedicated 
contests and activities, creating a final ‘reloaded’ 
version of the artwork that is ready to continue its 
travels across Europe.

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Foodprint – The 
Mediterranean diet 
revisited

Field/sector
Intangible culture, photography

Partners
Anemon (Greece, coordinator), Fondazione Brescia 
Musei (Italy), Goethe-Institut (Germany), Goulandris 
Foundation / Museum of Cycladic Art (Greece), 
Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation (Cyprus), 
Cyprus Food and Nutrition Museum (Cyprus)

Contact us
•  Foodprint
•  Culture and Creativity database – 

Foodprint – The Mediterranean diet revisited

Our aim

‘Foodprint’ is a cross-media project of high artistic 
and educational value that seeks to raise awareness 
of the Mediterranean diet and way of life.

Our project

The project was based on the premise that the 
Mediterranean diet is an integral part of the world’s 
cultural heritage, and that it is a vehicle for promoting 
better health, hospitality, neighbourliness, intercultural 
dialogue, creativity and sustainability. The project 
consisted of a travelling exhibition, educational 
programmes, and interactive events and experiences. 
It aimed to engage children, young people and 
a wider audience through workshops and events 
within and outside the museums, inviting visitors 
to participate, taste and ask how the collective 
choices we make can lead to a more sustainable 
future. It also sought to strengthen ties between 
European professionals and facilitate the exchange 
of knowledge, but also to create synergy with leading 
cultural organisations and state agencies around the 
Mediterranean, to ensure the further dissemination 
and sustainability of the project and its urgent 
message.

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Building heritage  
Heritage sites 
and architecture

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Young art(ist)s  
refreshing 
heritage sites

Field/sector
Tangible culture, historical sites and buildings, 
music, dance

Partners
Združenje zgodovinskih mest Slovenije (Slovenia, 
coordinator), Fundación Universitaria San Antonio (Spain), 
ITACA, Il Territorio al Centro dell’Attenzione – Associazione 
per lo Sviluppo Locale (Italy), Complexul Muzeal Național 
“Moldova” Iași (Romania)

Contact us
•  Refresh
•  Culture and Creativity database – 

Young art(ist)s refreshing heritage sites

Our aim

The project aims to bring the cultural heritage of 
participating towns and regions closer to the people, 
celebrate its diversity and share its values with 
future generations.

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Our project

The idea was to explore the cultural heritage in 
new ways that would at the same time build closer 
relationships with the existing audiences and reach 
out to other community groups. The project concept 
was based on the cultural heritage sites being the 
inspiration for artistic creation by young artists coming 
from different cultural backgrounds and representing 
different fields of culture. The main core of the project 
was the implementation of eight events called 
‘refresh heritage weeks’ in chosen heritage sites. At 
these events we brought together young artists and 
experts from four countries to create new artworks 
and new cultural content and events in collaboration 
with the local audiences, with the aim of refreshing 
both the existing cultural events and the cultural 
heritage sites in which these events take place. As 
added value from the project, in order to continue 
to extend the interest of young people in cultural 
heritage we have engaged 96 young people to 
become ambassadors of the cultural heritage in their 
local communities.

 
 
 
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Where the city loses 
its name

Field/sector
Intangible culture, tangible culture, historical sites 
and buildings

Partners
LaFundició SCCL (Spain, coordinator), Binaural – 
Associação Cultural de Nodar (Portugal), Fundația AltArt 
pentru Artă Alternativă (Romania)

Contact us
•  Where the city loses its name
•  Culture and Creativity database – 
Where the city loses its name

Who we are

The project, which lasted 29 months, involved three 
partners from European countries (Spain, Portugal and 
Romania), and some local associates with histories, 
missions, approaches and methodologies both 
different and complementary. They recognised each 
other and came together to value and restore the 
intangible cultural heritage of informal settlements in 
the territories where they operate.

Our project

‘Where the city loses its name’ aimed to foster 
‘communities of memory’ in Europe around the idea 
of recovering the intangible cultural heritage of the 
informal city and activate it in the present as a way 
of challenging contemporary cities’ dynamics in 
Europe. Through a series of processes of collective 
research, documentation, experimentation, creation 
and dissemination, the project was focused on the 
construction of knowledge and practices on urban 
issues, taking into account the ways of doing things, 
knowledge and insights characteristic of informal 
settlements, of shanty towns. It pointed out very 
specific phenomena that are both invisible in the 
dominant history and heritage of Europe and, at the 
same time, absolutely constituent of every single 
country: migration from the countryside to the city 
during the industrialisation of Europe, the subsequent 
depopulation of rural areas, and the unequal 
architecture and poor living conditions of migrants in 
urban areas.

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Legends on 
circular ruins

Field/sector
Intangible culture, tangible culture, historical sites and 
buildings, theatre

Partners
Eufonia Società Cooperativa (Italy, coordinator), Università 
del Salento (Italy), Teatrul de Stat Constanța (Romania), 
Fundación de la Danza “Alicia Alonso” (Spain), Agjencia 
Kombëtare e Bregdetit (Albania), International Theatre 
Institute ITI (France)

Contact us
Culture and Creativity database – 
Legends on circular ruins

Our aim

‘Legends on circular ruins’ aimed to promote 
intercultural and intergenerational dialogue by linking 
tangible and intangible heritage, performing arts, 
life stories, traditional knowledge and skills with 
contemporary issues, through the implementation 
of international artistic residences in five historical-
archaeological sites, including the organisation of 
knowledge-sharing events, site-specific performances 
and community-based events.

50

Our project

The project aimed to raise awareness of shared 
history and values and to reinforce a sense of 
belonging to a common European space, by means 
of active collaboration and synergy between 
international players in the cultural heritage sector 
and in the cultural and creative industries sector, 
and between communities in different countries. 
The project connected and reinforced the artistic 
and cultural experiences of the territories, building 
a dialogue within a European, international 
landscape. Its main activities were in five remarkable 
historical-archaeological sites: Segovia (Spain), 
Rudiae and Castro (Italy), Nivica (Albania) and 
Constanța (Romania). The sites, their histories and 
their communities were at the core of the activities 
through transnational collaborations between 
archaeologists, cultural heritage operators, cultural 
players and artists. It was motivated by the deep 
belief that cultural heritage is a source of knowledge 
that unites peoples, nurtures circular imaginations, 
revives memories, and produces a deeper view and 
understanding of the present and our future.

 
 
 
 
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Journey to 
the beginnings

Field/sector
Tangible culture, museums, theatre, graphic arts

Partners
Kulturális Örökség Menedzserek Egyesülete (Hungary, 
coordinator), Društvo sa ograničenom odgovornošću za 
razvoj turizma upravljač turističkog prostora Lepenski vir 
Boljetin (Serbia), Pro Progressione Kulturális Nonprofit 
Közhasznú Kft (Hungary), Muzeul Regiunii Porților de Fier 
(Romania), University of Southampton (United Kingdom), 
Muzej vučedolske kulture (Croatia)

Contact us
•  Journey to the beginnings
•  Culture and Creativity database – 

Journey to the beginnings

Who we are

‘Journey to the beginnings’ was a collaborative 
project involving prehistoric cultural heritage sites and 
museums, contemporary arts and new technologies 
to rediscover and promote the prehistoric cultural 
heritage of the ancient civilisations that lived along 
the River Danube.

Our project

The main goal of the project was to develop a new 
interpretative infrastructure for the prehistoric sites 
involved, and their museums and archaeological 
parks, by using cultural heritage as a source 
of inspiration for contemporary arts and new 
technologies. The project examined new ways 
of interpreting heritage to help enhance public 
appreciation of prehistoric cultures in all their forms 
and diversity. As part of the project, we fostered a 
cross-sectoral collaboration between archaeologists, 
museum professionals, contemporary artists and 
IT experts, which resulted in live performances and 
a complex application based on augmented and 
virtual reality. The live performances took the form 
of festivals at each site, and the application offered 
a sustainable interpretative infrastructure that 
improved the visitor experience. The project took on 
the challenge of tearing down the walls between 
modern and ancient civilisations and connecting them 
with participation in art and science, bringing the 
audience closer to archaeology, contemporary art and 
modern technology. The archaeological sites involved 
are Lepenski Vir in Serbia, Muzeul Regiunii Porților de 
Fier in Romania, Muzej vučedolske kulture in Croatia 
and the Matrica Museum and Archaeological Park 
in Hungary.

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The collective domain 
of cultural memory

Field/sector
Tangible culture, historical sites and buildings, libraries 
and archives, museums, tours, residencies, exhibitions, 
visual art

Partners
Suns and Stars (Netherlands, coordinator), 
Zdruzenie Za Sovremena Umetnost (North Macedonia), 
Slobodne veze (Croatia)

Contact us
•  CDCM – Collective domain of cultural memory
•  Culture and Creativity database – 

The collective domain of cultural memory

Who we are

Partners from Croatia, the Netherlands and 
North Macedonia examined the ethics of cultural 
heritage and the capacity of artistic practices 
to unfold new relations and understandings of 
history. The coordinator, Suns and Stars, is a 
project space working on large-scale exhibitions 
and interdisciplinary projects at places of cultural 
and historical value. They were joined by two art 
associations in the Western Balkans: Zdruzenie 
Za Sovremena Umetnost, an association for 
contemporary art and curatorial practices in Skopje, 
and Slobodne veze, translated as Loose Associations, 
a self-regulated artistic initiative in Zagreb interested 
in imaginative geographies.

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Our project

From 2018 to 2020, the project initiated discourses 
about the importance of an open and critical attitude 
towards cultural heritage. In doing so, it accentuated 
the potential of cultural heritage to strengthen 
contemporary art practices and simultaneously 
showed how cultural heritage can be strengthened 
and discussed through artistic practices. This was 
achieved through three symposia, artist residencies, 
exhibitions and guided tours. Whereas the residencies 
gave space for artists to reflect on the role of 
heritage, the symposia brought artists and curators in 
touch with heritage experts and national institutions 
to investigate the publicness of heritage, care of it 
and its possible role in the future. The guided tours, 
on the other hand, encouraged local citizens to re-
examine the meaning and role of cultural heritage 
and their position in relation to it. The focus of all 
activities was ultimately to explore artistic and citizen 
strategies of taking responsibility for the collective 
cultural heritage and the future of collective memory 
while strengthening the sense of belonging to a 
common European space.

 
 
 
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Imagine Europe – 
A house history

Field/sector
Tangible culture, historical sites and buildings, 
architecture, intangible culture

Partners
Palais des Beaux-Arts (Belgium, coordinator), Fundació 
Mies van der Rohe (Spain), Università degli Studi di Napoli 
Federico II (Italy)

Contact us
•  Artists in architecture: Re-activating modern 

European houses

•  Culture and Creativity database – 
Imagine Europe – A house history

Our aim

The 2-year project ‘Imagine Europe – A house history’ 
promoted a specific type of architecture – European 
modern domestic architecture from the 20th 
century – through the involvement of contemporary 
artists, architects and students. The Palais des 
Beaux-Arts (BOZAR) (Brussels), the Department of 
Architecture of the Università degli Studi di Napoli 
Federico II and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe 
(Barcelona) organised a 2-week residency for six 
artists, in houses from the 20th century in Belgium, 
Spain, Italy and Romania.

Our project

The specificity of the project lay in the fact that the 
artistic residencies took place in heritage homes, 
still inhabited by private owners, revealing both 
the tangible and the intangible cultural legacy of 
these locations. The heritage sites of the project 
were selected by the partners for their modern and 
progressive architectural characteristics, and for the 
personality of their former owners, who themselves 
played historic roles in Europe’s cultural, political 
or artistic heritage of the 20th century. The project 
was thus an opportunity to highlight Europe’s 
lesser-known history through domestic architecture 
in six selected houses. The artists were invited to 
reflect on the houses’ heritage value today and 
were asked to develop projects that reactivate this 
lesser-known European cultural heritage. By using 
their artistic practice as a way to highlight some of 
the house’s most interesting architectural features 
and history, they produced works that express each 
house’s specificities in terms of future (re)use and 
conservation. Students from local universities were 
also involved in the project by preparing ‘welcome 
books’ for the artists as they entered their residency. 
The books were composed of an analysis of the 
house’s architecture, important documentation of 
the house’s history and potential inspirations for the 
artists’ interventions. Each artist drew up a unique 
proposal in the form of a video, a sculpture, a model, 
a book or photographs. All of these were presented 
at the BOZAR as an original project, and at the two 
partner venues. The presentation followed as a 
second chapter to a residency project realised by 
the Belgian artist Richard Venlet at BOZAR in 2019. 
A final talk with the artists and the partners in the 
project was organised on 12 November 2019 at 
BOZAR, followed by a live performance of dancers 
from Performing Arts Research and Training Studios.

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Imaginaires croisés 
de l’architecture 
néo-mauresque

Field/sector
Tangible culture, historical sites and buildings, 
other (architecture, film/video)

Partners
Institut national d’histoire de l’art (France, 
coordinator), Universidad Complutense de Madrid 
(Spain), Fondacija Kulturno naslijeđe bez granica 
(Bosnia and Herzegovina), Institut national du 
patrimoine (Tunisia), Bel Horizon (Algeria)

Contact us
•  Imanéo – Imaginaires croisés de l’architecture 

néo-mauresque

•  Culture and Creativity database – 

Imaginaires croisés de l’architecture néo-mauresque

Who we are

The project brings together five partners that have 
been involved for many years in the research, 
intervention, valorisation and transmission of the 
architectural heritage around the Mediterranean. 
Their ambition through this project is to create 
synergies between culture and research, and to jointly 
test new ways of seeing, thinking, disseminating 
heritage and making it available through digital 
technology. In addition to their different and 
complementary expertise in the field of heritage, 
these partners are based on both sides of the 
Mediterranean, in Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 
France, Spain and Tunisia. Their geographical location 
and the shared history with the Muslim world make 
them a prime ground for experimentation for this 
project, which focuses on neo-Moorish architecture.

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Our project

The activities focused on the production of data, 
both scientific and artistic, on a body of 12 buildings 
selected by the five partners, and on collecting 
testimonies from people living alongside these 
buildings on a daily basis and from specialists in 
the history of architecture and restoration. Three 
workshops (two by videoconference) were organised 
to share our working methods and first results. The 
progress of the activities was relayed on the social 
media dedicated to the project.

Flowing connections

Field/sector
Other (visual arts: painting, drawing, photography, digital 
arts, sculpture, film, video), tangible culture, historical 
sites and buildings, music

Partners
Ostrale – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst (Germany, 
coordinator), art quarter budapest (Hungary), Slobodne 
veze (Croatia), Kaunas 2022 European Capital of Culture 
Office (Lithuania)

Contact us
•  Flowing connections
•  Culture and Creativity database – Flowing connections

Who we are
‘Flowing connections’ is a European cultural 
cooperation project comprising international 
contemporary art exhibitions in Germany, Croatia, 
Lithuania and Hungary, complemented by an artist 
in residence programme and a series of internal 
workshops about digital cultural management, 
post-industrial cultural spaces, art education and 
the inclusion of people with disabilities.

Our project
In 2021, two major exhibitions were implemented: 
the Ostrale Biennale O21 in Dresden and the 
exhibition ‘Are you sure you want to leave?’ at art 
quarter budapest, with accompanying workshops 
on digitalisation, inclusivity (Dresden) and audience 
development (Budapest). In 2022, two other 
exhibitions followed in Kaunas, with the artist in 
residence exhibition and an exhibition of selected 
works at the Central Post Office of Kaunas, and a 
workshop on inclusivity. A seminar week on industrial 

cultural heritage followed in Split. The main impact of 
the project is bringing international art exhibitions to 
the partner countries and thus widening the horizons 
of local audiences and facilitating the international 
exchange of ideas and art. Cross-border cultural 
cooperations also enable the participating artists 
to gain more international exposure, advancing their 
careers, while giving them excellent networking 
opportunities. Finally, the exhibitions raised 
awareness of the importance of the preservation 
and cultural repurposing of neglected buildings of 
industrial-cultural heritage, while the workshops on 
digital cultural management, inclusivity, audience 
development and culture in post-industrial spaces 
provide important capacity-building opportunities 
for the partners.

The ‘Flowing connections’ project 
was planned right before the 
outbreak of the worldwide 
coronavirus pandemic, the consequences 
of which made the realisation of the 
original plans almost impossible. 
However, with hard work, flexibility and 
the occasional improvisation, our team 
and partners nevertheless managed 
to implement the bigger part of the 
programme, making the Ostrale Biennale 
O21 in Dresden one of the first large-scale 
cultural events of 2021 after the lifting 
of restrictions, making it a symbol of new 
hope and the continuation of international 
cultural cooperations despite all 
the difficulties we had to face.

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ReFresh plus – 
Young art(ist)s 
refreshing heritage 
sites and legends

Field/sector
Intangible culture, tangible culture, historical sites 
and buildings, other (interdisciplinary art fields)

Partners
Združenje zgodovinskih mest Slovenije  
(Slovenia, coordinator), Complexul Muzeal  
Național “Moldova” Iași (Romania), Fundación 
Universitaria San Antonio (Spain), Turun 
ammattikorkeakoulu Oy (Finland), Culture Hub 
Croatia (Croatia)

Contact us
•  Refresh
•  Culture and Creativity database –  

ReFresh plus – Young art(ist)s refreshing heritage sites 
and legends

Who we are

‘ReFresh plus’ unites partners from five different 
cultural backgrounds that share a desire to exploit 
the potential of diversity for the well-being of all. 
Extended geographical coverage is of extreme 
importance not only for strengthening European 
cultural values but also for the internationalisation of 
young artists, as they will be able to grasp different 
cultures and establish networks across diverse arts 
markets.

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Our project

Romanian and Slovenian partners have chosen 
legends that will be brought to life by young artists. 
We prepared a call for young artists. We also held 
a boot camp for young artists in Split, where we 
prepared co-creative strategies and introduced young 
artists to the selected legends for performance, and a 
live production week in Koper (Slovenia), where seven 
young artists, led by a Slovenian art director, prepared 
and performed the legend of Medusa. Through the 
project we have increased our knowledge and skills in 
co-creation in international teams and settings, and 
skills in promotion and positioning in the art market, 
especially using digital tools. We also improved 
interaction between the cultural heritage, education 
and creative sectors and increased cooperation with 
actors at the local and regional levels. Furthermore, 
the young artists continue to cooperate and engage 
in the international art community and are more 
recognised in the art community. Lastly, we increased 
the income generated from art-related activities, and 
the circulation of culture and creative works.

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European creative 
rooftop network – 
R-EU-FTOP

Field/sector
Tangible culture, historical sites and buildings, other 
(rooftops), intangible culture

Partners
Município de Faro (Portugal, coordinator), 
Coincidències (Spain), Folkstadens ideella förening 
(Sweden), Stad Antwerpen (Belgium), Stadt Chemnitz 
(Germany), Stichting Rotterdamse Dakendagen 
(Netherlands), Stichting Stadvinderij (Netherlands), 
Urban Gorillas (Cyprus), Urban Scale Interventions 
Limited (United Kingdom)

Contact us
•  ECRN
•  Culture and Creativity database – 

European creative rooftop network – R-EU-FTOP

We have composed a group of nine 
people who were chosen to join our 
Nomad Academy. Each one of them 

is from a city where one of our partners 
is located. But what do they do? This 
academy will provide young professionals 
with knowledge about rooftops. The idea 
is for them to become ambassadors of 
the idea of making the most of Europe’s 
rooftops. The next-generation rooftop 
pioneers! And we will introduce them to 
you over the next few weeks and give 
some insight into the projects they are 
working on. Get ready to feel 
inspired.

Who we are

R-EU-FTOP brings together nine European cities and 
independent cultural operators exploring how to 
make use of the underused 15–35 % of Europe’s 
urban landscape: the roofscape. Roofscape means 
the (tangible) built landscape heritage formed by 
the roofs of buildings, and the scene or view of/
from roofs, considered in terms of its aesthetic and 
(intangible) cultural meanings.

Our project

Nine European cities cooperated in promoting, and 
contributing to greater use of, Europe’s rooftops 
as: (1) cultural heritage and cultural venues, 
(2) accessible community spaces, and (3) creative 
labs for energy efficiency, climate adaptation and 
circular economy projects. This aim was organised 
into several sub-aims: (a) to develop urban rooftops 
as creative forums and open community spaces 
across Europe, (b) to develop urban rooftops as 
cultural spaces and artistic/creative media, (c) to 
pilot creative rooftop projects with a focus on social, 
economic and environmental sustainability, (d) 
to establish a Europe-wide network of roofscape 
festivals and cultural practices, (e) to develop a 
transnational roadmap and action plan for the 
Roofscape Europe movement and (f) to spread 
tools, working methods and spin-off projects into 
new locations.

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Modernism for 
the future 360/365

Field/sector
Tangible culture, historical sites and buildings, intangible 
culture

Partners
Kaunas 2022 (Lithuania, coordinator), Intercommunale 
Leiedal (Belgium), Vaizard, z.ú. (Czechia), Komunalna 
Ustanova Instytut Strategii Kultury (Ukraine)

Contact us
Culture and Creativity database – 
Modernism for the future 360/365

Who we are

This was a 2-year project in which participants 
from Kaunas 2022 (Lithuania), the Instytut 
Strategii Kultury (Lviv, Ukraine), the interdisciplinary 
arts centre Vaizard, z.ú. (Brno, Czechia), regional 
development associations in the Kortrijk region, 
the intergovernmental heritage organisation 
Intercommunale Leiedal (Belgium) and the 
White City Centre (Tel Aviv, Israel) invited artists, 
together with local researchers and the heritage 
community, to create 17 artistic projects in modernist 
buildings. These 17 unique projects strengthened the 
narrative of Europe’s modernist heritage and sought 
to reflect its current significance for global society. 
The final results of the project were presented at 
the opening weekend of the European Capital of 
Culture 2022 exhibition in the Kaunas Central Post 
Office building.

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Our project

Seven artistic exchange residencies and 10 local 
artistic projects that created new interdisciplinary 
interpretations of modernist heritage were 
implemented. Furthermore, an international artistic 
and historical exhibition presented the story of 
modernism in Europe in the context of the opening 
events of the European Capital of Culture programme 
in Kaunas in 2022. The project created conditions 
for new artistic and cultural production methods: (1) 
the artists practised community engagement in their 
artistic practice and audience engagement seminars, 
which helped to develop their creative methods in co-
creative and participatory art; (2) the artistic projects 
had a strong interdisciplinary dimension, put the 
artists into new site-specific conditions and led to new 
creative directions and encounters with different types 
of audience; (3) the projects developed by the artists 
received significant international publicity, which will 
help them in their future carriers and expose them to 
a wide international audience.

It is such a joy that all of these 
artistic projects have enriched 

our understanding of the wealth of our 
heritage, and how many different 
ways there are to talk about it.

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SECTION II 
Themes covered

 
 
 
7  
Placing heritage 
Routes and tours

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Viva Tramontana 
2018

Field/sector
Intangible culture, translation

Partners
Nosauts de Bigòrra Association (France, coordinator), 
Eth Ostau Comengés (France), LEM-Italia (Italy), 
Akademia Profil (Poland)

Contact us
Culture and Creativity database – Viva Tramontana 2018

Our project

Our aim

While the knowledge of the communities of 
Europe is in the process of transforming – or even 
disappearing – the aim of ‘Viva Tramontana’ 
was to make accessible and disseminate certain 
traditional cultural aspects of the populations of 
Europe with the aim of reappropriation.

The project used data collected from the inhabitants 
of several regions of Europe within the Tramontana 
network between 2013 and 2018. Our objective 
was to disseminate elements of the intangible 
cultural heritage (traditional dance, pastoralism, 
religious practices, etc.) of the inhabitants of various 
European territories and allow populations from rural 
and mountain communities to reclaim them. We 
selected and compared several proven practices in 
these populations before developing dissemination 
materials. These materials were then shared and 
served as a support for learning, especially for young 
people. We published books, a musical CD and several 
documentary films in order to contribute to the 
dissemination of practices in a sustainable manner. 
We organised important meetings during festivals in 
France and Poland, public performances, and a digital 
cultural event at the end of the project.

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North Atlantic tales: 
Untold routes and 
roots

Field/sector
Tangible culture, libraries and archives, intangible culture, 
graphic arts

Partners
SICC Productions Limited (United Kingdom, 
coordinator), Samskab Kunst og Kulturproduktioner 
ApS (Denmark), Einkofi Productions Ehf (Iceland), 
Erfjordgt.8 AS (Norway)

Contact us
•  NATUR – North Atlantic tales
•  Culture and Creativity database – 

North Atlantic tales: Untold routes and roots

Who we are

Bringing together artists, archives, arts organisations, 
museums and activists in four countries bordering 
the North Sea, the project was instigated to unearth 
the stories that cross borders to create our shared 
European identity.

Our project

The project allowed 10 lead artists to undertake 
multiple residencies in participating countries, working 
with archival, collections and festival partners to 
create new works that unearthed forgotten tales 
and hidden histories connecting different nations. 
By enabling artists from each country to undertake 
residencies with overseas partners, it traced the 
stories that fall between the gaps where one set 
of archives, memories and tales ends and another, 
over the water, begins. Alongside the residencies 
and creation of works, the project enabled effective 
networking by participating artists and delivered 
several skills development workshops and policy-
shaping events with the National Museum of Iceland, 
the British Council, Hull University, the University of 
Aberdeen, Reykjavík City, Ærø Municipal Council and 
Youth Council, Factory Light Festival, Kjarvalsstaðir 
and Robert Gordon University. Engagement events 
through festivals, exhibitions, conferences and 
seminars attracted over 250 000 people.

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Roots and roads: 
Traditional heritage 
stories to connect 
contemporary 
European audiences

Field/sector
Tours, residencies, music, theatre

Partners
Raccontamiunastoria Associazione Culturale 
(Italy, coordinator), Theodorsson Lars (Sweden), 
Beyond the Border Storytelling Festival Ltd 
(United Kingdom)

Contact us
•  Raccontamiunastoria – The art of storytelling
•  Culture and Creativity database – 

Roots and roads: Traditional heritage stories 
to connect contemporary European audiences

Who we are

The project united two small-scale cultural 
organisations and an individual specialising in 
performance and oral storytelling. Based in Italy, 
the coordinator, Raccontamiunastoria Associazione 
Culturale, is renowned for its style based on the 
traditional oral tradition, but also for experiments 
combining storytelling with various art forms such 
as music, dance, painting, photography, fashion 
and comics. Beyond the Border is an international 
storytelling festival in Wales, bringing stories and 
people together, from Wales and the world, to 
deepen connection through the power of stories. 
Theodorsson Lars is an artist based in Sweden.

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Our project

Stories are travellers and have always been so. 
Stories have always travelled on the tongues of 
storytellers and have been told in many different 
places. Drawing on Roman, pagan, Celtic and 
Christian mythology, this project told traditional 
stories that travelled from Italy, Sweden and the 
United Kingdom to connect modern audiences to 
the roots of their cultural heritage. The storytelling 
was in the formats of festivals, tours, performances 
and artist residencies. These stories journeyed across 
land through ‘walking performances’, immersive 
outdoor performances that took the audience on 
tours of cityscapes and archaeological sites in 
Rome, Farfa Sabina and Stockholm. The stories also 
travelled across the sea, with artists sailing around 
Wales telling stories in port towns and villages. 
Through artist residencies, storytellers from the three 
countries also searched for similarities between 
ancient stories across Europe. This research led to 
a co-production about Bridget of Sweden, a saint 
whose footsteps the artists followed from Vodstena, 
Sweden, to Farfa Sabina, Italy.

 
 
 
Identity on the line

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Field/sector
Tangible culture, museums, intangible culture

Partners
Vest-Agder-museet IKS (Norway, coordinator), 
Knud Rasmussens Hus (Denmark), Ájtte, Svenskt 
Fjäll- och Samemuseum (Sweden), Muzeum 
Pomorza Środkowego w Słupsku (Poland), Vilniaus 
universitetas (Lithuania), Muzej novejše zgodovine 
Slovenije (Slovenia), Etnografski muzej Istre – Museo 
etnografico dell’Istria (Croatia)

Contact us
•  Identity on the line
•  Culture and Creativity database – Identity on the line

Who we are

Transnational cooperation, the circulation of cultural 
works and players, is assured by a broad cooperation 
between museums in Croatia, Denmark, Lithuania, 
Norway, Poland, Slovenia and Sweden. Starting with 
similar approaches and using the same methods, 
each museum will work on one important migration 
process in its country by collecting and facilitating 
sensitive narratives in local exhibitions and uncovering 
challenges that have not been addressed before. The 
main findings and shared features will be summarised 
and made available as a joint travelling exhibition 
within Europe and a digital package for education.

Our project

‘Identity on the line’ is a large-scale cooperation 
project between six cultural history museums and one 

university, working together to explore the long-term 
consequences of different migration processes, forced 
or voluntary, that took place in Europe over the last 
100 years. Through the collection and dissemination 
of experiences from former migrants and their 
descendants, summarised and placed in factual 
historical contexts, we will unfold and transmit shared 
features of migration from past to future generations. 
Our priority is to reinforce the sense of belonging 
to a shared European space for contemporary 
migrants, those who have settled and their hosting 
communities. The main findings and shared features 
will be summarised and made available as a joint 
travel exhibition within Europe and a digital package, 
free to download. The working process initiates 
interaction between partners and other professionals, 
aiming at skill transfer, the anchoring of successful 
methods among colleagues, and developing toolkits 
and school packages. Audience development will 
be provided through extended cooperation with and 
dissemination to defined target groups, including 
children, young people and under-represented groups, 
that include former migrants. Using comprehensive 
dissemination methods at the local, national and 
international levels, the project will contribute to 
increased mutual understanding among people in 
Europe with similar experiences, regardless of time, 
place or circumstances. Hereby, the importance and 
urgency of positive and effective social integration of 
migrants will be demonstrated.

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Stories behind cities 
(Novi Sad, Rijeka 
and Timișoara)

Field/sector
Intangible heritage, digital arts, craftwork

Partners
Udruženje Građana Umetnicka asocijacija Inbox (Serbia, 
coordinator), Fundația Județeana pentru Tineret Timiş 
(Romania), Udruga Prostor Plus (Croatia), Melting Pro 
Learning Società Cooperativa (Italy)

Contact us
Culture and Creativity database – 
Stories behind cities (Novi Sad, Rijeka and Timișoara)

Our aim

‘Stories behind cities’ aimed to reflect on the 
connections between urban narratives and city 
making in an interdisciplinary way. It dealt with 
mapping new resources (urban stories, myths, etc.), 
which will enable Rijeka, Novi Sad and Timișoara to 
join visions, data and actions to tell new stories. Cities 
explored their common heritage and stories that 
connect them through history.

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Our project

The project began with a preparatory meeting in 
Novi Sad (Serbia). A research period of 4 months 
followed. During the research, the researchers used 
the classic methods of archival research, but they 
also collected material by talking to inhabitants from 
these three cities. In addition to that, the platform 
behind.city was launched. The result of the activity 
was about 130 different and diverse stories, coming 
from different perspectives. The material collected 
from the research period also served to develop 
other activities. The result of this activity was that 
30 professional participants received know-how and 
will transfer that know-how in future. The second 
result was more than 30 digital stories told from 
the personal experiences of the participants. Printed 
publications were also created as a result of the 
research period. Three publications from the three 
cities preserved these stories in one place. They 
consist of stories, private archival photographs and 
other illustrations. The final activity of the project 
was a multimedia exhibition held in all three cities. 
The last output was a short documentary film that 
followed the activities and actors through the entire 
project. Through this project, Novi Sad, Rijeka and 
Timișoara reshaped their images and narratives, and 
found new stories that replaced the old negative 
stereotypes about conflicts, changing borders and 
totalitarian regimes.

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European cultural 
routes as key actors 
in the promotion of 
European cultural 
heritage

Field/sector
Intangible culture, tangible culture, historical sites 
and buildings

Partners
Cooperation Network of European Routes of 
Emperor Charles V (Spain, coordinator), Associazione 
Internazionale “Strada Europea della Ceramica” (Italy), 
Associazione Atrium (Italy), Association Européenne 
pour la Préservation et la Valorisation de la Culture 
et du Patrimoine Juifs (Luxembourg)

Contact us
Culture and Creativity database – 
European cultural routes as key actors in the promotion 
of European cultural heritage

Our aim

The European cultural routes have been established 
with the purpose of promoting the rich and diverse 
heritage of Europe and to bring European cultures and 
peoples closer together. Nowadays, the cultural routes 
represent one of the most important instruments 
of the European Union to support fundamental EU 
values (democracy, human rights and intercultural 
exchanges) through the promotion of shared culture, 
history, memory and common heritage. With the help 
of cultural routes, Europeans can learn and better 
appreciate their own culture, history and heritage.

Our project

The project increased the capacities and skills of 
those working on the cultural routes by training 
courses and developing and testing pilot actions 
in different sectors such as (1) relationship 
with the sources (archives), (2) participation of 
citizens, (3) cultural project management and 
(4) marketing and storytelling. It trained some 
key stakeholders from project partners through 
international train-the-trainers activities in order 
for them to share the knowledge acquired with 
different members and partners through local 
training sessions (at the route level). After this, all 
of them planned cheap and small pilot actions, 
related to their objectives and strategies, to test new 
solutions. Finally, they evaluated the results of these 
actions and capitalised on all the process through 
dissemination tools.

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Alexandria – 
(Re)activating 
common urban 
imaginaries

Field/sector
Tangible culture, museums, historical sites and buildings, 
libraries and archives

Partners
Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée 
(France, coordinator), Universiteit Leiden (Netherlands), 
Kunsthal Aarhus (Denmark), Undo Point Centre for 
Contemporary Arts (Cyprus), Musée royal de Mariemont 
(Belgium), Palais des Beaux-Arts (Belgium), Ariona 
Hellas – Onassis Stegi (Greece), Cittadellarte – Fondazione 
Pistoletto (Italy)

Contact us
•  Alexandria – Reactivating common urban imaginaries
•  Culture and Creativity database – 

Alexandria – (Re)activating common urban imaginaries

Our aim
‘Alexandria: (Re)activating common urban imaginaries’ 
is a journey into the past and present. Between 2020 
and 2023, it addressed various challenges faced by 
the arts and heritage fields through the historic prism 
of Alexandria and its influence on urban development 
across the Mediterranean and beyond.

Our project
The project is based on three interconnected 
objectives: (1) generate and share knowledge of 
Alexandria’s legacy; (2) engage European and 
Mediterranean artists, heritage workers and urban 
development professionals in creative urban 
processes and how Alexandria fuels imaginations; 
(3) raise awareness of our shared cultural heritage, 
history and influence. The first phase of the project 
was dedicated to selection, exploration and creation, 
and the next phase focused on showcasing the 

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outcomes and sustainability of both exhibitions and 
residencies. The project partners have achieved the 
following impacts: (a) developing and sharing practices 
that facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and exchange; 
(b) activating scientific and curatorial transnational 
exchange around the topic of Mediterranean Europe’s 
shared architectural heritage and urban territorial 
legacies; (c) opening up the Musée royal de Mariemont’s 
Egyptian collections to co-curatorship with the younger 
generation of curators of contemporary, Egyptian, and 
European, Middle Eastern and African art; (d) increasing 
the current know-how on the wide range of topics 
discussed during workshops held in Universiteit Leiden 
on Alexandria’s legacy and historiography; (e) reaching 
out to a diverse community of artists, researchers, 
scientists, urbanists and policymakers.

It was meaningful to be able to 
bring together a range of artists 
from across the Mediterranean 
working on many different practices. During 
the residencies, we had the opportunity 
to consider Alexandria not only as a place 
but as a starting point for methods and 
projects that can be replicated in other 
contexts, while also creating links with 
other cities. This is also a way to imagine 
ourselves as ‘brothers’ in a global context. 
In addition, we addressed issues such 
as climate change and migration 
in the Mediterranean.

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Remembering 
heritage  
Untold/undertold 
stories

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Heritage contact 
zone

Field/sector
Tangible culture, historical sites and buildings, other, 
intangible culture

Partners
Stichting Herengracht 401 (Netherlands, coordinator), 
Culture Action Europe aisbl (Belgium), European University 
Institute (Italy), Humán Platform Egyesület (Hungary), 
Asociația Timișoara 2021 Capitală Europeană a Culturii 
(Romania), Goethe-Institut e.V. (Germany), Astiki Mi 
Kerdoskopiki Etairia Etz Hayyim (Greece)

Contact us
•  HOME - Heritage Contact Zone
•  Culture and Creativity database –  

Heritage contact zone

Who we are

‘Heritage contact zone’ works with contested 
heritage. The consortium of organisations from 
Belgium, Germany, Greece, France, Italy, Hungary, 
the Netherlands and Romania presents a sample 
of neglected or contested heritage, tangible and 
intangible: a forgotten synagogue, the memory 
of the Romanian revolution, Bauhaus and the 
German diaspora, Holocaust memory, and colonial 
memory in the Netherlands, Italy and beyond.

Our project

The ‘Heritage contact zone’ project identified 
and developed creative examples of working 
with contested or marginalised heritage. Seven 
partners implemented the project collaboratively: 

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two small-scale places of memory and dialogue, a 
historic house (Herengracht 401) and a synagogue 
(Etz Hayyim); three organisations addressing 
memory in a public space (the space is called 
Living Memorial), in a European Capital of Culture 
(Timișoara) and in a national cultural institute 
(the Goethe-Institut); one university forming a link 
with academic discourse (the European University 
Institute); and one EU network concerned with 
innovative heritage policymaking (Culture Action 
Europe). The partners started their collaboration 
by showcasing their local ‘difficult’ heritages in 
exhibitions and workshops. Historic, sometimes 
everyday, objects triggered the production of 
oral history and inspired creative or artistic 
participatory interventions. In five exhibitions, 
these objects and their contemporary translation 
through art and/or citizen participation provided 
a space for facilitated dialogue with citizens in 
five workshops. The Goethe-Institut focused on 
problematic aspects of the Bauhaus movement, 
Herengracht 401 on 17th-century history, Humán 
Platform on Holocaust memory, and Etz Hayyim 
on alternative – parallel – views of local history. 
Simultaneously with these local activities, 
the partners issued a survey to identify case 
studies that worked with contested heritage 
and dialogical – and/or artistic – participatory 
approaches across Europe. Five of them have 
been included in the final publication.

 
 
 
 
Women on women

Field/sector
Intangible culture, theatre, tangible culture, historical sites 
and buildings

Partners
City of Women, Association for the Promotion of 
Women in Culture (Slovenia, coordinator), Citizens’ 
Association for the Promotion of Women’s Activity 
Tiiiit! Inc., Skopje (North Macedonia), Outlandish 
Theatre (Ireland), Prostor rodne i medijske kulture 
K-zona (Croatia)

Contact us
•  Women on women (WoW) – Cultural gender 

practices network

•  Culture and Creativity database – Women on women

Who we are

The story of ‘Women on women’ began with four 
partners that felt they could learn from each other 
and build on their common values and an exchange 
of know-how. City of Women (Slovenia), K-zona 
(Croatia), Outlandish Theatre (Ireland) and Tiiiit! Inc. 
(North Macedonia) have collaborated before at least 
bilaterally, which turned out to be an important and 
solid foundation for their 2-year partnership. Bringing 
people together and creating something with them 
instead of for them was their driving agenda. Learning 
by doing, peer-to-peer exchange and collaborative 
set-ups were their modes of work.

Our project

The aims of the project was to provide European 
audiences with opportunities to reflect about the 
contribution of women to our societies through 
questioning the dominant strategies of cultural 
heritage; test a capacity-building model for and 
by women migrants, refugees and members of 
minorities by providing participants with skills and 
tools useful to develop new narratives on Europe’s 
diversity; and take an active part in developing a 
feminist approach to heritage that can be applied 
to different sectors. Through a capacity-building 
model for underprivileged women, which was 
intertwined with mainstreaming activities such as 
award campaigns, public actions, collective artistic 
projects, open calls to artists and the curation of 
artistic programmes aware of the need for multiple 
intercultural and interracial representation, the 
Women on Women project stimulated audiences to 
participate actively in affirming values that prevent 
exclusion and discrimination.

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European 
Roma theatre – 
Contemporary 
cultural heritage 
shapes our future

Field/sector
Theatre

Partners
Nők a Jövőért Egyesület (Hungary, coordinator), 
Romano Svato Verein für transkulturelle Kommunikation 
(Austria), Natsional’no-kul’turne Ob’yednannya “Amala” 
(Ukraine), Asociația pentru Promovarea Artelor 
Contemporane (Romania)

Contact us
Culture and Creativity database – 
European Roma theatre – Contemporary cultural heritage 
shapes our future

Who we are

All four partners are organisations working in the 
field of Roma theatre. Three of them function as 
independent theatres, while the Ukrainian partner 
represents a state-funded Roma theatre (there are 
only three in Europe).

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Our project

The project shows the values of the century-old 
and Europe-wide, active but hardly known Roma 
theatre through an international festival, guest 
performances and a digital archive, which will rescue 
the values of Roma theatre, the ‘art of the present’, 
from disappearance. The partners and other Roma 
theatre artistic groups present their performances 
in different countries, show a new image of Roma 
theatres and communities to the majority populations 
and empower the Roma people too. They inspire 
intercultural and intersectoral discourse by involving 
and educating not just the artists but also university 
teachers, art producers and cultural decision-makers. 
This will inform non-Roma people of the values 
of Roma theatre, and influence future artists and 
artistic initiatives. The Roma artistic groups will build 
a network with each other, show their performances 
in new countries, reaching and sensitising new 
audiences, and build their own capacities through 
workshops and mentoring processes in order for their 
work to be more effective and reach more people. 
The artists and groups will draft the strategy of the 
European Roma Theatre Network together, which will 
ensure partnership opportunities for Roma theatres 
in Europe. Their work will be available in different 
languages and in professional videos, and will receive 
creative and academic reflections too. Roma theatre 
will be known and highlighted as an integral part of 
Europe’s cultural heritage, which is a value shared by 
Roma and non-Roma communities. So, the goal is to 
convince everyday people and also decision-makers 
that Roma theatre is a tool for cultural inclusion 
and that the artistic groups are mature enough 
to have a sustainable institutional framework for 
their cooperation. The examples of Roma heroes in 
dramas will inspire citizens’ activity and bring closer 
the artists, cultural experts and members of society 
from different geographical, professional and ethnic 
backgrounds.

 
 
 
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Contested heritage  
War

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Atlantikwall Europe

Field/sector
Tangible culture, historical sites and buildings, 
intangible culture, museums

Partners
Provinciebestuur West-Vlaanderen (Belgium, 
coordinator), Vlaamse Landmaatschappij (Belgium), 
La Fabrique de patrimoines en Normandie 
(France), Stichting Europees Erfgoed Atlantikwall 
(Netherlands)

Contact us
•  Atlantikwall Europe
•  Culture and Creativity database – Atlantikwall Europe

Our aim

The ‘Atlantikwall Europe’ project was a partnership 
between four official partners and many more 
‘external’ stakeholders, mainly from the countries 
where the Atlantic Wall was built to defend against 
Allied invasion in the Second World War: Belgium, 
the Channel Islands, Denmark, France, Germany, the 
Netherlands and Norway. The aim of the project 
was to provide a framework for further European 
cooperation. Within the network, Atlantic Wall 
locations, places of remembrance, museums and 
other institutions could share ideas and information 
and connect with each other. Access to the network 
was open to all Atlantic Wall locations and other 
interested parties.

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Our project

The ‘Atlantikwall Europe’ project worked on two 
main tracks: activities designed for the public at 
large and activities aimed at engaging stakeholders 
from various sectors with a view to expanding our 
network. For a number of specific activities, the focus 
was specifically on pupils (educational exchanges) 
and on artists, who addressed the interests of a 
wide audience through the organisation of public 
initiatives including the European Bunker Day and 
the Bunkerzoom photo competition. As a result, the 
project appeared in the regional and national press in 
several countries. The project has certainly contributed 
to the wider appreciation of military bunker heritage. 
If a bunker were to be demolished today, the story 
would be picked up faster by the media. Policymakers 
are also more aware of the value of heritage thanks 
to activities such as the European Bunker Day. 
Beyond this, many activities (conferences, workshops, 
survey, familiarisation visits, etc.) aimed to expand 
the project network. The ‘Off the wall’ educational 
exchange projects were potentially key to developing 
the achievements of the project further. Through 
the creative approach around certain themes (the 
Atlantic Wall, walls, the refugee problem, etc.), they 
have succeeded in making participating students 
look at things in a different way. Contemporary art 
in, on and around Atlantic Wall sites proved to be a 
specific challenge. Together with a number of artists, 
the project set up some pilot projects including an 
exhibition about street art on bunkers in Raversyde.

 
 
 
CON-FRONT – 
Contemporary 
cultural 
commemoration 
of the Great War

Field/sector
Intangible culture, music

Partners
Le Grand Mix (France, coordinator),  
JU Mladinski kulturen centar (North Macedonia),  
4AD (Belgium), Ustanova “Fundacija Poti miru  
v Posocju” (Slovenia)

Contact us
•  con-front – The presence of the past
•  Culture and Creativity database – 

CON-FRONT – Contemporary cultural 
commemoration of the Great War

Who we are

The partnership is based on three venues / cultural 
centres in Belgium, France and North Macedonia 
and a heritage partner in Slovenia. The constitution 
of the CON-FRONT partnership reflects the invisible 
front line, which links Europeans from the historical 
Western Front to the Balkan Front, connecting large 
parts of the different continental European war fronts. 
The true legacy of the Great War is not the story of 
winners or losers, allied or central powers. The CON-
FRONT partnership also reflects this idea. It contains 
an interesting mix of so-called transit and destination 
countries, with different governmental approaches, 
but all of them confronted with the daily reality of the 
seemingly endless flows of people on their territories, 
in search of a better life. The partnership is unique in 
its consistency: an international cooperation between 
contemporary music venues and heritage partners.

Our project

The partnership examined new means of 
commemoration through previously unexplored 
methods, accumulating the specific expertise of 
both cultural and heritage sectors and confronting 
past with present. The partnership reached from 
Belgium and France to Slovenia and North Macedonia, 
connecting a large part of the different continental 
European war fronts. Its main outputs are a cross-
border multidisciplinary production by a group of 
young international artists (pop and rock musicians 
and visual artists), staged in the participating 
countries for a diverse and hard-to-reach audience, 
and a cross-border documentary by international 
young film-makers capturing the whole creation 
process and its result. The contemporary music 
and visual production was guided by a director 
and produced in the course of five international 
residencies in the participating venues. A jointly 
written online methodology based on the project’s 
experiences and results will serve as a sustainable 
manual for other European organisations looking for 
new ways to interpret or commemorate a historical 
legacy through artistic creation. The project has 
achieved the objectives of promoting cultural heritage 
as a source of inspiration for contemporary creation 
and innovation, and strengthening the interaction 
between the cultural heritage sector and other 
cultural and creative sectors.

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House of darkness – 
Images of a contested 
European memory

Field/sector
Tangible culture, historical sites and buildings, other 
(visual art), photography

Partners
Falstadsenteret (Norway, coordinator), 
Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork (Netherlands), 
Gedenkstätte Bergen Belsen (Germany), Paradox 
(Netherlands)

Contact us
•  Houses of darkness
•  Culture and Creativity database –  

House of darkness – Images of a contested 
European memory

Who we are

‘House of darkness – Images of a contested 
European memory’ (HICE) is a cooperation project 
in which three Second World War memorial centres, 
Falstadsenteret (Norway), Herinneringscentrum 
Kamp Westerbork (Netherlands) and Gedenkstätte 
Bergen-Belsen (Germany), together with a non-profit 
media organisation, Paradox (Netherlands), invite a 
young audience to participate in exploring perpetrator 
spaces and the question of how to incorporate 
a legacy of brutality and ignorance in the larger 
narrative of European cultural heritage.

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Our project

The main project outputs of HICE were three site-
specific art exhibitions on Nazi perpetrator heritage. 
In addition, HICE developed and arranged several 
audience participation activities on perpetrator 
history and memory at the memorial sites, aiming to 
engage a young and diverse audience in dialogues on 
perpetrator history. HICE also arranged one in-person 
project seminar, several online workshops and a final 
conference. The project has contributed to capacity 
building and the development of new methodologies 
by strengthening the interaction between the cultural 
heritage sector and other parts of the cultural and 
creative sector. By inviting artists and creative 
producers into the Nazi camp memorials, HICE has 
facilitated an innovative environment for them to 
produce art, move between countries and train. From 
the summer of 2022, different audience groups on-
site and online have explored and engaged with new 
creative content on perpetrator history and memory.

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European cultural 
heritage onstage

Field/sector
Intangible culture, painting, drawing, film, video

Partners
Inter Alia (Greece, coordinator), Vojvođjanski Građanski 
Centar (Serbia), SFERA International, Bitola (North 
Macedonia), Open Space Foundation (Bulgaria)

Contact us
Culture and Creativity database – 
European cultural heritage onstage

Our aim

‘European cultural heritage onstage’ (ECHO) was 
an international project in the field of arts, culture 
and heritage, with the aims of enhancing cultural 
production and reinforcing the European sense 
of belonging by connecting contemporary artistic 
creation with the dark cultural heritage of local 
communities in Europe.

Our project

The concept of dark heritage relates to events that 
traumatise groups and determine their cultural 
identity. Such events affect societies, as physical 
and conceptual spaces related to war, genocide, 
mass killings, ethnic conflict, oppression, violence 
and death carry such moments in their heritage, 
tangible and intangible. The project was based on 

the premise that dealing with traumatic heritage has 
therapeutic effects for locals and outsiders. As war 
and conflict spaces exist around the whole of Europe, 
dark heritage worked as a starting point for dialogue 
between artists and citizens. ECHO attempted, 
and managed, to (1) tighten and promote the link 
between artistic creation and dark heritage, (2) enable 
contemporary artistic co-creation based on cultural 
elements from newer, older and future EU Member 
States and (3) capture original images of local 
communities as a cultural entirety and as part of the 
European cultural context. ECHO benefited (a) artists 
through exchange of cultural and artistic practices 
and stimuli, and (b) art audiences by promoting 
audience development through creations that 
approached and concentrated on local communities’ 
dark heritage, and arts from newer, older and future 
EU Member States. The project promoted local dark 
heritage through artistic co-creations, thus enhancing 
a European sense of belonging, and facilitated 
cultural and artistic exchange between newer, older 
and future EU Member States.

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10  
Connecting heritage  
Education

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Excavating 
contemporary 
archaeology

Field/sector
Intangible culture, film and video

Partners
Fonden Århus Kunstbygning (Denmark, 
coordinator), Artists in Residence Antwerpen 
(Belgium), Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe 
et de la Méditerranée (MUCEM) (France), 
Undo Point Contemporary Arts (Cyprus)

Contact us
•  Kunsthal Aarhus: Excavating contemporary 

archaeology

•  Culture and Creativity database – 

Excavating contemporary archaeology

Who we are

‘Excavating contemporary archaeology’ was a 
partnership project running from 2018 to 2020 
in relation to the 2018 Year of European Cultural 
Heritage, which brought together four European art 
institutions led by Århus Kunstbygning in Denmark.

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Our project

Its goal was to explore and reinterpret our 
shared cultural heritage through art. Undo Point 
Contemporary Arts in Nicosia, MUCEM in Marseilles 
and Artists in Residence in Antwerp joined Århus 
Kunstbygning in hosting artists for a residency, 
connecting them with local students and facilitating 
the exploration of each location’s unique cultural 
heritage. The artists held workshops where they 
facilitated the students’ own investigation of cultural 
heritage and art. Afterwards, the artists developed 
material to be used in schools, which differed in 
expression, accompanied by pedagogically developed 
teaching material about the meaning and expression 
of cultural heritage. The artists involved were able 
to widen their reach to new audiences, connect with 
students and embed their practices in foreign cultures. 
The project culminated in three exhibitions held by 
Undo Point Contemporary Arts, MUCEM and Århus 
Kunstbygning, in which works developed throughout 
the project and in connection to the project’s themes 
were exhibited. The partnerships that were forged 
through this project were the direct result of previous 
professional connections of individual members of 
the institutions. It was through this project that these 
connections developed into strong partnerships, 
leading to further cooperation in EU-funded projects 
in the future.

 
 
 
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Heritage hubs

Field/sector
Intangible culture, tangible culture, historical sites and 
buildings, libraries and archives

Partners
Suomen Kulttuuriperintökasvatuksen seura ry (Finland, 
coordinator), Centar za urbani razvoj Udruženje (Serbia), 
Fundación San Millán de la Cogolla (Spain), Vitale 
Tecnologie Comunicazione – Viteco S.r.l. (Italy)

Contact us
Culture and Creativity database – Heritage hubs

Who we are

‘Heritage hubs’ brought together 10- to 16-year-old 
children and young people from Finland, Serbia and 
Spain to share examples of their cultural heritage 
via digital platforms and to experience, interpret and 
practice the cultural heritage of others in face-to-face 
interactions at home and abroad.

Our project

‘Heritage hubs’ was essentially a heritage-sharing 
project among Finnish, Serbian and Spanish young 
people, executed in two separate phases during 
pilots at 11 schools in 2018–2019. Teachers and 
pupils were supported during these phases through 
teacher training, heritage and media workshops, 
and ready-made pedagogical materials for heritage 
education. This project provided the pupils with an 
opportunity to discover cultural similarities (and 
differences) and common values at the European 
level. Based on participant feedback, the overall 

outcome of the project is a better understanding 
of cultural heritage, overcoming many cultural 
prejudices, and increased respect for the culture, 
traditions and way of life of others. The other main 
capacity-building results include the emotional 
growth of the pupils and their increased sense 
of cultural empathy. Teachers reported that the 
project as a whole was a massive learning curve 
during which the pupils – and teachers – learned 
a lot about themselves and their own cultural 
identities through learning about cultural heritage 
and practices in other countries. Cultural heritage 
became a new link between pupils, teachers, parents 
and the wider community. ‘Heritage hubs’ created 
a heritage education methodology presented in an 
online manual for cultural heritage education, which 
provides sustainable results and long-term effects 
in the field of heritage education throughout Europe. 
The project also successfully supported cooperation 
between the education and heritage sectors, which is 
further supported by the project’s recommendations 
for heritage education.

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Birth cultures: 
A journey through 
European history and 
traditions around 
birth and maternity

Field/sector
Intangible culture, tangible culture, museums, 
photography

Partners
Fundació Interarts per a la Cooperació Cultural 
Internacional (Spain, coordinator), Frauenmuseum Hittisau 
(Austria), Frauenmuseum – Museo delle Donne (Italy), 
Kharkiv Regional Gender Resource Centre (Ukraine)

Contact us
Culture and Creativity database – 
Birth cultures: A journey through European history 
and traditions around birth and maternity

Our aim

Cultural anthropological research and museum work 
worldwide have for a long time ignored relevant 
experiences of pregnancy and birth, not taking into 
due account the knowledge of both women in general 
and mothers in particular as regards the beginning 
of life. The ‘Birth cultures’ project gave visibility to 
historical and cultural knowledge about giving birth 
as part of our intangible cultural heritage, and raised 
awareness of the most current developments in 
this field with a rights-based and gender equality 
approach.

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Our project

The aim of the project was to preserve and transmit, 
through arts and culture, traditional knowledge and 
practices concerning birth and maternity as part of 
European intangible cultural heritage. To this end, 
the project sought to (1) strengthen capacities and 
collaboration between women’s museums to raise 
awareness of women’s sexual and reproductive 
health and rights, (2) enhance intercultural dialogue 
and artistic creation around birth and motherhood 
and (3) improve access to European creative works 
and intangible cultural heritage. The project partners, 
as well as the organisations and initiatives that were 
involved and that made major contributions to its 
success, have not only played their part in enhancing 
cooperation in culture but also made visible our 
traditions and beliefs as well as existing needs on a 
silenced subject. Birth and maternity are essential to 
our lives as human beings, as a species, but also as 
an informed and enlightened society that takes care 
of its members and seeks their well-being.

 
 
 
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Common places: 
New imaginaries of 
European peripheries

Field/sector
Intangible culture, architecture, painting, drawing

Our project

Partners
LaFundició SCCL (Spain, coordinator), Associazione 
Cherimus (Italy), Kulturno društvo Prostorož (Slovenia)

Contact us
Culture and Creativity database – Common places: New 
imaginaries of European peripheries

Our aim

‘Common places’ was a project that aimed to tackle 
the specific challenges of community-based art 
practices situated in peripheral territories in times of 
hateful and divisive discourses. We set up a structure 
for exchanges among three partners (Prostorož, 
LaFundició and Cherimus) throughout Europe in 
order to develop relevant and generative knowledge, 
practices and strategies for our work in the so-called 
peripheries of Europe.

The aims of the project were to transform the 
negative constructions of self and community 
inherent within demonised communities through 
situated ‘extended laboratories’ of action research; 
to instigate artistic exchanges through a series of 
‘creative experimentations’ in each territory and 
to activate this work at the local, regional and 
international levels; and to develop ways to represent 
the intangible heritage of under-represented groups 
to contribute to building a plural vision of European 
heritage. The project was implemented through a 
set of activities organised in different blocks that 
overlapped during the development of the project, 
based on architectures of play, conviviality and urban 
renewal: (1) extended laboratories, (2) methodology 
meetings, where partners discuss and exchange 
collaborative cultural practices in peripheral areas, 
and (3) communication and dissemination. The 
results of the project are 6 extended laboratories in 
Spain, Italy and Slovenia; 10 creative experiments 
in collaboration with international artists and 
cultural workers; 1 role-playing card game, 
Deadlines&Dragons, resulting from methodology 
meetings and exchanges between partners; 
1 shared website; 3 publications; 6 artistic products; 
1 exhibition; 8 artistic/architectural interventions 
in public spaces; and 9 festive presentations in 
public spaces.

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Mobility and 
intercultural dialogue 
for the transmission of 
heritage from Roman 
antiquity

Field/sector
Tangible culture, museums, intangible culture, 
historical sites and buildings

Partners
Musée royal de Mariemont (Belgium, coordinator), 
Musée Saint-Raymond, Toulouse (France), 
Archaeological Museum Frankfurt (Germany)

Contact us
•  The Mithra project
•  Culture and Creativity database –  

Mobility and intercultural dialogue for the 
transmission of heritage from Roman antiquity

Our aim

This pioneering project aimed to create the first 
exhibition dedicated to Mithras, one of the most 
fascinating deities in ancient Rome, and offer 
European audiences a new way to reconnect with 
their common heritage. It also aimed to build a large 
and lasting scientific and cultural network (including 
a website) to disseminate the latest research on 
the subject and explore little-known aspects of the 
Mithraic cult that resonate in today’s Europe and 
support the notion of shared heritage and values and 
the ever-evolving nature of cultures and religions.

84

Our project

The consortium organised an exhibition, which 
was shown in Belgium, Germany and France. ‘The 
Mystery of Mithras: Exploring the heart of Roman 
cult’ explored the geographical development of the 
cult, thanks to the transnational mobility of Mithraic 
artworks. Four publications were also produced. 
In addition, a pan-European scientific conference 
and a round table about literature on the subject 
of Mithras were organised. This project’s impact on 
institutions resides in changes in museums’ standing, 
performance and practices. The Musée royal de 
Mariemont achieved record numbers of visitors 
thanks to the exhibition’s contemporary scenography, 
new digital technologies and strong communication 
plan. The museum gained international 
collaboration experience at various levels of the 
institution (curators, mediation staff, registrar and 
communication personnel), and in visibility among 
general audiences and peer institutions worldwide, 
with over 60 articles written and numerous TV and 
radio appearances.

I would heartily recommend 
the exhibition catalogue – it’s a 
fantastic work, combining essays 
from archaeologists, historians, curators, 
et al., about each piece in this 
show. Fantastic photographs, too.

 
 
 
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