19
14
Questionnaire provided by the city of Valladolid, coordinator of CreArt.
15
During the workshops, a dozen local artists from any CreArt citiy can meet for a week to reflect on the
creative process and work on an art piece that will be presented at the end of the workshop.
16
Interview with the city of Kaunas, 17/12/2014.
17
“Shifting AiR Strategies” was the topic of a CreArt seminar held in Delft on 14 December 2013.
or country where they take place.The Open Method of Coordination identified
positive externalities to artists’ residencies that range, in the case of cultural
organisations, from the enrichment of their offer and reaching out to new
audiences, to a better international reputation and in the case of local authorities
from community engagement to regeneration of deprived areas to attractiveness
of the territory and improved international links and outlook (OMC 2014).
The main priority of the CreArt project is “the standardisation of the training and
mobility for local artists” according to the view that “European interrelation is
essential for the artist’s development and the cultural life of the city”
14
. In order to
develop a permanent mobility, exchange and training scheme for artists and cultural
managers, CreArt activities include touring exhibitions, international workshops led
by renowned artists
15
and annual Artist-in-Residence (AiR) Programmes.
During AiR programmes organised by the cities of the network, artists benefit
from the support of a local curator and they are given professional master
classes.They are also invited to talks and informal gatherings with other artists
and members of the local artistic scene opening new networking opportunities.
Feedback from the artists involved shows positive results as Kaunas reports:“all
artists who have participated in the project are happy about it and advertise it
positively. A good personal experience encourages them to make it better
known outside”
15
. In Aveiro, the interest of the local artistic community in going
international has risen considerably as CreArt residencies are more and more
popular amongst local artists. Some of them have even created their own
projects afterwards with stakeholders in the hosting city without the
coordination of the CreArt partners.
CreArt AiR provide cultural enrichment of the community through collaboration
of the citizens with the creative process (open days in artists’ studios, public
presentations of the artists’ work).They contribute to local cultural awareness,
and help increasing the general audience for visual arts. Artists’ residencies can
also improve the quality of life in the city, - like in Kaunas where one artwork
produced as part of the residencies has to stay in the city.
By sharing a vision about the importance of international mobility for artistic
creation and professional development of artists and by proposing a harmonised
framework for residencies programmes, CreArt members address some of the
challenges to cultural mobility and improve the circulation or artworks, artists and
cultural practitioners across borders
17
.Besides, the website of the project centralises
the calls for artists-in-residence, coping with the difficulty to access information
about available programmes, which is another hurdle to cultural mobility.
Artist Workshop in Valladolid 2013
