THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION SELECTS THE CULTURAL COOPERATION PROJECT CreArt, RECEIVING A 1,7 MILLION EURO GRANT

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THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION SELECTS THE CULTURAL COOPERATION PROJECT CreArt, RECEIVING A 1,7 MILLION EURO GRANT

2012-03-02

The European Commission announced yesterday, 1 March 2012, that the cultural cooperation project CreArt (Network of Cities for Artistic Creation) in which participates 14 European cities and institutions, has been selected to receive EU funds for the next 5 years within the framework of the Culture Programme (2007-2013).

CreArt (Network of Cities for Artistic Creation) is one of the 14 projects selected in the 2011 Call under the strand 1.1 for multi-annual cooperation projects among the 54 proposals submitted from the 35 countries participating in the Culture Programme.

The evaluation report by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency emphasizes that it is a project of true European cooperation in which countries and cities from the four cardinal points of the continent participate. Furthermore, they point out that the project ensures a real exchange between artists and public and reveals clear evidence of transnational mobility of artists and artworks. Another section of the report states that the commissioning of a research unit active from the beginning will act as a quality assurance throughout the life of the project. The evaluators consider in a very positive way the communication plan and value of social media in the promotion of CreArt and its commitment to sustainability, at the same time that they praise the capacity of the team involved in the project management.

The CreArt project will be initially developed for 5 years (2012-2017) and has a total budget of 3.437.300 €. 50% of it will be provided by the E.U and the other 50% by the 14 organizations involved in the partnership.

CreArt is a European cultural cooperation project for the promotion of artistic creativity, which has been developed for two years through de coordination of the Municipal Foundation for Culture of the Valladolid City Council. CreArt consists of a network of 14 cities and urban spaces representative of Europe’s cultural diversity and richness and the collaboration of three private entities with large experience in cultural management. The partners (Aveiro–PT, Kaunas-LT, Kristiansand–NO, Linz–AT, Stichting id11–NL, Wroclaw–PL, Lecce–IT, Harghita–RO, Pardubice–CZ, Arad–RO, Siena–IT, Vilnius-LT, Futurecity -UK and Valladolid–ES) are cultural institutions working in diverse areas in terms of size, cultural tradition, geographical location, institutional development, and socioeconomic figures. Nevertheless, there are common characteristics among them and which are essential to the project: all have experience in the development of cultural activities (special attention paid to visual arts) and in the promotion of creativity at a local level.

From the basis of the local experience in the promotion of creativity, CreArt aims to facilitate its development at a European level, through a series of strategies ranging from the research and the incorporation of new working methods such as networking, up to the promotion of transnational mobility of artists, managers and local art works, as well as its participation in common projects which, at the same time, bring close the complex rich and diverse reality of the artistic creation to the total number of citizens of the network. 

The benefits generated from this project, as a result of the exchange, teamwork, participation of citizens and artists, and the mobility of artists and artworks, will be not only cultural. The strength and professionalism of the CreArt network will facilitate the development of new projects in the field of cultural enterprises linked to the visual arts, of which this network can be only the tip of the iceberg.

   Finally, The Executive Agency highlights, in the evaluation report, the key elements for the success of CreArt: it ensures the quality of the itinerant exhibitions; it reaches a high level dialogue in the seminars and artists workshops and achieves the involvement of the citizens in the different open activities proposed in the CreArt programme. CreArt has the necessary ingredients to become a reference platform –physical and technological– for the European exchange of knowledge, ideas, innovation and for the promotion of creativity.