Cultural and Creative Spaces and Cities

The Cultural and Creative Spaces and Cities (CCSC) project brought together cultural and creative sectors to address urban challenges in cooperation with public authorities. The aim was to co-design new public policies for the benefit of citizens, and contribute to more sustainable cities and increase the quality of life in them.

To achieve the overall goal of the project, three key objectives were set:

• Explore – To bring together cultural spaces and local governments to explore urban challenges from the perspective of the commons, co-creation practices, and policy development.
• Learn – To facilitate peer-to-peer exchanges and training of commoning practices for cultural operators, policy-makers, and other stakeholders.
• Disseminate – To research, document, and disseminate the processes of 7 Urban Labs exploring different urban challenges.

From 2018 to 2021, together with our partners, we organized more than 30 workshops and events for local and regional actors. An overview of activities organized in Košice can be found in this article.

Urban Labs were the core component of this project. They gathered together cultural organizations, local authorities, cultural and creative spaces to explore urban challenges in collaboration with other stakeholders. Seven Urban Labs in various countries were working on developing innovative solutions:

• Lund, Sweden – Foster cooperation
• Region Skåne, Sweden – Engage Stakeholders
• Helsinki, Finland – Activate citizens
• Košice, Slovakia – Shared vision for the future
• Madrid, Spain – Participatory & collaborative public programmes
• Timisoara, Romania – Communities contribute to create public policies
• Sant Boi, Spain – Empower citizens to co-develop public innovation projects

• One of the project’s outputs is the Strategy of Culture and Creative Industries for the City of Košice for the years 2021 – 2027. It is an important document that will have an impact on the city for several years to come.
• The Artsmetic online benchmarking platform was completed. It allows cultural and creative spaces – and other arts venues – to ​compare their data with peer organizations across Europe.
• Creative Industry Košice has published Commons. Between Dreams and Reality, in which culture is described as a tool for a more inclusive and democratic way of life in communities.
• European Cultural Foundation has published Policy Analysis and Recommendations with recommendations for policy-makers in Europe.

The project was co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.