For five years I had the chance to share my expertise as a guest teacher and virtual campus coordinator of the Master in Cultural Cooperation of the University of Barcelona(Spain).
My experience in European Union funding and in project coordination and financing proved to be a valuable resource for the students from Asia, Europe, and South America enrolling to this higher education programme in the Catalan capital.
The experience was extremely rewarding, thanks to the quality of exchanges with colleagues, and the interest of the students for an aspect that was often overlooked by other master degrees.
In 2014, I was working at SAMOA, an Agency for urban regeneration on the Isle of Nantes (France). My colleague, Hélène Morteau, was finalising her PhD study on creative clusters and urban redevelopment while we were involved in the European Creative Industries Alliance. Among the tasks to perform, we had to exchange good practices and share the knowledge we were producing with our partners beyond the European continent.
We got in touch with the University of Chicago and its Cultural Policy Center , and we discovered that they were planning to expand their network in Europe, and namely in France.
This mutual interest resulted in the organisation of the 2015 Paris Convening of the University of Chicago on Urban Cultural Projects: Research, Practice, Policy.
During this time, world renowned experts met to discuss their findings about cultural projects in the urban environment.
My role, in addition to supporting the organisation, networking, and logistic effort, was to promote the urban redevelopment project of Nantes. This was a very good opportunity to reinforce its brand development.
The Regional Council of Pays de la Loire (France) built a strategic partnership with several universities, the University of Nantes among others, to create 13 thematic platforms working on Research, Training, and Innovation.
While working as a coordinator for the local Europe Direct Information Centre in Nantes (France), I was part of the Innovation programme devised by Alliance Europa, the platform devoted to the studies on the European Union and citizens’ rights and roles.
It supported their network, communication, and field studies throughout their first years of activities.
In 2008, I was hired by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya). My mission was built around the participation of the Catalan government to the cross-border cooperation framed as “Euro Region Pyrenees Mediterranean”. Two regions of France and two autonomous communities of Spain were structuring their interests and needs starting from concrete projects financed by the Interreg programme of the European Union. For example, the construction of the cross-border hospital of Cerdanya, and the transnational theatre production between Perpignan and Salt.
The cultural cooperation was on the forefront of the scheme, and my role was to support the creation of the first call for Euro Regional cooperation projects in the cultural and artistic sectors.
As a member of the Catalan delegation, I was part of the permanent Commission for Culture of the Euro Region, an initiative that was instrumental in the creation of the EGTC (European grouping of territorial cooperation) that allowed the partnership to become a legal entity.
In 2009, I developed a connection between the Euro Region Pyrenees Mediterranean and the Euro Region Baltic. This was made thanks to the enrolment in the Capacity Building Programme for local authorities of the South Baltic area, as an expert of access to EU funding.
At that point, the Euro Region Pyrenees-Mediterranean was already an established player for cross-border actions in the field of culture. On the other hand, the Euro Region Baltic was a relevant actor in the field of environmental sustainability.
The partnership promoted a set of joined events in France and Sweden, as well as a project application to the Interreg Europe programme.
We all agree that cultural diversity is an asset, but how does it translate into practice?
In 2008, the German Commission for UNESCO organised an international working group of young officers and cultural managers to reflect on how to put into practice the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.
A set of meetings took place in Barcelona, thanks to a partnership with the General Direction for Culture and Media of the Government of Catalonia.
My role was to support the logistics and facilitate the smooth exchange of ideas during the event. Most of the sessions were among the aforementioned professionals. The stay ended with a public event, sharing the findings of that round of reflections.
As the Head of International development at SAMOA, an Agency for urban redevelopment in Nantes, I was part of the European Creative Business Network, a network featuring prominent international partners in the field of cultural and creative industries. The aim of the network was to build the framework for the development of entrepreneurship and access to finance for SMEs all around Europe and beyond. http://ecbnetwork.eu/
The field study for cross-sectoral innovation in the frame of the European Creative Industries Alliance was capitalised as a good practice during the Meeting of the Ministers of Culture of Asia and Europe.
The Netherlands hosted the 6th ASEM Culture Ministers Meeting (ASEM CMM6) on 19-21 October 2014, in Rotterdam. The theme of the conference was “Creative Industries for Society: Talent, Technology & Trade”.
Several workshops on education, entrepreneurship, creative city socialising, and sustainability were organised.
I personally presented the findings of the ongoing research financed by the DG EAC of the European Union at the workshop on cross-sectoral innovation, which allowed me to disseminate the results of the overall study, as well as to promote the experience of Nantes in working in cultural-driven urban regeneration.
In 2013 and 2014, the DG Education Audio-visual and Culture of the European Commission was analysing the impact of its previous actions. It turned out that a great amount of good practices detected in past projects were followed by a low degree of transfer capacity.
From this take, the European Commission launched the Culture for Cities and Regions project, and subsequently for the participating cities.
My role as Head of International development of SAMOA, an agency for urban redevelopment in Nantes, was to contribute to the renown of Nantes as a European hub for urban planning and creative industries. For this reason, together with the staff of the Nantes Metropolitan Authority, we applied as a case study to be visited.
This €1 million project funded under the Creative Europe programme (DG EAC) aims to take stock of existing practices all over Europe in order to exchange and promote transfer of knowledge, to better understand successful cases of cultural investment, and to go into the details of policy planning and implementation. By making sure that cities and regions involved in the project place culture at the heart of their territorial development strategies, we aim for long lasting results that will be widely shared and showcased widely in Europe.
The purpose of the project is also to go beyond the study visits – on the one hand, with the provision of follow-up coaching to cities/regional administrations, which took part in the visits, in order to maximize its impact; and on the other hand, by reaching a larger number of interested parties through a broad dissemination of information (development of an online catalogue, website, newsletter, use of social media).
Three main dimensions will be explored throughout this project:
-culture and the creative industries for local economic development and urban regeneration
-cultural heritage as a driver for economic growth and social inclusion
-culture for social inclusion, social innovation and intercultural dialogue
During its three years, the project produced a catalogue of 70 case studies, organised 15 thematic study visits, and provided expert coaching for 10 cities/regions.
When the United Nations University decided to open a branch in Barcelona, devoted to higher education and academic research in the field of sociology and migrations, the Government of Catalonia and the City of Barcelona proposed a partnership. It included the possibility for the international organisation to use a prestigious landmark building in the city, a pavilion of the Hospital de Sant Pau.
The world famous modernist location had to be renovated to meet the operational and safety standards.
The local government decided to employ the European Regional Development Funds for this investment. It meant to be extremely cost-wise and careful from the architectural, legal and financial point of view.
My role was to support the financial auditing and the certification of the expenditures associated with the renovation works of the pavilion later hosting the University of the United Nations.
