Online final event for CAMINA and HI.D.RA.N.T.

Culture and Cultural Heritage can play a crucial role in activating and mobilising citizens. The way cultural policies are designed and implemented is key to engage unexpected stakeholders, and all those groups and categories that aren’t usually taking part in the urban political process, with particular attention on the vulnerable ones. 

Both CAMINA, developed by the Municipality of Almeria (ES) and H.ID.RA.N.T, implemented by the Municipality of Chalandri (Greece) , have designed innovative approaches to engage local communities. Focusing on people’s networks and interconnections, opening the decision-making processes, planning and managing together the use of collective spaces and services, are crucial for the development of urban regeneration actions capable of combining the transformation of the cities physical assets, the socio-economic revitalization of neighbourhoods and the involvement of local communities.

In this perspective, producing an impact at the local level is closely related with the implementation of innovative collaborative services and the redesign of the public procurement processes, focusing the attention on the most vulnerable groups of people living in the cities and working in the perspective of making the city a common good.

Key speakers from CAMINA and H.ID.RA.N.T projects were invited to share their experiences. A dialogue between project representatives, EUI Secretariat, UIA experts and participants was provided to showcase what has been done to expand civic engagement, activating “unexpected” stakeholders that aren’t usually taking part in the urban political process.

Jan Schultheiß, coordinator of the Partnership on Culture and Cultural Heritage of the Urban Agenda for EU started the webinar with a warm welcome sharing the activities implemented by the Urban Agenda. He stressed the importance of linking EU policies and recommendations with practical results and achievements implemented by cities. In this framework, the experimentations developed by CAMINA and H.ID.RA.N.T are important to inspire other cities and scale-up the projects.

The Case Study of “CAMINA -Community Awakening for Multicultural Integrative Narrative of Almería” (Spain), presented by Ileana Toscano, UIA expert, Gabriela Sánchez Calvete, Khora Urban Thinkers, delivery partner and Cristina Martin Heras, Eptisa delivery partner, focused on the most innovative initiative: the “Civic Curators”. The project outcomes were also shared in order to showcase how a sound participatory approach could be developed for Culture and Cultural Heritage projects.

The Case Study of “CULTURAL H.ID.RA.N.T. - CULTURAL Hidden IDentities ReAppear through Networks of WaTer in Halandri”, was discussed by Chiara Lucchini (UIA Expert), Kostas Gerolymatos, Christos Giovanopoulos, Stefania Gyftopoulou (Municipality of Halandri). The project focused on the re-use and re-imagination of the ancient Hadrian Aqueduct as a vehicle to reveal local cultural capital, tangible and intangible heritage and natural and man-made resources. The speakers presented the importance of involving communities through participatory processes to co-create a novel service for citizens that uses water from the aqueduct for gardening purposes and set-up a new local organisation in charge to manage it.

The webinar shared insights dealing with the questions:

• how to involve communities? Focusing on peοple’s networks and interconnections, opening the decision-making processes, planning, designing and managing together the use of collective spaces and services
• which kind of actions? Urban regeneration initiatives capable of combining the transformation of the cities physical assets, the socio-economic revitalisation of neighborhoods and the proactive protagonism of local communities
• how to have an impact? Imagining new administrative tools, designing new institutions, redesigning the public procurement processes, working in the perspective of making the city a common good

Showcasing CAMINA results a depth conversation on the most innovative initiative, the “Civic Curators”, was provided. CAMINA with the civic curators programme achieved to Engage and Activate un-expected stakeholders through innovating the Public Procurement. 

The “civic curator”  is an innovative concept promoted by CAMINA, that involved cultural users, local associations and citizens to co-design the novel Cultural Programme of Almeria through participatory planning workshops and collaborative culture initiatives. A call for “Civic curators” to select participants was launched by the Main Urban Authority. Twenty-two Local Associations applied to take part at the “civic curators -social laboratories” to co-design and implement the novel cultural programme in Almeria. Twelve candidates were selected, six civic curators were created.

Between September 2023 and February 2024, several cultural events have been organised in Almeria, thanks to the work of civic curators.

Thousands of people participated in dance, music and theatre performances, urban walks, talks, exhibitions, artistic and photography workshops. School students were involved in video-making activities and laboratory experiences.

Many people had the opportunity to visit the neighbourhoods of La Chanca-Pescaderia,  Almedina  and the centre of Almeria, learning about the potential of these places and the importance of their heritage. Through the cultural activities spread around the three neighbourhoods and the cultural nodes, CAMINA achieved to attract people in places considered marginalised and deprived, places where people do not use to go due to fear or simple misinformation. CAMINA has triggered a process of de-stigmatisation of the targeted neighbourhoods, fostering the social inclusion of the people living there.

Before launching the call for grants of civic curators, the Main Urban Authority and the delivery partners of CAMINA worked together to shape an adequate public procurement, allowing to engage cultural and civic associations for being enrolled for working in a cultural collaborative dimension to perform cultural activities. This process took a long time because it was needed to review the public procurement. Indeed, generally the public procurement is launched to call for cultural proposals, where the budget includes the project and the realisation of a well described artistic or cultural interventions. In the case of the call for civic curators, participants are engaging and paid for working together, through the methodology of social laboratories to co-design the cultural programme and co-realise artistic initiatives.

The budget for this activity is about: 234.000 Euro. Participants could apply as individuals with a budget of 13.000 Euro or as a working group with a budget of 39.000 Euro.

Participants took part in the discussion by sharing what they learnt during the conversation. Among others they shared:

• A sound interest on the “civic curators” methodology;
• The importance of promoting co-creation processes for public initiatives;
• Cultural heritage as a shared value and a social infrastructure supporting and accompanying everyday life;
• Centrality of making culture and cultural heritage accessible and understandable (languages, tools, openness, etc.).

  

  For more information consult the article “Engage, activate, procure. Sharing and confronting knowledge, internationally”,written by Chiara Lucchini, UIA expert.