Networking as a lever for cultural development for cities

Policies for the enhancement of Culture and Cultural Heritage in European Cities have some common and crosscutting weaknesses: problems in designing integrated strategic actions; imbalance between policy formulation and assessment of results; limited involvement of private stakeholders. Turning culture into investments, or rather, into a driving force for development, means acting for enabling cultural communities to “create a system”, both at the territorial level, i.e. among the various local stakeholders, and at a wider level, in their relation with national and European decision-making levels.  “Networking” therefore becomes a strategic concept, to implement a real strategic planning of culture, to optimize the search for funding and establish the conditions for projects design and implementation. The workshop intends to address the issue of “networking in the cultural sector” according to a European horizon, highlighting its advantages from the point of view of the integrated planning of cultural policies and financial opportunities. Speakers from the European institutions, experts from the Promo PA Foundation and some European networks active in the field of culture will join the meeting. The meeting is open to the member cities of the Italian Network of Cities of Culture (www.retecittadellacultura.it),  the regional Liaison Offices in Brussels, experts and policy officers in the cultural sector. To register, please send an email to sandro.vignolini@regione.toscana.it