Culture and Creativity Programme: call for applications

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The European Union-Eastern Partnership Culture and Creativity Programme is inviting small and medium sized towns in the six Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine) to express their interest in piloting Creative Towns and Regions Initiative. Background: The Creative Towns and Regions Initiative highlights the importance of culture and creativity in small and medium sized towns and regions. The Initiative will propose a practical approach for towns and regions in the EaP countries to use the local cultural and creative potential for social and economic development. The aim is to raise awareness of all key stakeholders of the potential of cultural and creative sectors, to collect data on local cultural and creative resources and to propose concrete action plans for developing the cultural and creative industries potential, including development of local cultural landscape, building clusters with local businesses, increasing the quality of offer of the tourism sector and build stronger networks with similar towns and regions in other countries. Benefits and Eligibility: Six selected pilot towns/regions (one in each of EaP country) will become locations for the mapping exercise based on most up-to-date methodology and carried out by qualified experts. As the outcome of the process, the selected towns or regions will receive the following:

1. analysis of their current cultural and creative resources;
2. tailor-made roadmap for future development of cultural and creative sectors;
3. media coverage across the Eastern Partnership region and showcasing good practices from the selected towns/regions;
4. access to capacity building package for towns/regions’ representatives and their communities, opportunity to work with specialized experts;
5. networking opportunities with international peers in other EaP countries as well from the European Union countries both online and face-to-face.

The call for expressions of interest is open for small and medium sized towns and regions in the Eastern Partnership countries. Since the notion of small and medium sized places is different in different countries, depending on local traditions and size of the total population, the call is open for those municipalities that are not the capital cities of their countries nor major industrial centres with large metropolitan areas. As a recommendation, the size of the applicants should be (depending on the size of the country) from 15,000 to 250,000 people. Key Stage of the Initiative:

1. Open call: identifying six small and medium sized towns or regions with cultural and creative potential ready to pilot the Initiative in their country;
2. Developing methodology: developing an assessment methodology with local context;
3. Preparing six detailed reports: in collaboration with key local stakeholders carrying out the mapping of local cultural and creative resources and proposing the action plan to develop the cultural and creative potential of the area;
4. Developing a long-term network of creative towns and regions: adding value in terms of sharing good practices and knowledge, exchanging professionals and initiating joint projects within the region and with other creative towns and regions in the European Union.

Timeline:

• Open call for the pilot towns/regions: November 2016-January 2017
• Mapping exercises across six countries: March-June 2017
• Results and action plans to be presented in September 2017

How to Apply: To express interest on behalf of your town or region in becoming the pilot location for the Initiative, please send a Letter of Interest signed by representative of local authority, which includes:

1. clear motivation why the town/region wants to join the Initiative (up to 1 page);
2. overview of the status quo in terms of cultural and creative organisations, spaces and activities in the city/region (up to 2 pages);
3. description of how will the local stakeholders be involved in the process (up to 1 page with names of possible organisations, institutions or experts);
4. the applicants are encouraged to add links to websites or visual materials (videos, images) to showcase examples of cultural and creative projects, initiatives and urban transformations.

A Letter of Interest can be written in local language (or alternatively in English or Russian). Please include a contact person, his/her phone and e-mail for further coordination. Please send your Letter of Interest to this mail [email protected] Deadline: The deadline for expressing interest to participate is 31 January 2017. Selection panel and criteria: Selection of pilot towns and regions will be carried out by a panel consisting of the Initiative Expert, Country Coordinator of the EU-EaP Culture and Creativity Programme and a representative of the Ministry of Culture. Decisions will be communicated by end of February 2017. The selection will be based on following aspects:

1. Motivation of the applicant town/region to participate in the initiative;
2. Understanding how focusing on culture and creativity can bring added value to local socio-economic development of the town/region;
3. Level of engagement of key stakeholders from public and private sectors.

For additional information on the European Union-Eastern Partnership Culture and Creativity Programme follow the following link www.culturepartnership.eu/en