How can a whole city be involved around the relationship between creativity and entrepreneurship? During a transnational meeting of the URBACT project Creative SpIN in Bologna, the Municipality showed the impact of the long-standing interaction among local public administrations, entrepreneurs active in traditional sectors and cultural and creative enterprises. The visit exemplified the project’s process through a programme of debates, visits to the local industrial and creative excellences, but also conferences and events open to the public and the inauguration of new exhibition spaces for young designers. What’s Bologna experience bridging creative and traditionnal sector’s actors?
Relations between Creative and Traditional Industries
Making the presence of the URBACT partners representatives a driving element to increase the dialogue with stakeholders and citizens was the strategy chosen by the Italian city, which most adhered in the recent years to the trend of fostering creative industries to create new forms of urban development.
The focus of Bologna on the cultural side of the relation between creative or traditional industries and local authorities contributed to highlight the peculiarity of its local approach, also in comparison to the attention given by the other cities partners of Creative SpIN to ICT, health and innovation as drivers of the public-private partnership.
Creating Mediating Structures
Experiences made within the project Incredibol-Creative innovation in Bologna in building a bridge between public authorities, startup and creative talents highlight the importance of creating appropriate structures and professions to act as a mediator among the different stakeholders involved in the creation of cultural and creative industries.
The inventor of Incredibol project, Giorgia Boldrini, found that “the relationship between creative talents and public authorities is actually evolving: the new generation of creative talents has a new approach on it but the capacity of discuss with a common language is still missing”. Adopting he role of facilitator is a way for local authorities to foster dialogue among different sectors of the cities and to make culture and creativity key elements for local growth.
This continuous osmosis between cities, industries and talents are confirmed by well-established examples of cooperation between industries-symbol of the Emilia region, such as Ducati and Lamborghini, but also by the recent creation of interactive museums, such as the MAST, which contributed to the regeneration of San Viola area with a kindergarten open to the children of the neighborhood.
More on creative industries in cross-sectoral interactions and Bologna on this blog!
By Simone d’Antonio, from URBACT National Dissemination Point in Italy
This is an exciting topic. Other cities can learn from this approach and should go similar paths.