Sostenuto newsletter, July 2010.

SOSTENUTO thinking culture as a factor for social and economic innovation... More about the project

How to reinforce the cultural sector's innovation capacity in the Mediterranean zone? How to accompany its mutation towards new economic and social models?The cultural sector represents a strong economic potential and a sector carrying economic and social innovation. Nevertheless, it remains unequally present on the territories, globally little structured and still insufficiently integrated within the policies of territorial development within the Med space. In this framework, SOSTENUTO consists of making evolve the methods of organisation and management of enterprises and associations in the cultural sector. It must particularly enable to test, in this sector, innovative methods of organisation and management - incubator, cluster, local exchange trading system, new forms of territorial governance -that may increase its capacities of innovation, its economic independence and may better valorise its activities within the local, regional and national economies.

Partners of the project: AMI- Lead partner (France), Bunker (Slovenia), Citema (Italy), Expeditio (Montenegro), Relais Culture Europe (France), University of Valencia (Spain) and Zunino e Partner Progetti (Italy)read more on the project and its partners / http://sostenuto.wikispaces.com

News from the labs

Incubator: AMI organises a « business trip » in Brussels (September 2010)
AMI's labo (CADO incubator) organises a « business trip » for young cultural entrepreneurs from the Med space. This trip is open to the members of CADO incubator and to the operators proposed by the Sostenuto partners. This trip will take place in Brussels during the last week of September, from 27th September to 1st October 2010. This business trip has 3 objectives: - « business » objective: professionnal networking; - « teaching » objective: workshops and meetings around the theme "Culture and Europe; « group dynamics and mind opening» objective: visits, collective moments of discovering, immersion in cultural life, meetings with original and innovative initiatives. read more on our blog / http://sostenutoblog.wordpress.com/

Local exchange trading system: Bunker invites to cooperation in the project entitled PROGA 10: KNIJGA
Ljubljana will celebrate 2010 as a Year of the Book and Bunker therefore invites everyone to cooperate in the project entitled PROGA 10: KNJIGA. The project will place books coming from near and afar on the bookshelves provided at 20 bus stations scattered across Ljubljana. The Ljubljana public transport users and all interested passers-by will be able to borrow books at any of the participating locations, mutually turning the PROGA 10: KNJIGA project into an open library, borrowing and collecting books. To make this dynamic project happen, books need to be collected first. Bunker therefore addresses all and everyone to participate by giving away books you may have been read already, which you were inspired by or which you may not need anymore, but can still make someone's day. You may contact Bunker by writing: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Project partners: Divja misel, ©tudentska zalo¾ba, Mestna knji¾nica Ljubljana, Rompom, Bunker Ljubljana. read more on our blog / http://sostenutoblog.wordpress.com/

Territorial governance: Expeditio conducted interviews with cultural policy decision makers at the national and local levels
During April and May 2010, Expeditio conducted interviews with representatives of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Media of Montenegro, the Municipality of Podgorica and the Municipality of Kotor, as part of the activities within the project "Non-Institutional Partakers of Cultural Policy in Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia". This is a partner project conducted in cooperation between Expeditio and organizations from Serbia and Macedonia. The main objective is to research the capacities of key partakers in the independent culture scene in Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia. The research includes the interviews with cultural policy decision makers at the national and local levels focussing on the independent cultural scene in their country/city. The project is funded by the European Cultural Foundation. In Montenegro, the project is implemented as part of the Sostenuto project. read more on our blog / http://sostenutoblog.wordpress.com/

Cluster: Citema took part to the ceremony of subscription to the international charter of artistic craftsmanship that took place on April 28th in Fortezza da Basso in Florence.
The charter, describing craft sector as the guardian of universal values, proposes a European programme in favor of handicraft. This is the first step towards the sharing of this charter by the biggest number of participants at international level, so that handicraft becomes an important target for European policies. read more on our blog / http://sostenutoblog.wordpress.com/

Forthcoming events
Sostenuto's forum
Sostenuto's forum is planned in Ljubljana from 1-4 December 2010.More to come in the next newsletter... read more on our blog / http://sostenutoblog.wordpress.com/
Culture and social economy
Ongoing study"Study on the contribution of culture to local and regional economic development as part of European regional policy"Culture has always been an important factor for economic development and local attractiveness in European regions and cities. However, the many ways in which culture has been integrated within the framework of the EU cohesion and regional policy are still largely unknown. The forthcoming study is called to address this gap. The European Commission has entrusted this study to the Strategic Centre for European Studies) working with ERICARTS. The final report is planned during the second quarter of 2010. read more on our blog / http://sostenutoblog.wordpress.com/
Med programme
Programme MED annual event 2010 - September, the 22nd and 23rdFor information, the annual event of the MED Programme will be held in Thessaloniki (Greece) coming 22nd and 23rd of September. A provisional agenda as well as registration form will be soon available for download on the web site of the programme / http://www.programmemed.eu read more on our blog / http://sostenutoblog.wordpress.com/

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This newsletter is the first of the Sostenuto project. We will be sending information on a regular basis. You are receiving this message because we think you might be interested in the topic. Would you wish not to receive these newsletters, please let us know by sending an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We will deal promptly with your request. Thank you! We are also very eager to come in contact and network with researchers or practitioners working in the cross cutting field of culture and social economy. Please let us know what you are doing and participate, through e-mails to the same address or posts on our blog!