European Network of Cultural Centres (ENCC)

Incubator 2021

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
 – 
Hector Martinez Iijdcewrnam Unsplash

Incubator 2021 allowed eight cultural centres from different European regions to accelerate their European cooperation projects addressed to programmes such as Creative Europe or Erasmus +. During this two-and-a-half-day retreat, the eight project coordinators got familiar with the European funding processes, pitched their projects to their peers, got tailored mentoring during one-on-one sessions with experts, participated in group discussions and, last but not least, explored the socio-cultural context of the island city during the study visits and cultural events organised by our local partner.

Discover more about the Incubator programme here

Image by Hector Martinez

  • Browse the brochure here

  • View the photo gallery here

Ivo Peeters was born in 1954 and has a master's degree in Political and Social Sciences. In 1994 he co founded the ENCC and coordinated the network for 10 years as General Secretary. In those first 10 years he organised many international meetings and the ‘cultural management course' that became the current BECC staff exchange/training programme. He has been the director of De Zeyp cultural centre in Brussels for many years, is on the Board of Directors of the Flemish Association of Cultural and Community Centres and he is currently the Chairperson of ENCC Board of Directors. He has been involved in conceiving and facilitating many European cooperation projects, with a special focus on arts and disabilities.

Nicolas Combes, vice-general director at the World Heritage site Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans (EPCC), is specialised in European projects and funding. He has been interim director of the EPCC, former general administrator of the Gaîté Lyrique in Paris, and co-coordinator of Jordi Savall's tri-annual residency and the ORPHEUS XXI project.

Giles Agis has been developing and delivering carnival and festival events across Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Asia over the past thirty years. In the last decade he has focused on the capacity building of emerging arts, cultural operators, and arts organisation through a wide range of European funding programmes. Giles currently works as the carnival and community manger, at Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival in Scotland.

UP2YOU, developed by Il Mutamento (cultural center in Turin, Italy) and represented by André Jorge de Oliveira, aims to empower European youth to artistically express their thoughts by exercising democratic principles and promoting active spectatorship and citizenship.
Il Mutamento is a member of the ENCC.

INTERSECTION. ACTION. THEATRE, developed by Theater der Unterdrückten (Theatre of the Oppressed, Vienna, Austria ) and represented by Ekaterina Schalmann, will focus on the intersection between climate, feminist and racial justice. Key activities of this project will be multiplier events and exchanges including the development of intellectual outputs that reflect the experiences, and political demands of the feminist and racial justice movement in Europe in response to the climate crisis.
Theater der Unterdrückten is a member of ENCC member IG-Kultur.

FIRST EUROPE (working title), developed by Pro Progressione (artistic hub in Budapest, Hungary ) and represented by Gergő Paukovics, aims to bring prehistoric societies closer to contemporary audiences by placing European archaeological heritage in a new context. Social relations and issues are represented in a collaborative medium between archaeological sites, digital art, and contemporary theater. It is based on social issues and processes whose evolution can be traced back through history and that are still evolving today.

131 URBAN RENDEZ VOUS, developed by IL CANTIERE (Italy) and represented by Sara Marasso, aims to recreate a different way to inhabit territories through the direct and indirect involvement of the audience in the creative process. The result of each process, specific from each territory where the project is presented, is a cross-disciplinary performance involving contemporary dance, sound research-live music and video.

CLASSICAL BEAT SUMMER LAB fOR YOUNG ARTISTS, developed by Stiftung Neue Musik-Impulse (Germany) and represented by Marc Tietz, aims to develop new, exciting musical interpretations that are performed in the CLASSICAL BEAT FESTIVAL concert series. Quality is guaranteed by contributions from (inter)national musicians, inspiring programmes and new performance forms. Young European Musicians explore and develop the genre-breaking CLASSICAL BEAT principle  with established and experienced professionals as well as professors.
Stiftung Neue Musik-Impulse is a member of the ENCC.

NEW SUBJECTIVITIES, developed by Centrala (Polish Expats Association, UK) and represented by Alicja Kaczmarek, is a collaboration between artists and cultural activists from across the Caucasus and Western Europe. Its purpose is to explore, articulate and re-vision the cultural and social heritage of the South Caucasus region as it engages with Western European influences that disrupt its established cultural identity.
Centrala is a member of the ENCC.

THE CEE FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART AND DIVERSITY (working title), developed by Kulturverein Dusha Connection (Austria) and represented by Esad Halilovic, is an interdisciplinary and interactive exchange program between artists and cultural workers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Austria to promote education and dialogue between antagonists of different ethnicities, as well as mobility and international presence of artists and sustainable social inclusion of disadvantaged groups and local minorities.
Kulturverein Dusha Connection is a member of ENCC member IG-Kultur.

NETWORK OF CULTURAL HERITAGE OF THE NORTHEAST REGION, developed by Colab More - Mountains of Research Association (Portugal) and represented by Patrícia Cordeiro, aims to structure and formalize an existing network between cultural services throughout the eleven municipalities of the district of Bragança, helping them to  cooperate in different areas of cultural heritage. The network would tackle the problems of lack of specialized human resources in different services of this local sector.