Creative Ecosystems in Motion: strategies for culture in small and medium-size communities
Register for the webinar here
How can cultural initiatives help small and medium-size communities overcome challenges, build resilience, and set their local creative ecosystems in motion? What role can artistic interventions and external actors play in helping communities re-evaluate their resources, recognise overlooked potential, and develop new pathways towards culture-led development?
Since 2020, in the framework of our working group on non-urban culture, we have hosted yearly webinars where experts share their knowledge and shed light on their practices, followed by interactive discussions with the audience in breakout rooms.
Discover more about the working group and its past webinars here
This year's webinar will showcase various perspectives brought by practitioners and experts actively contributing to positive change in very different local contexts across the EU. It will focus on ground-breaking artistic interventions bringing inspiration into communities, allowing them to re-think and re-evaluate their resources and potential, and proactively seek solutions to set local creative ecosystems in motion. Particular attention will be dedicated to the socio-cultural dimension of artistic intervention and the role of external actors, moderators, artists, or cultural professional as initiators. Drawing on ENCC’s work with communities across Europe, the discussion will consider the value of an “external eye” in recognising what may seem obvious or be overlooked locally, and how a “call for action” from outside can set new dynamics in motion within a community.
The gathering is co-organised together with the Rural Pact Support Office (RPSO). Launched by the European Commission in 2021 as part of its Long-Term Vision for the EU’s rural areas, the Rural Pact provides a framework for cooperation between public authorities, civil society, businesses, academia, and citizens at the European, national, regional, and local levels. Since last year, together with the Centre for Social Studies of the Coimbra University, we have been jointly coordinating the Community Group on Culture and Creativity, one of the largest Groups under the Rural Pact.
Any relevant input stemming from the webinar will inform our upcoming book on local creative ecosystems in non-urban areas. Read the related call for abstracts here
The webinar will be moderated by Piotr Michałowski, coordinator of the working group and member of the ENCC Board of directors. Piotr is a jazz musician, a European projects consultant, and an independent expert for the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe programme.
Katarína Morávek Ďuricová is a manager of local and international projects at Nová síť, focusing on contemporary art and independent culture. With a background in cultural centre operations and event organisation, she also works as a lighting designer. She coordinates the ART-IN-RES programme, connecting performing arts professionals with creative residency opportunities across the Czech Republic. Since 2022, she has also organised a light art festival in Žilina.
Jan Břeň is a cultural manager at Nová síť and the international project coordinator for Bridging the A-I-R (BtAIR), a four-year Creative Europe project supporting sustainable, care-centred artist residency ecosystems across six European countries. He also co-coordinates the Czech Cultural Network Nová síť, connecting independent performing arts organisations, regional venues and cultural decentralisation across the country.
Petra Schmidt Dreyblatt has been Managing Director of the Brandenburg Association of Visual Artists (bbk Brandenburg) since 2015, representing the professional, social and economic interests of visual artists in the region. Her work contributes to improving conditions for artistic practice and strengthening the role of contemporary art in cultural policy and society. Previously, she led the Edvard Munch House in Warnemünde as its Founding and Managing Directo, establishing an artist residency programme. She also works as an independent curator in Germany and Norway.
Alp Arisoy is an urban practitioner, researcher and co-founder of Urban.koop, working at the intersection of culture, community and urban space. His practice explores participatory urban development, cultural programming and heritage-led regeneration. He builds collaborations between local communities, municipalities and international networks, coordinating projects ranging from neighbourhood revitalisation to cross-cultural research initiatives in Türkiye and beyond.
Drejc Kokošar works as a project manager and heritage interpretation specialist at Zavod ID20, a non-profit institute based in the UNESCO-listed town of Idrija, Slovenia. Connects cultural heritage with sustainable tourism and contemporary practice, his work focuses on community-driven initiatives, participatory formats and cross-sector collaboration. He develops projects exploring regional gastronomy, living crafts and adaptive heritage reuse.
Anja Fortuna is a policy analyst at the Rural Pact Support Office, supporting the European Commission's Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas. With extensive experience in rural development and youth advocacy, she has held leadership role at Rural Youth Europe, the National Youth Council of Slovenia and the European Youth Forum. She also works as a consultant and trainer, with a particular interest in how rural heritage and local identity can create opportunities for people to stay in rural areas.
The webinar will explore how small and mid-sized communities can build resilience through culture, using art as a tool to rethink their resources, spark new ideas, and get their local creative scene moving. As years of ENCC work on non-urban culture across Europe have shown, a community often needs an outside voice — an artist, a facilitator, a cultural professional — to see what's been overlooked and to get things started. Speakers from very diverse contexts will share their hands-on experiences from projects that have already made a difference.
Nová síť / Bridging the A-I-R (BtAIR), Czech Republic:
Nová síť is a Czech network for independent culture which coordinates Creative Europe project BtAIR (2026–2030). Nová síť was also a partner in SPARSE PLUS, a project which ENCC contributed to as well. The central issue BtAIR addresses is simple: an artist arrives for a two-week residency in a small town. The host organisation has a programme, but neither the artist nor the host knows who to talk to, what matters locally, or how to creesate something that leaves a lasting legacy. The person who makes the difference is a local mediator — usually a teacher, librarian, or member of a local association: someone the community already trusts. In BtAIR, every one of the 12 pilot residencies have a named local mediator. Decentralisation is a core priority to the project. According to ART-IN-RES data, at least 60% of active Czech residencies operate in towns under 100,000 people, and 35% in places under 10,000. BtAIR aims to involve at least 12 rural towns and carry out at least 40% of its activities outside major cultural centres. The first pilot residencies (in the Czech Republic and Spain) will take place in spring 2027. During the webinar, the project team will share the mediator model, the questions being tested, and early lessons from preparing the first mediators — not final results.
BBK Brandenburg - Berufsverband Bildender Künstler, Germany:
Based in Potsdam, The BBK Brandenburg (Professional Association of Visual Artists) works to show how contemporary art can signal change, renewal, and transformation, including in the political arena. The organisation connects established artists to new experiments across the region and beyond its membership. According to their philosophy, captured in the manifesto "Brandenburg Declaration of the Many", art and its institutions — museums, theatres, studios, clubs, urban and rural — are understood as open spaces belonging to everyone, and society as a pluralistic assembly where many diverse interests converge and often find common ground. Democracy must be renegotiated daily.
Motorhane Cultural Hub, Türkiye:
ENCC member Motorhane is a community-led cultural hub housed in a former power station in Merzifon, a small town in Türkiye. Over the years, the hub has become an open platform for culture and creativity, expanding access in a place with limited cultural infrastructure and giving artists, young people, and residents a space to meet, collaborate, and create together. In the Turkish context, Motorhane strives to bring to improve cooperation between civil society and local government through practice, negotiation, and collective learning. Their contribution to the webinar will focus on how cultural practitioners build resilience where formal governance structures are thin. We will also introduce us to the Urban.koop initiative, which acts as an external catalyst — connecting local actors to wider networks, knowledge, and resources while helping the community take ownership of the space and its programme. We will look at both emerging practices and open questions about sustaining participation, cultural autonomy, and shared responsibility.
Zavod ID20, Slovenia:
Zavod ID20 is a Slovenian non-profit based in Idrija, home to the world's second-largest mercury mine. The organisation works in cultural and creative industries, heritage innovation, and rural entrepreneurship, developing economically sustainable cultural products rooted in Idrija's UNESCO-recognised industrial heritage. It operates from an office in the engine room of the Inzaghi Shaft (part of the UNESCO World Heritage site), and owns the historic miners' house Giser. ID20's webinar contribution will focus on an interdisciplinary approach to engaging young people and promoting heritage across tourism, culture, and the creative industries, combining cultural interpretation, gastronomy, design, and business-model development to build scalable creative-sector initiatives.