New Cultural Geographies: revitalising non-urban creative ecosystems
It is widely recognised that connecting community groups and residents with operators active in their local creative ecosystems can bring very satisfactory results in developing shared, participatory, and horizontally-accepted sustainable development trajectories for non-urban territories. But how can this be best achieved? What strategic pathways can be chosen?
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Some answers can be found in the legacy of the IN SITU project (2022-2026), which investigates and supports 6 peripheral non-urban areas in Europe, understanding these areas not as margins, but as dynamic spaces of creativity and cultural production. IN SITU researchers Mark Justin Rainey and Ilona Asare will familiarise us with ways of conducting a cultural mapping initiative, as a basis for strategy and policy, to support creative ecosystems in non-urban areas.
Charlotte Jerie, a Creative FLIP project manager from the Goethe Institut in Brussels, will take us through the widely resonating Ambassadors of Good Practice initiative, that understands culture and creativity as crucial for the revitalisation of non-urban areas, driving regeneration and transformation in communities facing depopulation, deindustrialisation, and other challenges, and serving as laboratories for new ways of working and living.
Thanks to a local case study illustrated by Natália Oszkó-Jakab, director of the Valley of Arts Festival in Hungary, we will also learn how festivals rooted in rural areas can boost socio-economic recovery, attract sustainable local tourism, and contribute to infrastructural development through participatory and sustainable management models.
Lastly, Aude Blanc, programme assistant at DG AGRI, will share valuable insights on the European Commission’s 2023-2027 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Our working group on non-urban culture was established in 2016 with a view to creating and sharing knowledge and igniting new connections around impactful cultural practices beyond the urban.
The event will be moderated by Piotr Michałowski, coordinator of the non-urban culture working group and member of the ENCC Board of directors.
Mark Justin Rainey is a human geographer at the University of Galway, where he serves as a researcher on the Horizon Europe IN SITU project. He has worked in the cultural and refugee justice sectors in the UK and Australia. He has a PhD in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths, University of London and has published on the topics of political geography, cultural theory, borders and migration. Most recently he has taken up an interest in the geographies of local development and creativity. His upcoming book 'Restless Justice: Asylum, Homelessness and Volunteering' will be published with Manchester University Press in 2026. Mark is also a founding member of UrbanLab Galway.
Former ENCC Board member, Ilona Asare is a research assistant at the Latvian Academy of Culture and coordinates the IN SITU project's Valmiera Lab in Latvia, focusing on place-based innovation in non-urban creative ecosystems. She also leads the NGO Culturelab, working extensively on cross-sectoral cultural initiatives that support community well-being and sustainable regional development.
Charlotte Jerie is the Project Manager of Creative FLIP, a project dedicated to further strengthening the long-term resilience of the CCSI in key areas such as Finance, Learning, Working Conditions, Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights. Previously Charlotte worked in the EU-project Voices of Culture, where she facilitated structured dialogues between the European Commission and cultural organisations. Her work focuses on building collaborative frameworks that empower artists and creative professionals and strengthen cultural ecosystems across Europe.
Natália Oszkó-Jakab is the director of the Valley of Arts Festival (Művészetek Völgye), the oldest and greatest multi-art festival in Hungary, founded in 1989. She is also Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Arts for Rural Development Foundation. Natália also led the Liszt Institute in Brussels in 2022-2023. She is the founder of the Music Hungary Associations and now the Festival Department leader. In 2021 she founded the Hungarian Tourism Programme Foundation, now known as the EFFE Hungarian Hub. Through the Startup Safari Budapest festival, she fosters collaboration between the cultural and the innovation sector. Since May 2024 Natalia has been a board member of the European Festivals Association and an ELSI Board member of EIT Culture and Creativity KIC.
Haude Blanc is a young professional specialised in EU affairs and rural development. She currently works at the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission on the implementation of the Long-Term vision for the EU's rural areas. Her professional experience also includes work on generational renewal in agriculture and rural areas in DG AGRI. She graduated in International Relations and European Affairs with a territorial angle from Sciences Po Strasbourg and the College of Europe in Natolin.