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Up Grants 2022: meet our winners

The winners of our 2022 Up Grants contest for sustainability and innovation in cultural centres have been announced during an awards ceremony at our Make Space for the Future international meeting in Turin, Italy.

The prize consists in a 3,500 € grant they can use to boost their initiatives and inspire others. They discussed their projects with the conference participants during a World Café that took place right after the awards ceremony.

To discover all the projects that applied, check out our UP Grants treasure box here!

A heartfelt thank you to the 7,852 voters who visited our website to support their favourite projects, as well as to our jury of experts! Thanks also to Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo for sponsoring the UP Grants scheme and the Make Space for the Future event.

Here are our winners:

Strand 1 - Focus 1: Education and Awareness Raising

Materia by La Capagrossa (contact person: Giorgia Floro, info@lacapagrossa.it)

MATERIA intends to build a point of territorial reference for training, research and small prototyping in the context of 3d making and sustainable design, with a focus on the reuse of plastics.The entire community of Ruvo di Puglia is involved in a process of collecting plastic wastes which are then used in laboratories dedicated to children and adults. The aim is to realise and produce a city gadget made of 100% recycled plastic that can represent the city.

Strand 1 - Focus 2: Arts and Sustainability

Esseri Reciproci by Banda Larga APS (contact person: Lorenzo Ricca, lorenzo@imbarchino.space)

Esseri Reciproci is an educational path consisting of workshops, public talks, music performances and an artistic installation held across the city of Turin between July and October 2022 in order to engage the inhabitants of cultural centres - workers and regulars - and reach a broader local audience. We believe multidisciplinarity is a key element in raising awareness of current environmental issues. By bringing together artists, scientists and environmental activists we want to encourage the community of our cultural centres to act in their context.

Strand 2 - Focus 1: Organising an Event

Slowfest (contact person: David Carroll, david@slowfest.org)

Slowfest is a project that aims to tackle environmental issues through culture and tourism, by taking into account economic aspects, as well as the well-being of the participants of a 1-month regional tour in green mobility. Since 2015, Slowfest has been experimenting with new ecological and less energy-consuming ways of producing events. Together with 7 cultural centres in New Aquitaine, from La Rochelle to Bordeaux, we aim to design and implement an experimental low carbon tour (by bike, train), in order to inspire the organisation of future eco-designed touring events.

Strand 2 - Focus 2: Managing a Socio-cultural Centre

Peri Viou sociocultural centre (contact person: Sotirios Karagiotas: karagiotas.s@gmail.com)

Active since 2013, Peri Viou is a sociocultural centre based in Karditsa, Greece. The project aims at creating a safe environment & uniting people with different sociocultural backgrounds. The centre provides an aesthetically pleasing space to host projects and events. This space is also home to their “open to all” garden.