Place-based creative solutions for cultivating caring and sustainable communities

Antonija Letinić collaborates since 2000 with numerous organisations engaged in the field of cultural and artistic production as well as media in Croatia and abroad. As a member of Kultura Nova Foundation Research and Development Department team, she works on capacity building programmes, international cooperations and programme development. Themes she deals with encompass participation and engagement of audiences and communities, cultural and media education, cultural policy, development and sustainability of cultural actors in current environment as well as the impact of culture on the wider social context. As a member of Croatian Lab within IN SITU project, she is engaged with monitoring and mentoring case studies and other project activities.

Avril Joffe is an economic sociologist with more than 20 years professional experience in the field of cultural policy, culture and development and the cultural economy primarily on the African continent. She is the head of Cultural Policy and Management at the Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, a Post Graduate programme with degrees from Honours, Masters and PhD and which has electives at 3rd and 4th year for all students in the divisions of the Wits School of Arts. Since 2011 Avril has been an active member of the UNESCO’s Panel of Experts for Cultural Policy and Governance undertaking missions to support governments in developing cultural policies, cultural industry strategies, reporting on their implementation of the UNESCO Convention, writing training manuals and contributing to the Global Monitoring Report. Avril was appointed to the Ministerial review panel for the 1996 White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage to draft a revised cultural policy for South Africa. Avril is on the board of the National Arts Council and chair of Audit and Risk for the NAC.

The Croatian Coral Center Zlarin presents the story of the centuries-old tradition of coral cultivation on small island in the Šibenik archipelago. Coral harvesting is activity Zlarin is famous for and the most important cultural heritage of island. The first written records about Zlarin coral hunters date back to the 15th century, and red coral branches run through all the pores of life, history and tradition of Zlarin which bears the title of Island of corals because of its history and tradition of extracting, processing and trading corals. With the opening of the Coral Center, red coral becomes the driver of the island’s development in a completely different way. Instead of exploitation, red coral’s attractiveness and status become the basis of the narrative about the need to preserve biodiversity.

The centre will be presented by Katarina Gregov, head of the Croatian Corl Center Zlarin. She is dedicated to preserving the cultural and natural heritage of the island of Zlarin and participates actively in local initiatives and organization of cultural, entertainment and educational events that promote sustainable tourism, environmental and heritage protection, and improve the quality of life on the island. Katarina is a member of the associations Tatavaka, KUD Koralj and Bodulići, and leads the Coral Center Zlarin. In doing so, she balances administrative tasks with new solutions that respect tradition and encourage community development.

Tatavaka was established in 2010 with the purpose of supporting local youth initiatives and the well-being of the community. In 2019 it gave home to citizens’ initiative For Plastic Free Zlarin aimed at raising awareness about the problem of plastic pollution and its prevention by avoidance of single-use plastic use on the island of Zlarin. The initiative was a success and Tatavaka spread this good practice to other island and continental communities in Croatia. Nowdays, the association’s efforts are directed towards revitalization of the island’s traditional freshwater management system by the restoration of Zlarin’s rainwater harvesting slope, dry-stone walls network and connected ponds, and the re-evaluation of sustainable ways of life on the island, as well as restoration of holm oak forests that buffer the climate change extremes and contribute to island’s biodiversity. Regarding climate change, Tatavaka is also contributing to education of youth and adults on the topic of climate change through non-conventional methods such as Climate Fresk introduced to Croatia and a couple of neighboring countries by Tatavaka, in cooperation with Scout Association of Croatia, a number of educational institutions and associations nationwide and beyond. In addition, Tatavaka’s activities encompass organization of cultural and sports activities on the island, most regularly Zlarin Street Music Festival presenting culture and the creation of a community of like-minded people that is growing every day. Another value that the association promotes and encourages is volunteerism. Main activities on the island of Zlarin are based on volunteer work and Tatavaka tries to bring people closer to volunteering as a way of participation in the sustainable development of communities. The association shares the experience of sustainable living in Zlarin with other interested communities and works on advocating public policies and regulations aimed at preventing and suppressing plastic pollution.

Mark Justin Rainey is an urban and cultural geographer at the University of Galway, Ireland. He is a member of UrbanLab Galway and has an interest in placemaking and geographies of development. He is currently working on the Horizon Europe InSitu Project which explores the role of the creative and cultural industries in peripheral areas of Europe including the west of Ireland. He has an interdisciplinary background and combines activism and public engagement with scholarship. Mark has experience in arts management, public consultation and refugee justice activism in the UK, Ireland and Australia. In 2017 he gained his PhD on a joint research project between the Centre for Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths and School of Geography, Queen Mary, University of London. He has published widely and presented work internationally on the topics of political geography, local development, cultural theory, research methods and border studies.

Martina Fraioli has expertise in research on the cultural and creative sectors and in policy analysis, as well as in European project writing and management. She currently works at the European Network of Cultural Centres as a project and research manager, steering European cooperation and research work. She has extensively worked on large European projects, including Creative FLIP, Perform Europe and IN SITU. Her main research and work interests concern the role of culture in just sustainability transitions and the community aspects of societal transformations.

Nancy Duxbury, PhD, is a Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CES), University of Coimbra, where she is Coordinator of the Thematic Line “Urban Cultures, Sociabilities, and Participation” (CULTURS) and Coordinator of the CREATOUR Observatory on Culture and Tourism for Local Development. Her current research focuses on CCIs in non-urban areas, culture and local sustainability, cultural mapping, and culture-based development in small cities and rural areas. She is the Principal Investigator of the Horizon Europe project “IN SITU: Place-based innovation of cultural and creative industries in non-urban areas” (2022-2026). She was the Principal Investigator of a major research project on creative tourism, “CREATOUR: Creative Tourism Destination Development in Small Cities and Rural Areas” (2016-2020); and was lead of the CES team contributing to the H2020 project “UNCHARTED: Understanding, Capturing and Fostering the Societal Value of Culture” (2020-2024). She was the European Expert for the South Africa-EU Strategic Partnership project “Cultural Mapping, Planning and Impact Assessment for Sustainable and Just Urban Development.” She is a member of the European Expert Network on Culture and is an Adjunct Professor of Simon Fraser University and Thompson Rivers University, Canada.

Paola Di Nunzio is a Research Manager at the Centre for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra, currently managing the Horizon Europe-funded project “IN SITU: Place-based innovation of cultural and creative industries in non-urban areas” (2022-2026). She has experience in research, namely in the areas of social innovation, territorial development, inequality and human rights, as well as expertise in project management, grant writing and consultancy in the context of NGOs, SMEs and research centres. Her interests encompass international relations, economic and social inequality, human rights, migrations and development, as well as public policies, social innovation and cultural and creative sectors.

Patrick Brouder is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Tourism Management at Thompson Rivers University, situated at the confluence of the North and South Thompson Rivers on the traditional and unceded territory of the Secwépemc. His work in western Canada focuses on three interrelated areas of innovation in tourism across British Columbia and Yukon: Indigenous tourism (for partner community development), creative tourism (in ‘creative outposts’ in remote areas), and tourism evolution (post COVID-19 processes of regeneration in tourism in rural areas). Originally from Limerick, Ireland, Patrick has been working with communities in Sweden and Canada since 2008. From Jokkmokk in the Arctic region of Sweden, where he did his graduate research, through Niagara Falls, Canada, where he completed his postdoctoral research, to the Pacific coast of Canada, where he now resides, Patrick has been working at the nexus or arts, culture and tourism. His most recent co-edited books are Global Tourism and COVID-19: Implications for Theory and Practice and the Handbook of Innovation for Sustainable Tourism.

Owner of consulting company inforelais (www.inforelais.org) in Austria, Sylvia Amann – after her studies of commercial science and working experiences in cultural networks and policy – founded “inforelais” more than 17 years ago. She is a culture and creative economy policy development expert and strategic consultant for the European Commission, EU agencies, national and regional ministries as well as cultural organisations. Since 2011, Sylvia is member of the EU expert group on cultural and creative industries – as a drafting team member for the OMC Access to Finance report and as a co-chair on good CCI policies for innovation and entrepreneurship. In the context of the Crowdfunding4Culture initiative, Sylvia Amann was responsible to elaborate several case studies on crowdfunding platforms matching with public and private funds.