PROJECT OVERVIEW

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This is an Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership.

Whilst cultural heritage has been defined as something inherited from the past, it is in many ways a contemporary and “living” cultural resource in Europe. Supporting and mobilising local actors facilitating society integration and social inclusion through the accessibility of cultural heritage will lead to an inclusive growth with a well-functioning democratic, inclusive society based on solidarity and equal access to culture and related services.

Both the preservation and valorisation of cultural heritage open up considerable opportunities for local and regional development. Culture is a key driver of creativity, which plays a significant role in establishing an innovative economy. In European Union, only 10.8 % of adults (25-64 year old) participated in lifelong learning in 2019 (Greece 3.9%, Poland 4.8%, Latvia 7.4%, Italy 8.1%, Germany 8.2%, Portugal 10.5%). People with disadvantaged backgrounds have lower access to training and cultural activities, as it requires financial resources, information about the opportunities and many times also encouragement to participate.

At the same time, according to a recent Eurobarometer survey, 8 out of 10 Europeans believe that cultural heritage is important, not only to them personally, but also to their community, region, country and the EU as a whole. A very large majority take pride in cultural heritage, whether it is located in their own region or country, or in another European country. Our organisations have solid experience in providing cultural and educational activities. Moreover, our organisations are focusing on the inclusion of people with disadvantaged backgrounds: people from declining rural areas, migrants and national minorities, elderly, among others. So far our activities have been implemented mainly in person, but in the last 2 years we have been working on the project idea of an online training programme focused on European intangible cultural heritage.

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown that our direction towards online training has been correct and more high-quality online training opportunities should be available in culture and arts. The project offers new high-quality learning opportunities and skills development for adults through creativity and arts by utilising the social and educational value of the European cultural heritage, facilitating intergenerational learning and encouraging new businesses based on cultural heritage. The project will create a training programme "European Cultural Heritage" and an interactive online learning platform (including an educational online game), which will exploit the European cultural heritage as a tool for creating new businesses, promoting society integration and social inclusion and combating disadvantages. The general objectives of the project are: 

1. To increase the accessibility of training in culture
and arts;

2. To raise the opportunities to explore European intangible cultural heritage by using digital means;

3. To promote social inclusion of people with disadvantaged background through culture and arts;

4. To encourage intergenerational learning and transfer of traditional skills;

5. To motivate and empower people to start businesses based
on intangible cultural heritage.

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