Digital meets Culture

Finance, Learning, Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights for CCIs

FLIP: the preparatory action to build a stronger resilience of the cultural and creative sector

From the achievements reached by Pilot project Creative FLIP (2019-2021), co-funded by the EU, “FLIP – Finance, Learning, Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights for CCS” was arose; this new phase of Creative FLIP will be running from 2021-2023 with the goal of building a stronger resilience of the cultural and creative sector, by further strengthening their overall ecosystem.

The Preparatory Action Creative FLIP (2019-2021) had the main objective to support healthy and sustainable ecosystems for Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) with respect to the four key policy areas: Finance, Learning/Skills, Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights.

The work was carried out with the purpose of:

improve the finance and patenting ecosystem to strengthen CCIs’ capacities for growth and development through improved access to finance , value recognition, and capacities to capture value from Intellectual Property for actors in the CCI
promote the transversal relevance of skills and connect CCIs with other sectors through support of skills development and promotion of creative skills.

The next phase of the Creative FLIP (2021-2023) was launched in September 2021 and has the main objective of realizing a stronger resilience of the cultural and creative sector, by further strengthening the overall CCIs ecosystem and supporting the capacities of its actors in the fields of Finance, Learning / Skills, Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights.
This general objective will be pursued through the implementation of 12 specific objectives and different activities (research, focus groups and development of tools) and ensuring synergies between the different project themes.

Further information:
Pilot project Creative FLIP (2019-2021)
Creative FLIP next phase (2021-2023)

project's coordinator Prof. José Mª Martín Civantos is invited speaker at the winter school taking place in Cyprus in February 2022

INCULTUM is part of a winter school on Digital Cultural Tourism and Diplomacy

The 2022 Winter School of the UNESCO Chair on Digital Cultural Heritage, in collaboration with the UNESCO Chair in ICT to develop and promote sustainable tourism in World Heritage Sites, is dedicated to investigating how ICTs designed to enhance the tourism experience can help in preserving and transmitting living heritage and bring people to work and live closer together, while at the same time promoting forms of tourism (cultural, historic, religious, gastronomy, wine, etc.) that go beyond traditional “sun sea and sand”, and can verifiably serve as a vehicle of cultural diplomacy.

In the valuable programme of the winter school, lectures and talks, visits to UNESCO World Heritage Sites and other places, experience of unique local traditions, hands-on exercises, and a range of formal and informal activities will allow participants to understand how to leverage smart digital technologies for sustainable tourism and cultural diplomacy in order to preserve and transmit living heritage.

Among the invited speakers, INCULTUM coordinator Prof. José Mª Martín Civantos will deliver teaching activites to illustrate, among other key topics, the research ongoing about sustainable tourism and partipatory approaches in tourism management that is currently taking place at INCULTUM project.

About the winter school: https://www.unescochair.usi.ch/cyprus-winter-school-2022

Citizen Heritage project organized a Dream Team session at the important ECQI congress on 2nd February 2022

Empowering communities and citizens in heritage research

This session, organized by the Citizen Heritage project, wanted to entice an interactive discussion with the audience, focused on understanding the approach methodologies, the various roles and challenges of technology in enabling an inclusive engagement with cultural collections that empowers citizens and community representative organizations in the reappropriation of their heritage. In particular we focused on methods for Citizen Science in this regard.

Wednesday 2nd February h. 9-10.30.

The session was supported by the use of an interactive enviroment based on a MIRO Board. View the Citizen Heritage MIRO board HERE.

The Dream Team session will serve as a point of departure for a joint publication in which contributors will be duly credited.

About the ECQI 2022

The congress theme of the 5th edition of the European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry is “Qualitative Inquiry in the online technological realm“.

Organized by KU Leuven, this edition was a virtual event with a large programme of keynotes, presentations, workshops and posters.

More about the symposium: https://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/european-congress-of-qualitative-inquiry-ecqi-2022/

15-16 March 2022, Paris

Symposium: ‘Heritage for the future/Science for heritage, a European adventure for research and innovation’

Heritage science brings together the human, social, fundamental, digital, and engineering sciences and deals with the study of cultural heritage, contributing to the identification, understanding, preservation, restoration, and transmission of cultural heritage, be it tangible, intangible, natural or digital.

Next 15 and 16 March 2022, in Paris at the Louvre and the National Library of France, a symposium dedicated to heritage science in Europe will be held organized by the Foundation for Heritage Science, with the European Commission and in partnership with the French Ministry of Culture and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the universities of Paris-Saclay and Cergy Paris.

The event is part of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2022.

This event will be the opportunity to highlight the diversity of heritage science in France and in Europe, to show how it contributes to safeguarding heritage and also to introduce some of the most innovative results of research and innovation, their application on the ground and to discuss the future prospects.

The symposium will be focused builds on four main themes:

A reflective heritage for a resilient society
Sustainable management of cultural heritage
Cultural heritage in a changing context
Cultural heritage facing climate and environmental change

Further information and updates at https://twitter.com/FSP_Patrima and https://www.facebook.com/fsp.patrima

Exarc Conference, 19-20 May 2022

Call for Papers: A Sustainable Revolution for Open-Air Museums

The second call for papers was launched by Exarc for the conference “A Sustainable Revolution for Open-Air Museums” that will be held at Butser Ancient Farm in southern England next 19-20 May 2020.

The conference, organized by EXARC (the ICOM affiliated organisation for Archaeological Open-Air Museums, Experimental Archaeology, Ancient & Traditional Technology and Interpretation & Education) together with Butser Ancient Farm (UK), will explore the future for Open-Air Museums with presentations from a range of speakers.

Among the main topics:

how to develop the strength of open-air museums by building partnerships with other organisations
how open-air museums can become leaders in sustainable solutions
how museums can adapt to digital change

The event, organized to coincide with the Butser’s 50th anniversary, will be a hybrid event: some talks and workshops will take place on-site, another part will be broadcast online as open access.

The deadline for this second round of abstracts is January 15, 2022, notification of acceptance will be given by February 15.

Further information about the call are available at https://exarc.net/meetings/2022-sustainable-revolution

About EXARC:
EXARC’s mission is to make the archaeological past widely accessible facilitating both research and education.
It intends to create opportunities for researchers and practitioners to collaborate, exchange information, and share best practices in archaeological open-air museums, educational and presentational tools and demonstrations of cultural heritage .
EXARC’s goal is to bring people together and make them more professional.

Commission steps up support to the cultural sector by offering more guidance and dissemination for cultural and creative sector funding opportunities

CulturEU: an online guide on EU funding

press release – text and image by the European Commission.

Recently, the European Commission launched a new interactive guide mapping all funding opportunities available at EU level for the cultural and creative sectors. CulturEU, a one-stop shop for EU funding, gathers a total of 75 funding opportunities from 21 different EU programmes, from Creative Europe and Horizon Europe to structural funds and InvestEU. In just a few clicks, the interactive online tool can direct any European cultural entity to the most appropriate EU financial support available to it.

Vice-President for Promoting our European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas, said: ”Artistic freedom, creativity and cultural diversity are emblematic of our European way of life. Europe is a cultural powerhouse which needs its creative and cultural sectors to thrive. Alongside Next Generation EU, we are launching today a new online tool to enable our artists, creators and culture professionals easily navigate and choose the most relevant support schemes at EU level. Together we can achieve a sustainable recovery for the creative and cultural sectors across Europe.”

Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel said: “Cultural and creative sectors have the unique power to improve lives, create community bonds, generate jobs and growth and to inspire other sectors of activities. It was high time to accompany cultural actors in their search for European funds and to gather in one single guide all the funding opportunities the EU offer them. This unprecedented mapping allows all cultural actors to find the best European funding for them among 75 opportunities in just three clicks. I trust that this guide will further contribute to making our funds more accessible to all cultural organisations and help them on their way to a sustainable recovery.”

image from EC press release

The guide was developed to help all types and sizes of partners working in the cultural and creative sectors to navigate the EU funding landscape, to understand which opportunities are available to them, and ultimately help them to access EU funding more easily. Interested parties can automatically filter relevant funding opportunities based on their needs, their sector and the type of organisation they represent. It is supplemented by inspiring examples and best practices. CulturEU will be regularly updated with the most recent information on new calls coming out, and will be available in all EU languages in early 2022.

The cultural and creative sectors have been hit hard by the wide-ranging restrictions, set in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the onset of the pandemic, the Commission has taken numerous measures to address the consequences of the coronavirus crisis on the creative and cultural sectors, by complementing and supporting actions by Member States: financial support, cooperation at EU level while respecting national competences, and investment.

Actions taken at EU level until now to support the creative and cultural sectors include:

Increasing EU financial support to the cultural and creative sectors, with almost €2.5 billion from Creative Europe, and close to €2 billion from Horizon Europe dedicated to cultural, creative and inclusive projects from 2021 to 2027;
Dedicating funds from the Recovery and Resilience Facility;
Approving national aid under the State aid Temporary Framework for a total amount of over €420 million;
Publishing EU guidelines on the safe reopening and recovery of the sector;
Launching a dedicated platform, Creatives Unite, for artists, performers and other cultural and creative professionals to share information and initiatives and exchange ideas. This platform now has over 43,000 users.

The Commission continues to coordinate and facilitate exchanges at EU level to reflect on the current challenges and opportunities faced by the cultural and creative sectors.

For More Information: CulturEU funding guide

HUB-IN, EU H2020 project

Hubs of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the Transformation of Historic Urban Areas

HUB-IN is an EU H2020 project focused on the transformation and regeneration of historic urban areas (HUAs) while preserving their unique cultural and social identity and environment.
The project identifies different HUAs:

Historic town or city centres
Historic areas which are outside of the town or city centre
Historic areas that focus on the wider urban values that define the identity and character of the town, city, or place.

8 pilot cities will work on a selected historic area of their territory and transform it in a “Hub of Innovation and Entrepreneurship”.

The selected HUB-IN cites are: Belfast, UK; Brasov, Romania; Genova, Italy; Grand Angoulême, France; Lisbon, Portugal; Nicosia, Cyprus; Slovenska Bistrica, Slovenia; Utrecht, The Netherlands.
They are very different but share the same values and vision:
innovation and entrepreneurship are key catalysts for promoting and implementing the transformation and regeneration of HUAs; this transformation must be achieved by preserving the identity and the unique cultural and social values of each historical area.

The project intends to adopt a human-connected approach, that has long-term impacts. Purposes are:

the revitalisation of historic heritage
the creation of new sustainable opportunities for local traditional businesses
the development of new creative skills and jobs

Discover more on HUB-IN here.

making accessible online a wealth of resources including texts, printed matter, manuscripts, images, drawings and photos.

The World Horse Library: the heritage of knowledge on the subject of the horse

Creating a library of libraries about the horse is the center of a project coordinated by the MRSH CNRS University of Caen in France. The modernity of cutting-edge digital tools of research, the immense accessibility of Internet networks, the skills of researchers and engineers, curators and connoisseurs are combined in order to make accessible and alive a treasure of resources, knowledge and ideas about the horse, easily searchable within a dedicated portal.

The horse is a great subject of culture and civilization. It has been and continues to be the object of attention and interest in many civilizations for long periods of time and in several continents, and the mass of written documents relating to horse training and breeding is impressive in all fields of the humanities, veterinary treatises, teaching books or literature.

Public and private libraries across the world have progressively collected heritage documents about the horse, equestrian art, and the many activities in which it is involved. This heritage of notable books and libraries is quite extensive and at the same time it is not very accessible. The World Horse Library intends to open up access to this precious heritage and to multiply the possibilities of use. The project, realized with the support of the Normandy Region and the Ministry of Culture, will progressely make accessible and give value to the contents of multiple libraries in a large virtual library.

With just a few clicks, specialists, expert amateurs, and the general public will find texts, printed matter, manuscripts, images, drawings and photos.

The portal is available in 3 languages, currently offering access to ca. 15.000 resources, and is accessible from https://labibliothequemondialeducheval.org/

Every exhibition room was completely renewed with a technological refitting, designed for offering a unique customer experience

Dante Museum in Ravenna: new immersive itineraries

On the occasion of Dante’s year celebrations, Ravenna Municipality paid homage to the Great Poet by renewing the spaces of his museum in a more interactive and immersive way. The project was assigned to Touchwindow, a specialized company which focuses on digital transformation and innovation aimed at user engagement. Two were the main tasks of the project: re-defining aesthetic guidelines (including the museum’s visual identity) and re-functionalizing all museum’s spaces. For achieving the best result, a whole technological refitting of the exhibition rooms was designed with the clear purpose of offering a unique customer experience: a combination of spectacular immersive projections, audio systems equipped with proximity sensors and customized software for maximizing the impact of interactive contents.

The work also included the configuration of an automatic control system of the installations and the creation of contents aimed at surprising the visitors while spreading cultural information. All this was implemented with a view of minimizing each operation’s impact, so that the original beauty of every exhibition room in the museum could be preserved.

More info:

https://vivadante.it/museo-dante/

https://touchwindow.it/it/work/museo-dante

Seattle galleries sold items fraudulently represented as Native American art

Two Western Washington artists charged with misrepresenting themselves as Native American carvers

image from https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/two-western-washington-artists-charged-misrepresenting-themselves-native-american

In two separate criminal cases, Western Washington artists are charged with violating the Indian Arts and Crafts Act (IACA) by representing themselves as Native American artists, when they have no tribal membership or heritage, announced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. The men, 52-year-old Lewis Anthony Rath, of Maple Falls, Washington, and 67-year-old Jerry Chris Van Dyke aka Jerry Witten, of Seattle, made their initial appearance on the complaints in U.S. District Court in Seattle in December 2021.

“Our special agents investigate crimes that violate the Indian Arts and Crafts Act on behalf of the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Indian Arts and Crafts Board,” said Edward Grace, Assistant Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement. “By flooding the market with counterfeit Native American art and craftwork, these crimes cheat the consumer, undermine the economic livelihood of Native American artists, and impairs Indian culture. We thank the Indian Arts and Crafts Board and the U.S. Department of Justice for their assistance with these investigations.”

The investigation of Jerry Van Dyke began in February 2019, when the Indian Arts and Crafts Board received a complaint that Van Dyke was representing himself as a Nez Perce Indian Artist, when in fact, he is not an enrolled tribal member. Investigators from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made undercover purchases at a gallery in the Pike Place Market area of Seattle that advertised pendants Van Dyke had made as Native American Art. Van Dyke used the name Witten for these sales. When interviewed by agents, Van Dyke admitted knowing about the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, and admitted he was not a tribal member. Through the gallery Van Dyke had sold more than $1,000 worth of carved pendants represented as Native American artwork based on Aleut masks. Van Dyke is charged with two counts of Misrepresentation of Indian Produced Goods and Products.

The investigation of Anthony Rath began in May 2019, after a complaint to the Indian Arts and Crafts Board. The investigation revealed that Rath falsely represented himself to be a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe. Undercover agents purchased a carved totem pole and necklace from the same Pike Place Market gallery for more than $1,334. Agents noticed the gallery had other carvings by Rath that were represented as Native produced. At another shop on the Seattle waterfront agents purchased another carved totem pole and a mask, again represented to be Indian produced. The biography of the artist at both shops falsely claimed that Rath was Native American. Internet sites Rath used to sell his artwork also falsely claim he is an enrolled member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe.

When agents executed a search warrant on Rath’s Whatcom County home and studio, they found he also possessed feathers from protected birds: golden eagles and other migratory birds such as hawks, jays, owls and more. Rath is charged with four counts of Misrepresentation of Indian Produced Goods and Products, one misdemeanor count of Unlawful Possession of Golden Eagles Parts and one misdemeanor count of Unlawful Possession of Migratory Bird Parts.

Misrepresentation of Indian Produced Goods and Products is punishable by up to 5 years in prison. The misdemeanor counts related to bird parts are punishable by up to 1 year in prison.

The charges contained in the complaints are only allegations. A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The cases are being investigated by the National Fish and Wildlife Service. The cases are being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney J. Tate London.

Contact:

Press contact for the U.S. Attorney’s Office is Communications Director Emily Langlie at (206) 553-4110 or Emily.Langlie@usdoj.gov.